In defence of Fanny Price
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/07/10/in-defense-of-fanny-price/#more-73770 Why I love Fanny Price: "She's perspicacious!" Mansfield Park is not only the longest of Austen's six novels, it is also widely acknowledged to be the most moralistic. Fanny Price, the book's heroine, is not saucy like Elizabeth Bennet or frivolous like Emma Woodhouse or prone to flights of fancy like Catherine Moreland or susceptible to persuasion like Anne Elliott or...well, you get the picture: Fanny Price is serious, reserved, obedient, down-to-earth, humble, unobtrusive, kind, well-mannered, not prone to gossip, and has strong, unwavering values. She might be a goody two-shoes if she weren't so intent on making herself practically invisible beside the wealthier relations who have taken her in, as a kind of charity case, and raised her to be an educated lady—though decidedly not as an equal. Fanny's goodness renders her the least intrinsically likeable of Austen's heroines—she makes none of the mistakes that endear the other heroines to us—but it also makes her, in my opinion, the most admirable. Here are some reasons you should admire her, too (and read Mansfield Park in the first place):
A Mansfield Park Blog. https://austensmansfield.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/reasons-i-like-fanny-price/ |
AuthorIs this format better? Archives
May 2018
Categories |