Type-casting Ms. Price: a Mansfield Park post
Posted by gkb on December 25, 1997 at 17:39:37:
In response to MANSFIELD PARK -- a revisionist view!, written by Stolzi on December 22, 1997 at 22:38:14
] I think it would have brought her out of herself, given her a sense of accomplishment, and she would have grown and changed rather than staying the rather priggish and disapproving bystander.
Perhaps this is a teasing foreshadow of what-might-have-been. She was nearly persuaded into breaking her moral code by the united efforts of her adopted family, saved only by the Deus ex Oceana of her uncle's arrival. She was nearly persuaded into accepting Mr.Crawford by the combined pressures of physical exile and moral isolation--which, by, the by, makes me see mor clearly than ever the real cruelty of social manipulation of young marriageable women by the families who supposedly love them--saved only by the Dea ex Matrimonia of Maria's flight from reality. But personally, I think if she had been persuaded into acting against her principles it would only have put her back up even stiffer against any form of sexual enticement. She was not a prude, but that might have made her become one. She would have suffered horribly, maybe been broken by guilt and the depression of watching her beloved marry another. She wonders how Sir Thomas and Edmund can support life and reason under the blow of Maria's disgraceful conduct. I doubt she would have lived long if married to Mr. Crawford under any circumstances. Her physical and mental/emotional health were too closely linked for her to endure the combination of guilt and loss of self-respect.
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