Saturday, June 15, 2013

1. People can change

Ok, so I went into Mansfield Park knowing nothing. I was surprised by the differences in heroine (poor; physically weak; shy) and the severity of her surrounding friends and relations (cruel, or at the least negligent; crude; condescending; and cynical towards tradition and religion). Coming off of P&P, where the initially unlikeable character turns out to be one of the best people around, I pretty much expected that the immoral characters would redeem themselves. I didn't necessarily want this to happen, but I expected it to.

But I was surprised that the characters who were charming and morally bankrupt stayed that way, and subsequently lived out the consequences of their choices. The Crawfords surprised and fascinated me, as they are meant to. When I read Deresiewicz's chapter on MP, I was happy to see him link Mary C with Elizabeth Bennet, because I struggled with their similarities. Early on in MP, I thought that but for a slight difference, Mary Crawford could be the heroine of the novel. She was lively, charming, and clever--like Elizabeth Bennet. It's difficult not to like her. She's much more fun than Fanny. But she lacked Elizabeth's sincerity. Like I wrote a few weeks ago; Elizabeth said she hoped never to laugh at what was wise and good. Mary Crawford, on the other hand, does just that, mocking the Navy, the church, and her male relations, which was risque.

Maybe she didn't have a serious problem with the church or the taboo against premarital sex; but her instinct is to mock. Edmund sort of defends her by saying her mind isn't evil, but her words are. Mary doesn't examine her actions, but relies on what fashionable society has taught her to think. This inability to use her sharp intellect to examine her own mind is what stunts her love life, and therefore her destiny. When I heard one of my favorite satirical songs about wealth, fame, and society's flashy ideas of success the other day, it reminded me of Mary Crawford:


 "I don't know what's right and what's real anymore. I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore."

 In The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue that Mary is an example of a woman trying to use her creativity to live life on her terms, and is punished by the patriarchy for her attempt. I don't have my own grasp on their take on Austen, though I'm sure it is very intelligent and well-thought out. Some of their interpretations of Austen's heroines are troubling to me, but I need to think more about it. But right off the bat, I don't agree that Mary's flaw is her inability to be passive; I think it's her insincerity.

And that about MP really surprised me: when the Crawfords appeared to be changing for the better, it turned out they were only faking it. They were playing a part, and Austen had been showing us throughout the entire novel how adept they were at acting and seducing. Really, we had no reason to expect anything better from them, except for our own hopefulness and the way we've been indoctrinated that characters can undergo a miraculous transformation from rakes to upright citizens.

And Fanny saw this, and stuck to her guns. She could call a spade a spade, and even when I expected her to accept the Crawford Charm in the end, she never did. She held out for her ideal and was rewarded in the end. She didn't give into the pressure from the patriarchy or even the awareness of her own unstable situation. That's pretty strong.

MP was harsher than I expected, and I appreciated it more for that.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

the end of Mansfield Park

After another day of dusting and re-organizing dildos at the Toy Gallery, I came home with a six pack of PBR and the desire only to pee and then sit outside and read. I didn't move until I had finished MP. Up until the last chapter I expected things to turn around. I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, so I won't go into details. But let me just say: I was surprised. I think I may eventually have to go into some "spoilers" because there are a lot of expectations that Austen overturned for me in this novel. Well, really, three. But three big ones:

1. People can change and improve

2. Even unlikeable characters will end up happy and loved

3. Men/wealthier/more worldly people generally know what's better for women/the less fortunate/innocent people

I should clarify, that though I may not agree with the above statements, I sort of expected that they would hold true in MP. That's what I mean when I say my expectations were overturned.

Mansfield Park for the first time

MP is the last Austen novel I will read for the first time.* My memories of Persuasion and S&S are pretty foggy--I read them eons ago, back when I was a dewy-eyed child (slash in high school)--but I know the major parts will come back as I read them. In a way they will be new to me, because I have changed: I am a different reader than I was in high school. Still, I won't be experiencing them for the first time. As much as I enjoy the pleasures of rereading, I am conscious while reading MP that I will never meet and get to know these characters in this way again. 

As inevitable as MP may seem to someone who knows Austen's novels inside and out, for me it is still excitingly new and unexpected. Like--Fanny visits her family?! I read Vol. III, chapters 7 to 12 last night and I couldn't put it down. Here was Austen writing about poor(er) people and SERVANTS! Way to surprise me, Jane. 

I don't know how MP will turn out. I know it will wrap up the way they all do--everyone will be married happily, more or less. At least comfortable. I have a feeling I know who will end up with whom, but really, I don't know. She could surprise me. Ah! The charm--the suspense! of the first reading. What a lark! What a plunge!



*I still haven't read most of her juvenalia or unfinished works, like The Watsons and Sanditon, so there isn't cause for despair yet. 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Ann-Margret and Elvis star in a saucy adaptation of Mansfield Park!


This song is so apt for where I am in MP. Also, I have discovered a love for Ann-Margret I haven't felt since watching Bye Bye Birdie repeatedly as a child.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Keep Calm and Read Jane Austen


My friend Betsy shared this with me, which was really sweet. Keep calm. Don't pick up the credit card that man tossed at you and fling it in his face. Just keep calm and then read Jane.

Just read Jane. That should be my motto for when things get stressful this summer.

Thanks for thinking of me, Betsy!

Friday, June 7, 2013

Lady B with Pug


The lovely, lazy Lady B with her pug, from the '99 movie adaptation, of which I have not seen. "The heat was enough to kill any body. It was as much as I could bear myself. Sitting and calling to Pug, and trying to keep him from the flower-beds, was almost too much for me" (59).

I love Lady Bertram: The exchange between Edmund and his mother on whether or not Fanny should go to the Grant's for dinner made me laugh; it was so delightful (170). She is completely spacey and fabulous. I am convinced she was on some kind of narcotic, because no one is that comatose.

Also, I'm a sucker for a wife with an ugly dog, like the German and her bulldog in Katherine Anne Porter's Ship of Fools. Deferred affection?

Mansfield Park: Initial Reaction

The other day I bought a new Oxford edition of Mansfield Park, which is the only novel I haven't read. It's clean and soft and full of footnotes. I am delighted with it! It's pretty shocking, actually. The characters make every one in PP seem virtuous. With the exception of Fanny and Edmund, the others are beautiful, witty, morally bankrupt flirts. There's a pun that could be about sodomy in the Navy, which almost blows my mind.* As the book goes on it is settling down a bit. Characters must fall in love and temper their callowness, I suppose.

There are two brother/sister pairs that remind me of my relationship with my sister, Jessie. Austen really holds the brother/sister relationship in high esteem: "even the conjugal tie is beneath the fraternal. Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply" (183). The mischievous plotting of the Crawfords (which has begun to remind me of Dangerous Liaisons) and the pure joy of the reunited William and Fanny Price both remind me of being with my sister.

I'm interested in the POV of MP. We mostly are privy only to what Fanny sees, and for much of the book she is a very passive observer. We see only what passes her by (like the great scene in "the wilderness" at Sotherton), which gives us a critical distance from the characters, allowing us to recognize their vanity and indiscretions, which might be harder if the heroine of the novel was, say, Miss Crawford.



*The footnote in my edition explains that that is likely not what Miss Crawford is insinuating, due to Edmund's reaction. However, he is invested in seeing the best in her, and I would not be surprised if she was conscious of all meanings in her double (triple?) entendre. She's a smart, worldly cookie.