Fanny Price is a suprisingly strong character.
Posted by Tamee on May 22, 1998 at 10:59:38:
In response to MP, written by gkb on May 14, 1998 at 21:42:15
I too think Fanny Price a morally firm and courageous person and I sympathize with her life under the heavy burden of being a dependent relation. Always being made to feel inferior, always pointedly reminded how "grateful" she should be is enough to squash the spirit of most, especially someone so shy as Fanny, and yet she still manages to have rock hard principles that she is not afraid to stand on. She refuses to participate in the play, though pressured on all sides, though some may think she is being prudish about it, she is standing on principle and one that turns out to have a pretty solid basis for that situation at least. Even more crucially, she stands out against marrying Henry Crawford, whom she sincerely believes to be an insincere flirt of bad principles (which also turns out to be true), which is all the more amazing as she is principally resisting the persuasions of her uncle who has begun to take so generous and kindly a notice of her, who genuinely wishes for her comfort and to raise her from the squashed cabbage leaf position in which she has been placed. She even lets him believe she's just being stubborn in order to protect her cousins.
I admire Fanny. She's not a modern character by any means. She's shy and old-fashioned, more resigned to her fate than we would like her to be, standing on principles that we're not sure we agree to, but she is a character who knows her own mind and her own heart and won't be persuaded to go against either.
- Good, gentle Fanny gkb 00:58:04 5/23/98
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- Fanny isn't "old-fashioned" because... Lea 21:35:39 5/22/98
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- I don't believe morals are "old-fashioned" either Tamee 18:56:51 5/25/98
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- We are of but one mind... Miranda 16:33:17 6/29/98
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- Eternal principles vs. proprieties, I see! Lea 21:27:52 5/26/98
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- We are of but one mind... Miranda 16:33:17 6/29/98
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- I don't believe morals are "old-fashioned" either Tamee 18:56:51 5/25/98
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