Flawless Symbol or “Wet Blanket”: The Significance of Fanny Price in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

Abstract

Fanny Price, the protagonist of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, is enigmatic. While her humility is admirable, such passive and “flawless” characteristics are in sharp contrast to the less than perfect heroines in prior novels. Many have interpreted these personality traits to be an ideological manifesto, reflecting an attempt to support Anglican Evangelism. Others have argued that she is the embodiment of an Enlightenment feminist. Still others argue that Fanny is an insipid and vapid character, strictly adhering to rules like a wet blanket. This paper argues that Fanny is neither meant to be characterized as perfect nor flawed. Instead, she represents an ordinary woman who can transform society through good leadership. Her behaviors are not random, but reveal deliberate strategies to positively control the character flaw, which is externally represented by the social circle of Mansfield Park itself. Because Fanny provides very influential leadership while adhering to the social position in which she was placed, she serves as the ideal 18th-century British role model, a person who can work within the existing patriarchal system to bring about meaningful change.