The Elusive Fanny Price

I first read Pride and Prejudice a year ago, since than it has established itself as one of my favorite novels, Jane Austen thus becoming a writer I am partial to. This year, I’ve resolved to take a stab at some of her other works, notably “Emma” and “Mansfield Park.” The latter, although still as enjoyable, retains a rather unlovable heroine, of whom Jane Austen’s own mother found “insipid,” and has since been received as “priggish, passive, and naïve.” Fanny Price, a poor relation caught up in the lives of her cousins, the opulent Bertrams, is, needless to say, generally perceived as Jane Austen’s least liked character, critsized for her lack of charisma and audacity. Both qualities present themselves in Elizabeth Bennet, the popular protagonist of Pride and Prejudice celebrated for her modernistic values. The difference between these two two temperaments, and consequent analysis, is no coincidence; readers will generally find themselves drawn to characters with a bit of daring, opposed to ones of convention and mundaneness. Fanny Price, to demonstrate my point, does little to her distinguish herself besides a blatant timidity and a tiresome orthodoxy. She, to further discredit herself, harbours fine sensibilities and an unfortunate frailty found to be particularly dissuading when compared to Elizabeth Bennet, the paragon of a strong, self-assertive women. In Fanny’s defence, each of her shortcomings are likely the result of her suppressive relatives, specifically the disagreeable Mrs. Norris, of whom abuses her neice as a

subordinate unworthy of notice. Fanny’s character is thus inherently dissuaded from rebellious endeavors, as so she is separated entirely from the concept of fun, being identified alternatively as colorless. Her cast iron morality is not to go unnoticed either, she, despite her superficial dispassion, is deeply rooted in her beliefs and hence a immensely secure person, never to be accused of flippancy or other defects found in the Crawfards. Fanny also possesses an admirable selflessness and valor as she quietly endures her allocated stature, as one peripheral to the other more exhilarating characters. It is possible that I am fabricating merits and Fanny may as while be, in the words of Reginald Farrer, “repulsive in her cast-iron self-righteousness and steely rigidity of prejudice,” yet, depending a who you are, Ms. Price can also be an infinitely complex and unique character, polarized form other Austen characters in her inhibited ways and tendency to blend in with the crowd, which, in retrospect, could be the authors intentions. I doubt I will ever be able to quit place my finger on Fanny Price, a character both profound and unfathomable, the true “unsung hero” of mansfield park