The narrator’s tone in Mansfield Park is somewhat hard to pin down. Because there is a lot of satire and irony in this novel (as in most of Austen’s novels), it can be difficult to determine if the narrator is being sympathetic or snide. Take, for example, this narrational moment in Chapter 37:
Poor Fanny! though going, as she did, willingly and eagerly, the last evening at Mansfield Park must still be wretchedness. Her heart was completely sad at parting. She had tears for every room in the house, much more for every beloved inhabitant.
It’s difficult to determine here if the narrator is genuinely empathizing with Fanny in her grief about leaving Mansfield Park to visit her family in Portsmouth (which comes across in their exclamation of “Poor Fanny!”), or if the narrator is chiding her for being overly emotional when she “willingly and eagerly” arranged this trip for herself. The narrator’s ambiguous tone in relation to Fanny may be one of the reasons readers often finish Mansfield Park wondering if Fanny is a likable character or not.
Despite the narrator’s ironic tone, Mansfield Park is rarely laugh-out-loud funny the way that some of Austen’s other novels are. Because Fanny is fairly uptight and focused on behaving morally in every moment, the tone of the novel can, at times, feel judgmental and holier-than-thou, such as in this moment in Chapter 14:
Fanny looked on and listened, not unamused to observe the selfishness which, more or less disguised, seemed to govern them all, and wondering how it would end. For her own gratification she could have wished that something might be acted, for she had never seen even half a play, but every thing of higher consequence was against it.
Here Fanny fiercely judges the Bertrams and Crawfords for wanting to put on a play—internally chastising all of them for their “selfishness.” Even though she acknowledges her interest in witnessing the play, she ends her assessment by focusing on how she must morally oppose it. Moments like this contribute to a more uptight and serious tone.
The narrator’s tone in Mansfield Park is somewhat hard to pin down. Because there is a lot of satire and irony in this novel (as in most of Austen’s novels), it can be difficult to determine if the narrator is being sympathetic or snide. Take, for example, this narrational moment in Chapter 37:
Poor Fanny! though going, as she did, willingly and eagerly, the last evening at Mansfield Park must still be wretchedness. Her heart was completely sad at parting. She had tears for every room in the house, much more for every beloved inhabitant.
It’s difficult to determine here if the narrator is genuinely empathizing with Fanny in her grief about leaving Mansfield Park to visit her family in Portsmouth (which comes across in their exclamation of “Poor Fanny!”), or if the narrator is chiding her for being overly emotional when she “willingly and eagerly” arranged this trip for herself. The narrator’s ambiguous tone in relation to Fanny may be one of the reasons readers often finish Mansfield Park wondering if Fanny is a likable character or not.
Despite the narrator’s ironic tone, Mansfield Park is rarely laugh-out-loud funny the way that some of Austen’s other novels are. Because Fanny is fairly uptight and focused on behaving morally in every moment, the tone of the novel can, at times, feel judgmental and holier-than-thou, such as in this moment in Chapter 14:
Fanny looked on and listened, not unamused to observe the selfishness which, more or less disguised, seemed to govern them all, and wondering how it would end. For her own gratification she could have wished that something might be acted, for she had never seen even half a play, but every thing of higher consequence was against it.
Here Fanny fiercely judges the Bertrams and Crawfords for wanting to put on a play—internally chastising all of them for their “selfishness.” Even though she acknowledges her interest in witnessing the play, she ends her assessment by focusing on how she must morally oppose it. Moments like this contribute to a more uptight and serious tone.
