I love the parallels you’ve drawn out here. I remember the first time I heard the Cinderella/Mansfield Park comparison and how much it helped me to appreciate the novel more than I ever had before. You bring out such interesting details in this comparison; the false vs true prince, the importance of the ball/necklace, and the anti-fairy godmother are ones I’d never thought of before. Mrs. Norris could be another anti-fairy godmother figure as well I think-she sees herself and Mr. Bertram as doing this great good deed, and she loves the idea of being a benefactor, but she never fulfills that role for Fanny in reality outside of pushing for Fanny to come to Mansfield Park. Good for Fanny in the end, but Mrs. Norris does all she can to make the bad outweigh the good. A while back I wrote about Henry Crawford vs Mr. Darcy (another “true prince”) and I found really helpful when thinking about how transformation/morality work for Austen https://open.substack.com/pub/commonplacecatholic/p/falling-for-henry-crawford?r=1fiwok&utm_medium=ios
Great point about Mrs. Norris! She is like the antithesis of a fairy godmother. I loved your newsletter on Henry Crawford and Darcy. It's so true that Darcy pursues virtue as an end in itself, while Henry views virtue as a means to an end. Outwardly, he appears to be pursuing the good, but he's not doing it for the right reasons. You draw out some great points!
She is. And she’s one of my favorite Austen villains because of that, she’s just so awful and so well drawn/unaware of how awful she is. And thank you so much! I’m glad you found the comparison a good one!
I love the parallels you’ve drawn out here. I remember the first time I heard the Cinderella/Mansfield Park comparison and how much it helped me to appreciate the novel more than I ever had before. You bring out such interesting details in this comparison; the false vs true prince, the importance of the ball/necklace, and the anti-fairy godmother are ones I’d never thought of before. Mrs. Norris could be another anti-fairy godmother figure as well I think-she sees herself and Mr. Bertram as doing this great good deed, and she loves the idea of being a benefactor, but she never fulfills that role for Fanny in reality outside of pushing for Fanny to come to Mansfield Park. Good for Fanny in the end, but Mrs. Norris does all she can to make the bad outweigh the good. A while back I wrote about Henry Crawford vs Mr. Darcy (another “true prince”) and I found really helpful when thinking about how transformation/morality work for Austen https://open.substack.com/pub/commonplacecatholic/p/falling-for-henry-crawford?r=1fiwok&utm_medium=ios
Great point about Mrs. Norris! She is like the antithesis of a fairy godmother. I loved your newsletter on Henry Crawford and Darcy. It's so true that Darcy pursues virtue as an end in itself, while Henry views virtue as a means to an end. Outwardly, he appears to be pursuing the good, but he's not doing it for the right reasons. You draw out some great points!
She is. And she’s one of my favorite Austen villains because of that, she’s just so awful and so well drawn/unaware of how awful she is. And thank you so much! I’m glad you found the comparison a good one!