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Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

ISBN: 0140620664

Tranquility is an important value central to Mansfield Park. Diffused throughout to form part of its basic structure, it is presented through ironic contrasts and tensions between situations and characters, revealing and exposing an underlying turbulence within the characters and society. Written on the eve of Waterloo, it is aware of an England passing away.

The transition from the 18th to the 19th century saw a period of great stability giving way to a time of unimaginable change. Austen vindicates passivity and abstentation through the qualities of Fanny Price. From 10 to 18 years old we witness an uncommited self becoming defined as it experiences society. Her stillness, her constancy and her unmoved moral principles provide the reader with a platform from which to view and judge the other characters and events. Life, people and place all need to be shaped and restrained into decency and decorum. Not for Fanny the "noise, disorder, and impropriety" of her family home. She aligns herself with Mansfield Park, a place where "no tread of violence was ever heard", a place where tranquility is valued.

Reviewed By: Viv Scott

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