Student Question
Briefly explain the key plot points in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Quick answer:
Fanny Price lives with her wealthy relatives at Mansfield Park, where she loves her cousin Edmund. While Sir Thomas is away, Henry and Mary Crawford visit, causing romantic tensions. A scandalous play rehearsal is halted by Sir Thomas's return. Maria marries Mr. Rushworth, and Henry proposes to Fanny, who refuses. After a scandal involving Henry and Maria, Edmund sees Mary's true nature and rejects her. Edmund and Fanny marry, restoring order to Mansfield Park.
The heroine Fanny Price lives with Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, her wealthy
Aunt and Uncle, and her cousins at their estate, at Mansfield Park. Fanny is a
pious evangelical and is in love with Edmund, her cousin. Sir Thomas leaves for
a year on a business trip. Henry and Mary Crawford visit. Mary and Edmund
become close to each other and Henry starts flirting with Maria, making her
treat her rich fiancé, Mr. Rushworth, badly. The Crawfords and young Bertrams
decide to stage a slightly risqué romantic play and begin rehearsals. Fanny
disapproves. Edmund is reluctant to join in but is persuaded by Mary. Sir
Thomas returns and forbids them to produce the play. Maria marries Mr.
Rushworth, and the Crawfords leave.
Henry Crawford returns to Mansfield Park, and falls in love with and proposes
to Fanny. Fanny refuses him. Fanny is sent home to her own family in Portsmouth
to see how depressing poverty can be in the hopes that will make her marry
Henry, who is rich. Henry has an adulterous affair with Maria, causing a major
scandal and Julia, another cousin elopes with Mr. Yates. Fanny returns to
Mansfield Park and helps care for the eldest son Tom whose dissolute behavior
has injured his health. Edmund realizes that Mary is immoral, telling her:
"Your keen adaptability to my brother's possible demise sends a chill through my heart. A chill. Happily planning parties with his money. You shush my father like a dog at your table, and then you attack Fanny for following her own, infallible guide concerning matters of the heart. All of this leads me to believe that the person I've been so apt to dwell on for many months has been a figure of my own imagination, not you, Miss Crawford. I do not know you, and I'm sorry to say, I have no wish to."
He then returns to Mansfield Park and marries Fanny.
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