Mansfield Park Jane England Analysis

Mansfield Park is a book written by Jane Austin. This novel’s main theme according to the reader is marriage as there are many aspects to it such as the contrasting view of Fanny and Edmund”s view about marriage versus Mary and Maria’s view. The basic summary of the novel is that It is about a young girl named Fanny Price who is poor and lives in a place called Mansfield Park which is a place for the wealthy. She is mistreated at her house but finds comfort in her love for her cousin Edmund until the arrival of charismatic outsiders from London which throws the house into disarray.

In the novel Mansfield Park, in chapters 1 to 5, marriage is presented as a tool for social elevation, a way for financial gain and a woman’s duty. An example of this is shown from the introductory paragraph which clearly shows how Miss Maria Ward had benefited from her marriage with the baronet Sir Thomas. This is shown by the quote “thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income” (chapter1, page 1). It seems as though Jane Austin’s own view of marriage is depicted by Edmund’s view of marriage which is that marriage should happen because of love and not financial gain. The idea of financial gain and gain of

This idea can be shown by Maria Betram who ‘in her twenty first year … was beginning to think matrimony a duty’. In this quote, the word ‘duty’ shows how marriage was considered to be an obligation and a responsibility of women at that time. This idea can be further illustrated by the quote ‘it became by the same rule of moral obligation, her (Maria) evident duty to marry Mr Rushworth if she could’ which shows using the words ‘rule of moral obligation’ and ‘evident duty’ that marriage in the novel ‘Mansfield Park’ was considered to be a duty and an obligation of