Mansfield Park · Chapter
Chapter XXXIX explained
Fanny Price, now in Portsmouth, experiences a painful contrast between the chaotic, noisy, and disorderly home of her birth and the elegant, orderly tranquility of Mansfield Park.
What happens
Fanny Price, now in Portsmouth, experiences a painful contrast between the chaotic, noisy, and disorderly home of her birth and the elegant, orderly tranquility of Mansfield Park. She is disappointed in her parents: her father is coarse and neglectful, her mother is indolent and preoccupied with her other children. William has already sailed, and Fanny finds herself isolated and miserable, longing for Mansfield.
Themes in this chapter
Home and Belonging
Fanny's profound sense of displacement and longing for Mansfield Park highlights the theme of home as a place of emotional and moral order.
Social Class and Money
The contrast between the genteel poverty of the Price household and the affluence of Mansfield Park underscores the role of social class in shaping character and happiness.
Education and Character
Fanny's 'foreign education' at Mansfield Park has rendered her unfit for the disorder of her birth home, illustrating how upbringing shapes moral and social sensibilities.
Characters to notice
- Fanny Price
Fanny is deeply unhappy in Portsmouth, finding the noise and disorder overwhelming, and missing the peace of Mansfield Park.
- William Price
William has already sailed on the Thrush within days of Fanny's arrival, leaving her with only a brief farewell and a charge to their mother to care for her.
- Mrs. Price
Mrs. Price is indolent, ineffectual, and preoccupied with her other children, showing little affection or attention to Fanny after the first day.
- Sir Thomas Bertram
Sir Thomas is mentioned as the one who sent Fanny to Portsmouth, hoping it would make her forget Mansfield and accept Mr. Crawford.
- Lady Bertram
Lady Bertram is contrasted with Mrs. Price, whose soft monotony resembles hers but is worn into fretfulness.
- Mrs. Norris
Mrs. Norris is mentioned as a contrast to Mrs. Price: active and managing, though her irritations at Mansfield were trifling compared to Portsmouth's tumult.
Key passages
“Fanny was tempted to apply to them Dr. Johnson’s celebrated judgment as to matrimony and celibacy, and say, that though Mansfield Park might have some pains, Portsmouth could have no pleasures.”
Fanny thought that while Mansfield Park had its drawbacks, Portsmouth had no redeeming qualities at all.
Fanny compares her two homes using a famous literary analogy, emphasizing the utter misery of her current situation.
“She might have made just as good a woman of consequence as Lady Bertram, but Mrs. Norris would have been a more respectable mother of nine children on a small income.”
Mrs. Price could have been as idle and comfortable as Lady Bertram if she had married wealth, but Mrs. Norris would have managed a large family on a small income more respectably.
The narrator contrasts the sisters' characters, suggesting that Mrs. Price's indolence is ill-suited to poverty, while Mrs. Norris's energy would have been better employed.