Comments on: Was Fanny’s Love Realistic? (Ch. 24)

By: Evelyn P Byrd

Evelyn P Byrd — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:18:16 +0000

Well! Yes, Fanny had high standards, but at what cost? In Portsmouth, she is struggling with those high standards, especially when she looks poverty straight in the eye. Of course, her mother, Mrs Price, nee Frances Ward, made sure Fanny knew what poverty meant. She reminded her daughter, that she had chosen to marry for love. With total disregard for money! AND, yes, Fanny’s mother did love Mr. Price with all his shortcomings. And we must remember Jane, who realized that we all have shortcomings-are not perfect and that high standards do not always hold water-when love comes calling. Money is necessary, absolutely-quite indispensible! Poverty will eventually kill love, drag it down into murky waters. I can understand when Fanny does not hear from Mansfield Park, that maybe they had forgot her and YES, Henry’s proposals look helpful. I do think that in time Fanny would have said YES(and meant it). And Henry would have loved her forever and only her!

By: Vic (Ms. Place)

Vic (Ms. Place) — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:05:28 +0000

I see that I totally ignored the content of this post, and only responded to the comments. I think Fanny has a strong moral center that cannot be swayed by the external. Had she not fallen for Edmund, she still had her excellent brother as a role model. Regardless of how tempting Henry Crawford might have been in the absence of an Edmund, he would never have measured up to her high standards. Henry, who cannot help but eventually show his true character, never stood a chance.

By: Vic (Ms. Place)

Vic (Ms. Place) — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:55:38 +0000

Mmm, I am enjoying reading this discussion and am eager to jump in, however, I am late for work and will need to keep this short.

I just want to say that after having read Persuasion again, it is glaring that the work remains unfinished. There are too many dangling threads, and Jane seldom allowed her plots to dangle. While I love Emma as a concept, I have a hard time with its passivity and talkiness. Miss Bates and Mr. Woodhouse especially get on my nerves, and sometimes I just want to toss the book and say ‘enough already!’ Mr. Knightley comes off as the prosiest and bossiest of the suitors (even moreso than Edmund). I have an aversion to people who poke into other’s lives and manipulate them, so my reaction to Emma is a personal one.

In order of preference, these are my JA choices: P&P, Persuasion, S&S, NA, Mansfield Park, and then Emma. NA is a delightful romp, and I am falling in love with Henry Tilney. Mansfield Park keeps getting better and better. When I was 17 I was exactly like Marianne Dashwood, a pain, but I had potential. So, reading S&S reminds me of my younger self.

Aw, heck, give me JA over any author any day. Her books are filled with such depth that I cannot get enough of them.

By: Chris Dornan

Chris Dornan — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:39:29 +0000

I am really curious to read that you like Mansfield Park the most--and not in a detached appreciation of technique but a real appreciation of the whole--yet you find Sense and Sensibility the least likable. I suppose it isn't really that surprising; in some ways S&S, like Emma (which is not your one of your favourites I notice), is the most tricky. It took me a good while to love Emma. My favourites are the just the novels she published herself--S&S, P&P, M.P. and Emma, with N.A. close. I refuse to elevate any one of the four and see them as an undivided whole with NA a primer. (I agree with Trilling that P was unfinished.) For me S&S is the true foundations on which they were all built. Of course it was much less developed as a novel than its successors but its construction was exquisite and I remain awed by its philosophical brilliance. I never had any difficulty identifying with the story--but that is the beauty of these novels--they all have complementary strengths that appeal to different people. I have no desire to try and shake people out of their preferences--though I do wish more people like Mansfield Park and more would understand Sense and Sensibility. I wonder to what extent you would agree with my interpretation of Pride and Prejudice. Given our convergence on Mansfield Park I think we might agree, but with the divergence on Sense and Sensibility I think we might disagree. So I am curious.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:20:54 +0000

I agree with you 1000%. Mansfield Park is the first of Austen’s Work that I ever read. I bought it off a Logos boat when it docked in my island. Multiple readings have allowed me to analyze the characters and their motives more thoroughly. Both Crawford and Mary had the chance to be better people through the influence of Edmund and Fanny but they both lost out on love because they were habitually selfish vain and proud. Mary more so than Henry imho because Henry at least tried to change for the sake of love. Mary did not and insisted on seeing herself as the injured party. ‘If he really loved me, he would choose a better profession – because I deserve so much more than to be the wife of a mere clergyman’

I love all of Austen’s work except Sense & Sensibility. Mansfield Park, Pride & Prejudice and Northanger Abby are my favourites, in that order. Going to read the rest of your posts now. I am enjoying your analyses a great deal. ;’)