Clutching My Pearls is about Jane Austen and the times she lived in. The opinions are mine, but I don't claim originality. Much has been written about Austen. Click here for the first in the series.
Is Fanny Price a Picture of Perfection?
Perfect heroines – sweet, guileless, innocent, virtuous – were a staple of novels in Austen’s time. Some social critics of the day believed that heroines ought to represent ideal female behaviour, lest novels set a bad example.
So is Fanny Price intended to be Jane Austen’s entry in the “perfect heroine” category? Is she so sweet and mild-tempered and virtuous that she's unrelatable to modern readers?
Scholar Mary Waldron says we’ve been getting Fanny – and Austen’s intentions – wrong. She says Fanny is not perfect, and is not intended to be perfect.
So is Fanny Price intended to be Jane Austen’s entry in the “perfect heroine” category? Is she so sweet and mild-tempered and virtuous that she's unrelatable to modern readers?
Scholar Mary Waldron says we’ve been getting Fanny – and Austen’s intentions – wrong. She says Fanny is not perfect, and is not intended to be perfect.
In Jane Austen and the Fiction of Her Time, Waldron says Austen’s contemporaries understood that Fanny wasn’t perfect, but since then, Fanny has come to be seen as an artistic failure. The take on Fanny is that "Austen must have been trying to create a perfectly good girl and has failed."
For example, C.S. Lewis calls Fanny insipid. “Jane Austen has put really nothing [into Fanny’s character] except rectitude of mind; neither passion, nor physical courage, nor wit, nor resource” to counterbalance her insignificance. (By insignificance, Lewis means that Fanny is the least important person in the household, the one nobody listens to).
Waldron suggests that instead, we look at Mansfield Park “as a working through of the unresolvable conflicts facing a young woman” who tries to follow evangelical principles. While Fanny’s actions are correct, her mind is in “turmoil.” Inwardly, she is rebelling against her fate. Waldron suggests that Austen is exploring whether it is possible to be faultless, to be perfectly modest, submissive, and charitable, and to give up the man you love without an inner murmur of the heart.
So what are Fanny’s faults? Well, says Waldron, she resents Mary Crawford and is jealous of her. She cannot give Mary credit for the good, kind things she actually does. While Fanny condemns Mary for her mercenary attitudes, she herself can’t stand living in poverty in Portsmouth. She longs for the “ease, refinement and wealth” of Mansfield Park. Fanny gladly tutors her sister Susan in virtuous conduct but hypocritically refuses to give moral guidance to Henry Crawford.
For example, C.S. Lewis calls Fanny insipid. “Jane Austen has put really nothing [into Fanny’s character] except rectitude of mind; neither passion, nor physical courage, nor wit, nor resource” to counterbalance her insignificance. (By insignificance, Lewis means that Fanny is the least important person in the household, the one nobody listens to).
Waldron suggests that instead, we look at Mansfield Park “as a working through of the unresolvable conflicts facing a young woman” who tries to follow evangelical principles. While Fanny’s actions are correct, her mind is in “turmoil.” Inwardly, she is rebelling against her fate. Waldron suggests that Austen is exploring whether it is possible to be faultless, to be perfectly modest, submissive, and charitable, and to give up the man you love without an inner murmur of the heart.
So what are Fanny’s faults? Well, says Waldron, she resents Mary Crawford and is jealous of her. She cannot give Mary credit for the good, kind things she actually does. While Fanny condemns Mary for her mercenary attitudes, she herself can’t stand living in poverty in Portsmouth. She longs for the “ease, refinement and wealth” of Mansfield Park. Fanny gladly tutors her sister Susan in virtuous conduct but hypocritically refuses to give moral guidance to Henry Crawford.
I’ll add a fault of Fanny that particularly grinds my corn: her passive-aggressive tendencies.
When Fanny is returning from an errand, she is caught in a heavy rain shower near the parsonage. The Grants see her trying "to find shelter under the branches and lingering leaves of an oak." They send “a civil servant” to invite her in from the rain. She refuses. Austen describes this as “modest reluctance.” In other words: “No, thank you. Even though your mistress specifically sent you out here to invite me in, I can’t take her at her word--I am just too unworthy. I’ll just stand here, in plain sight of your comfortable home, in the rain. Sorry you got your feet wet for nothing.”
This means Dr. Grant (who, we recall, is indolent and selfish, and will not stir a finger for the convenience of anyone) now must get his hat and umbrella and fetch her himself. “[T]here was nothing to be done but to be very much ashamed, and to get into the house as fast as possible.”
Fanny also keeps everyone waiting when Mrs. Grant invites her to dinner. We can imagine the Grants standing there, with hospitable smiles frozen on their faces, while Fanny dithers, and looks at Edmund, and dithers some more -- and she also dithers and delays when Mary Crawford asks her to choose a necklace. Because nothing says “I am humble” like inconveniencing people who are more important than you.
For a deeper dive, here is my "Fanny vs Mary debate" with author Kyra Kramer, who likes Mary Crawford. Kyra says "Fanny bullied everyone with her timidity."
But I am not certain if Austen presents Fanny’s timidity as a virtue or a fault. That would be the key question here. What do you think, reader? And is it really modesty which makes Fanny dither in these three situations? Or is she avoiding being around Mary Crawford, and not wanting to like her, or be obliged to her? Waldron mentions the necklace incident and suggests it's the latter.
When Fanny is returning from an errand, she is caught in a heavy rain shower near the parsonage. The Grants see her trying "to find shelter under the branches and lingering leaves of an oak." They send “a civil servant” to invite her in from the rain. She refuses. Austen describes this as “modest reluctance.” In other words: “No, thank you. Even though your mistress specifically sent you out here to invite me in, I can’t take her at her word--I am just too unworthy. I’ll just stand here, in plain sight of your comfortable home, in the rain. Sorry you got your feet wet for nothing.”
This means Dr. Grant (who, we recall, is indolent and selfish, and will not stir a finger for the convenience of anyone) now must get his hat and umbrella and fetch her himself. “[T]here was nothing to be done but to be very much ashamed, and to get into the house as fast as possible.”
Fanny also keeps everyone waiting when Mrs. Grant invites her to dinner. We can imagine the Grants standing there, with hospitable smiles frozen on their faces, while Fanny dithers, and looks at Edmund, and dithers some more -- and she also dithers and delays when Mary Crawford asks her to choose a necklace. Because nothing says “I am humble” like inconveniencing people who are more important than you.
For a deeper dive, here is my "Fanny vs Mary debate" with author Kyra Kramer, who likes Mary Crawford. Kyra says "Fanny bullied everyone with her timidity."
But I am not certain if Austen presents Fanny’s timidity as a virtue or a fault. That would be the key question here. What do you think, reader? And is it really modesty which makes Fanny dither in these three situations? Or is she avoiding being around Mary Crawford, and not wanting to like her, or be obliged to her? Waldron mentions the necklace incident and suggests it's the latter.
Having presented Waldron’s side of the argument, I’ll turn to a counterargument, which is, if Fanny is not perfect, does she have a moment of clarity about her faults? Does she realize she’s been wrong, that she hasn’t been charitable enough towards the Crawfords? Because as C.S. Lewis points out, Austen’s four self-deluded heroines have that “a-ha” moment. Elizabeth Bennet realizes she’s misjudged both Darcy and Wickham, Emma has been wrong about everything, Catherine Norland has overdone it with the Gothic novels, and Marianne Dashwood has overindulged her romantic propensities. But Fanny Price and Anne Elliot do not have an “a-ha” moment. Anne does not concede that she was wrong to turn down Wentworth, because she was not wrong to listen to her elders. And Fanny Price is completely vindicated in Mansfield Park, while everyone else was deceived about the Crawfords.
"She could hardly believe it. To be placed above so many elegant young women!" So, although Waldron almost convinced me, I’m not completely convinced. At most, I will say that Mansfield Park is a more subtle novel than the novels with perfect heroines, such as Traits of Nature and Self-Control and Coelebs in Search of a Wife. The characters are real, not caricatures, neither all good or all bad, but all brilliantly depicted. Lady Bertram doesn’t mean any harm, but she causes harm through her indolence. Mary Crawford’s genuine respect for Edmund and Fanny did not prevent her from writing to Fanny and saying she hopes Tom will die so Edmund can inherit. Henry Crawford’s redemption balances upon a knife’s edge. He could have gone home to his estate, but his own vanity demanded that he stay in London and bring Maria to heel. Even upright intelligent people like Edmund can be seduced into ignoring their own principles, and find reasons for excusing behaviour they would otherwise disapprove of. These are all very human failings, which lead to disastrous outcomes and a less-than-happy ending at Mansfield.
And Fanny, while very moral, has a "supine and yielding temperament." Again, is this intended to be a fault, or a virtue, or just Fanny being Fanny?
And Fanny, while very moral, has a "supine and yielding temperament." Again, is this intended to be a fault, or a virtue, or just Fanny being Fanny?
Next post: the advantages of having a brusque old widow in your life...
C.S. Lewis's brief essay "A Note on Jane Austen" is not available on the 'Net, but is well worth seeking out. If you can't read enough about Fanny Price, I've got more links at my Jane Austen page to some thoughtful stuff on the Web.
I could see why Mary Crawford would be your first choice for a guest at a weekend house party, in preference to Fanny! If you think Mary deserves her own novel, try Kyra Kramer's Mansfield Parsonage.
I could see why Mary Crawford would be your first choice for a guest at a weekend house party, in preference to Fanny! If you think Mary deserves her own novel, try Kyra Kramer's Mansfield Parsonage.
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