Waiting for the True Prince (Pt. 2)

An Exploration of Virtue in Mansfield Park

Wait! The following is part two of a two-part essay. In order to best understand the piece, please read part one here. :)

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Dear Reader,

Here is the introduction of the last newsletter:

It is the forgotten Austen, its protagonist often considered the most unlikable: Mansfield Park is enigmatic, and it does not fit squarely into readers’ expectations of a Jane Austen novel. However, it explores deep themes related to goodness, social class, and appearance versus reality. The narrative also bears a resemblance to Perrault’s “Cinderella”—with some surprising alterations. Austen uses fairytale archetypes and allusions to illuminate the nature of virtue and explore how it is cultivated. 

The False Prince

Mary’s brother Henry Crawford, is a charming gentleman and a flirt. Throughout the beginning of the novel, he commits several indiscretions. When he arrives, he sets his sights on both the Bertram sisters, even though Maria is already engaged to Mr. Rushworth. He and Maria use the play as a guise to get closer. When Fanny’s brother William visits and recounts his escapades as a sailor, Austen gives the reader an insight into Henry’s thoughts: he briefly considers joining the navy but decides that he much prefers his current life of a gentleman which allows him to do as he pleases (433). He functions as the false prince archetype present in many fairytales. In folklore, the false prince often disguises himself as the true prince but ends up being the villain. In Mansfield Park, Austen sets up Henry Crawford as the false prince to Edmund—Fanny’s true prince. After Maria marries Mr. Rushworth, Henry turns his attentions to Fanny. He tells his sister that he intends to break Fanny’s heart. After doing all he can to woo her, he asks for her hand in marriage. The fact he takes his quest this far brings up an interesting question: does Henry truly intend to marry Fanny if she accepts? Initially she refuses—much to Sir Thomas’s displeasure—but Henry goes as far as visiting Fanny in Portsmouth to pursue her again. Would he leave Fanny at the altar or be unfaithful to her if they marry? In any case, the reader does not find out because Henry shows his true colors: shortly after imploring Fanny to marry him, he elopes with the married Maria. Perhaps, then, he is not in love with Fanny but with the idea of her. He sees her goodness and wants it for himself, but—as we see here—simple desire for virtue is not enough. He has the appearance of change—helping William advance his career, pursuing Fanny—but not true change of any substance. 

The Ball

What is a Cinderella story without a ball? Before the marriage proposal, Sir Thomas insists on throwing a ball in Fanny’s honor. In fairytales, balls are often the center of conflict, the place where identities are disguised or revealed. Here, Austen uses the fairytale motif of the ball to highlight the conflict between Henry—the false prince—and Edmund—the true prince. Before the ball, Fanny must decide between wearing the necklace given to her by Edmund and the one given to her by Mary (which is from Henry by proxy). Wearing either one is sure to make a statement. In the end she chooses Edmund’s gift, a fact which does not escape Henry. On the night of the ball, Fanny leads the first dance with Henry. While she does not feel she deserves the distinction, she manages to enjoy the rest of the night. She is sought after as a dance partner and admired by all, much as Cinderella is transformed and admired at the royal ball. The dance that Fanny most anticipates, however, is with Edmund. “Worn out by civility” the couple dances in “sober” silence (504–506). They have no need of engaging in conversation; they know each other so well that silence is enough. The reader is teased with the sight of the true bride and true prince together, but it is not yet to be a reality. Like Fanny’s necklace, Edmund makes his own choice: the next day he is going to take his orders to become a clergyman, despite Mary’s objections. The true prince adheres to his convictions.

The Anti-Fairy Godmother

After Henry’s proposal and Fanny’s rejection, Sir Thomas sends her back home to remind her what it is like to live in poverty. In Portsmouth, Fanny finds her childhood home falling short of her expectations. Her mother and father barely have any affection for her—her mother more focused on the other children and her father on his own concerns. The chaos of the Price home contrasts with the careful order of Mansfield Park. This episode acts as an inversion of the fairy godmother part of the Cinderella story. Instead of being given a fancy dress and treated like a princess, she is plunged back into the poverty of her youth. Far from being a benevolent fairy godmother as Fanny hopes, her mother has no affection for her prodigal daughter. In her sister Susan, though, Fanny finds some solace and affection. The sisters discuss a wide variety of topics and spend time reading together. Susan acts as a foil to the wicked step-sister figures of Maria, Julia, and Mary. By contrast, Susan and Fanny have affection for one another; they spend time together and grow closer.

The Persecuted Heroine

The good characters in the novel are the ones who have true affection and love for others, suggesting that virtue is cultivated by love. Similarly, the characters who truly gain virtue are the ones who suffer. Fanny is taken advantage of by characters throughout the novel, sometimes treated no better than a servant. In fact, “Cinderella” falls under a classification of fairytales called “the persecuted heroine” (Ashliman). Likewise, the eldest brother Tom Bertram, unlike the others, never disguises the fact that he has loose morals. When he is later rescued from near death of (it is implied) alcohol poisoning and opium use, he returns home to heal and ends up a better man in the process. 

Seeing Truly

In the Perrault version of “Cinderella,” the step-sisters marry lords of the court, getting away with their wickedness. Though it is unlikely Austen would have been familiar with the Grimm’s “Cinderella,” she gives Maria, Julia, and Aunt Norris an ending more reminiscent of the Grimm’s version than Perrault: like the step-sisters’ bloody feet concealed by the gold slipper and later revealed, Maria’s true nature is exposed when she elopes with Henry Crawford. In Grimm, the step-sisters’ and step-mother’s eyes are then pecked out by birds; the characters who were blind to true goodness are now blind in reality. Maria, joined by Mrs. Norris, lives as an outcast, ostracized by the society she pursued the entire novel; at last, too late Maria sees Henry’s duplicity and her own errant desires. On the other hand, Edmund, the true prince, sees the error of his judgment with regard to Mary and at last marries Fanny, his true bride. The blind have seen.

In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen uses a fairytale structure similar to “Cinderella” to explore the nature of virtue. As with Perrault’s fairytales, it is often tempting to tack on a simplistic moral to Jane Austen’s novels or to mistake them for simple romances. However, as for Mansfield Park, far from being a reductive morality tale, it considers the meaning of goodness from many perspectives, inviting us as readers to ask the difficult question of ourselves: are we cultivating virtue?

Join the conversation

What other fairytale archetypes do you see in Mansfield Park? What about in other Austen novels?

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Austen, Jane, and David M. Shapard. The Annotated Mansfield Park. Anchor Books, 2017.

“Cinderella; or, the Little Glass Slipper.” Perrault: Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, University of Pittsburgh, sites.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault06.html. Accessed 28 Oct. 2023.