The mood of Mansfield Park is primarily an anxious and uneasy one. Fanny is unhappy for almost the entirety of the novel—first because she is a 10-year-old who misses her home (and is mistreated by her aunts who take her in at Mansfield Park), then because she desires Edmund and he wants to be with Mary, then because she is pursed by Henry (whom she does not want to marry).
There are also numerous small moments of disappointment, such as when all of Fanny’s cousins and friends put on (what she views as) a salacious play, when Mrs. Norris berates her for being selfish, when Sir Thomas Bertram lashes out at her for not accepting Henry’s proposal, when her mother and father neglect her when she visits them in Portsmouth, and more.
Fanny’s reaction to her uncle criticizing her for not accepting Henry’s proposal in Chapter 32 captures the intensity of her agony in different moments throughout the novel:
Fanny was by this time crying so bitterly, that angry as he was, he would not press that article farther. Her heart was almost broke by such a picture of what she appeared to him; by such accusations, so heavy, so multiplied, so rising in dreadful gradation! Self-willed, obstinate, selfish, and ungrateful. He thought her all this. She had deceived his expectations; she had lost his good opinion. What was to become of her?
Fanny’s reaction here communicates how sensitive she is to criticism and strife—“her heart almost broke,” “she had deceived his expectations,” “what was to become of her?” This kind of language contributes to an intense and anxious mood.
The mood ends up shifting in an abrupt (and not totally convincing) way at the end of the novel, when the narrator suggests in Chapter 48 that Fanny’s lifetime of anxiety is undone by her marriage to Edmund:
On that event they removed to Mansfield, and the parsonage there, which under each of its two former owners, Fanny had never been able to approach but with some painful sensation of restraint or alarm, soon grew as dear to her heart, and as thoroughly perfect in her eyes, as every thing else, within the view and patronage of Mansfield Park, had long been.
The idea that anything related to Mansfield Park—where Fanny suffered years of abuse and neglect—could become “thoroughly perfect in her eyes” challenges readers’ expectations and contributes to a joyful mood. At the same time, it may leave readers scratching their heads about how such an extreme mood shift is possible.
The mood of Mansfield Park is primarily an anxious and uneasy one. Fanny is unhappy for almost the entirety of the novel—first because she is a 10-year-old who misses her home (and is mistreated by her aunts who take her in at Mansfield Park), then because she desires Edmund and he wants to be with Mary, then because she is pursed by Henry (whom she does not want to marry).
There are also numerous small moments of disappointment, such as when all of Fanny’s cousins and friends put on (what she views as) a salacious play, when Mrs. Norris berates her for being selfish, when Sir Thomas Bertram lashes out at her for not accepting Henry’s proposal, when her mother and father neglect her when she visits them in Portsmouth, and more.
Fanny’s reaction to her uncle criticizing her for not accepting Henry’s proposal in Chapter 32 captures the intensity of her agony in different moments throughout the novel:
Fanny was by this time crying so bitterly, that angry as he was, he would not press that article farther. Her heart was almost broke by such a picture of what she appeared to him; by such accusations, so heavy, so multiplied, so rising in dreadful gradation! Self-willed, obstinate, selfish, and ungrateful. He thought her all this. She had deceived his expectations; she had lost his good opinion. What was to become of her?
Fanny’s reaction here communicates how sensitive she is to criticism and strife—“her heart almost broke,” “she had deceived his expectations,” “what was to become of her?” This kind of language contributes to an intense and anxious mood.
The mood ends up shifting in an abrupt (and not totally convincing) way at the end of the novel, when the narrator suggests in Chapter 48 that Fanny’s lifetime of anxiety is undone by her marriage to Edmund:
On that event they removed to Mansfield, and the parsonage there, which under each of its two former owners, Fanny had never been able to approach but with some painful sensation of restraint or alarm, soon grew as dear to her heart, and as thoroughly perfect in her eyes, as every thing else, within the view and patronage of Mansfield Park, had long been.
The idea that anything related to Mansfield Park—where Fanny suffered years of abuse and neglect—could become “thoroughly perfect in her eyes” challenges readers’ expectations and contributes to a joyful mood. At the same time, it may leave readers scratching their heads about how such an extreme mood shift is possible.
