Before the Bertrams and Crawfords know each other very well, Mary goes on a rant in front of everyone about church—“the obligation of attendance, the formality, the restraint, the length of time,” and more. This is an example of dramatic irony because readers know—but Mary does not—that Edmund (her potential love interest listening in on this conversation) is planning to become a clergyman and takes church very seriously. When Julia reveals to the group that Edmund is soon to be ordained, Mary is “aghast” and Fanny pities her, highlighting the irony of the moment:
“My dear Edmund, if you were but in orders now, you might perform the ceremony directly. How unlucky that you are not ordained.”
[…]
Miss Crawford’s countenance, as Julia spoke, might have amused a disinterested observer. She looked almost aghast under the new idea she was receiving. Fanny pitied her. “How distressed she will be at what she said just now,” passed across her mind.
Fanny’s reaction to Mary’s faux pas is quite sympathetic, underlining her caring personality and manners. In contrast, this moment highlights—and foreshadows—Mary’s lack of manners (and lack of religiosity and morality), which will ultimately be the reason that Edmund ends their courtship.
The moment near the beginning of the novel when Henry convinces Maria to jump the iron gate at Sotherton with him foreshadows the affair that they have near the end of the novel. The gate represents moral indiscretion—they jump it, after all, on Mr. Rushworth’s property, knowing full well that he is on his way back with the key. This mirrors how they will have an affair under Mr. Rushworth’s nose after he and Maria are married.
The language that Maria uses to describe the gate before she has jumped it with Henry communicates how stifled she feels in her engagement to Mr. Rushworth:
“But unluckily that iron gate, that ha-ha, gives me a feeling of restraint and hardship.” […] As she spoke, and it was with expression, she walked to the gate; [Henry Crawford] followed her. “Mr. Rushworth is so long fetching this key!”
“And for the world you would not get out without the key and without Mr. Rushworth’s authority and protection, or I think you might with little difficulty pass round the edge of the gate, here, with my assistance; I think it might be done, if you really wished to be more at large, and could allow yourself to think it not prohibited.”
This passage highlights how Maria feels that the gate gives her “a feeling of restraint and hardship” and Henry’s response shows how he is available to assist her in “pass[ing] round” the gate, the same way that he ultimately encourages her to “pass round” her marriage.
Julia’s decision to jump the gate after Maria does also foreshadows her own indiscretion. After all, in the aftermath of Maria and Henry’s affair, Julia elopes with Mr. Yates. Though not as extreme as an affair, elopements were also seen as improper in this time period.
Near the beginning of the novel, the Bertrams and Crawfords (along with Mr. Yates and Mr. Rushworth) decide to put on a play called Lovers’ Vows. This is an allusion to an actual play written in 1798 by Elizabeth Inchbald that was controversial due to themes related to sex before marriage and children born out of wedlock. Austen likely chose the play for these very reasons, knowing that her readers (at the time she was writing) would be aware of the controversy.
Edmund’s reaction to the play shows that he is aware of the controversial themes and reluctant to have his sisters participate, fearing it improper:
“I must now, my dear Maria, tell you, that I think it exceedingly unfit for private representation, and that I hope you will give it up.—I cannot but suppose you will when you have read it carefully over.—Read only the first Act aloud, to either your mother or aunt, and see how you can approve it.—It will not be necessary to send you to your father’s judgment, I am convinced.”
The whole ordeal with Lovers’ Vows—which is ultimately moot since Sir Thomas Bertram eventually forces them all to stop the production—foreshadows future romantic entanglements: Henry and Maria play opposite each other in romantic roles (foreshadowing their eventual affair), Edmund eventually agrees to participate because Mary does (foreshadowing how he falls for her despite her lack of morals), and Fanny refuses to participate at all (foreshadowing how she does not fall for the Crawfords’ charms the way Edmund does).
When Julia is sulking after not being chosen to play opposite Henry in their production of Lovers’ Vows, Austen uses a hyperbole to capture her despair:
She either sat in gloomy silence, wrapt in such gravity as nothing could subdue, no curiosity touch, no wit amuse; or allowing the attentions of Mr. Yates, was talking with forced gaiety to him alone, and ridiculing the acting of the others.
The description that Julia is “wrapt in such gravity as nothing could subdue” is an exaggeration that effectively communicates how upset she is to lose potential quality time with Henry. The intensity of Julia’s reaction makes sense in context—with Maria engaged to Mr. Rushworth, it is Julia’s turn as the younger sister to find a husband and secure a financially stable future for herself. In her mind, she should be the one with Henry, not her sister who is engaged to another man.
There is also an element of foreshadowing in this passage in that Mr. Yates is the only one Julia engages with in this moment, and he is the man who she will go on to marry later in the book. Even though she is talking to him with “forced gaiety,” she is talking to “him alone,” suggesting that there is an opening for a relationship later on.
