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Mansfield Park
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Chapters 41-48Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 41 Summary
Henry unexpectedly visits Fanny in Portsmouth. He is polite and charming to Mrs. Price, who is on her best behavior. Fanny agrees to a walk, and Susan accompanies them. Fanny is mortified when they bump into her drunken father. However, Mr. Price is uncharacteristically well-mannered and offers to show Henry around the dockyard.
Henry explains that he has been in Norfolk checking on the welfare of his estate’s tenants—many of whom he had never met before. Fanny approves but is embarrassed when Henry declares he hopes to have a wife to guide him in these matters. Henry hints that Edmund and Mary may soon be married and admits he came to Portsmouth specifically to see Fanny. While Fanny is not entirely won over, she privately notes that Henry’s character has improved. She is secretly relieved when he politely declines a dinner invitation from her father, horrified at the idea of Henry observing her family’s table manners.
Chapter 42 Summary
Henry returns the next day to go to church with the Price family. Afterward, he walks arm-in-arm with Fanny and Susan. Henry notices that Fanny looks frail and suggests that she is missing the clean air of the countryside. He also observes that the inhabitants of Mansfield Park are likely to leave her at Portsmouth indefinitely. He assures Fanny that he will take her back if she wants to return. Before leaving, Henry asks Fanny if he should return to Norfolk, as he is still concerned about the welfare of his poorest tenants. Fanny advises him to be guided by his conscience.
When Henry is gone, Fanny dwells on how much more considerate he is. Although she assured him that her health was fine, in reality, she is weakened by Portsmouth's poor food and conditions. In Henry’s absence, she feels isolated and depressed.
Chapter 43 Summary
Fanny receives a letter from Mary revealing that Edmund has visited her several times in London. Mary notes that all her friends admired Edmund’s appearance, expressing her relief that clergymen no longer have to wear clerical clothing out of hours. Although Henry wishes to return to Norfolk, Mary reveals she intends to delay him with a party at the Rushworths’ London home. Fanny is convinced Henry will refuse to attend Maria’s party and go to Norfolk as planned.
Fanny continues to educate Susan, who loves to hear about life at Mansfield Park. She is distressed at the thought of leaving Susan in Portsmouth, where she has no chance of moral or educational guidance. Fanny speculates that if she could bring herself to love and marry Henry, he would likely not object to Susan living with them.
Chapter 44 Summary
After seven weeks in Portsmouth, Fanny finally receives a letter from Edmund. He explains he would have written sooner but hoped to contact her with news of his engagement. After visiting Mary in London, Edmund feels less confident that she will marry him. He expresses concern that Mary’s materialistic London friends are a bad influence on her. Nevertheless, he insists she is the only woman he could ever marry. Edmund also reveals he has seen Henry and praises his determined commitment to Fanny. He mentions that when Henry and Maria met again, Maria was noticeably cold and unfriendly. Edmund hopes that Fanny is happy in Portsmouth, adding that Sir Thomas will not be able to fetch her until after Easter. Shortly afterward, Fanny hears from Lady Bertram. She reveals that Tom is seriously ill, and they fear he may die.
Chapter 45 Summary
By the end of April, Fanny is still in Portsmouth. Lady Bertram writes that she misses Fanny, but Sir Thomas does not send for her. Fanny is shocked to learn that neither Maria nor Julia has visited Tom during his lengthy illness.
Fanny hears nothing from the Crawfords for some time. Finally, Mary writes, asking Fanny’s opinion on the severity of Tom’s illness. After commenting on how distressed the Bertrams must be, Mary implies that Tom’s death would be a blessing, as Edmund deserves to be Sir Thomas’s heir. Mary mentions that Henry has been in Richmond and reiterates her brother’s offer to take her back to Mansfield Park. Horrified at the content of Mary’s letter, Fanny refuses Henry’s offer.
Chapter 46 Summary
Fanny receives another brief letter from Mary urging her to ignore any rumors she may hear about Henry. Mary claims there has been a mistake that will quickly be hushed up. She insists that Henry is innocent and blames Fanny for declining her brother’s offer of a lift back to Mansfield Park. Soon afterward, Fanny’s father points out an article in the newspaper announcing that Maria Rushworth has fled her marital home with Henry Crawford.
Two days later, Fanny receives a letter from Edmund. He reveals that efforts to find Maria and Henry have failed, and Julia has now eloped with Mr. Yates. Sir Thomas has instructed Edmund to fetch Fanny and Susan immediately. The Prices happily agree to this arrangement, and Edward arrives the next day.
Chapter 47 Summary
The inhabitants of Mansfield Park are shocked and subdued. Lady Bertram tells Fanny everything that happened. She explains that Maria had gone to stay with friends in Twickenham while Mr. Rushworth was visiting his mother. Henry had frequently visited Maria there, causing a friend of Sir Thomas’s to hear rumors about them. By the time Sir Thomas was warned, Maria had run away with Henry.
Edmund reveals that he went to see Mary, expecting her to be distressed and ashamed of her brother’s actions. However, Mary only expressed frustration at Henry and Maria’s “folly,” suggesting they would not have been caught if they had been more discreet. Edmund describes his horror at the casual way Mary referred to the adulterous affair. Surprised by Edmund’s moral condemnation, Mary unsuccessfully tries to win him over with “a saucy playful smile” (444). Edmund declares that he is heartbroken, claiming his only consolation is Fanny’s friendship.
Chapter 48 Summary
While Fanny enjoys being back at Mansfield Park, the remaining inhabitants confront their mistakes. Edmund regrets his infatuation with Mary, while Sir Thomas blames himself for allowing Maria to marry Mr. Rushworth. Sir Thomas acknowledges that negligent parenting has contributed to his daughters’ improper behavior. He realizes that Maria and Julia were educated to be accomplished and polite without a deeper sense of responsibility and duty.
Julia’s marriage to Mr. Yates is not as disastrous as it first seemed. Sir Thomas realizes Mr. Yates is frivolous but pliable and may become more prudent under the right influence. As a result of his illness, Tom also undergoes a character change, becoming less thoughtless and more responsible.
Henry regrets losing Fanny by indulging in a flirtation with Maria that he did not intend to be serious. He blames Maria for ruining his chances with Fanny, while Maria realizes that Henry will never marry her. They separate, and Mr. Rushworth divorces his wife. Sir Thomas refuses to have Maria at Mansfield Park despite Mrs. Norris’s protestations. Consequently, Mrs. Norris leaves to live with Maria in another country. Sir Thomas is relieved by her departure. Meanwhile, the Grants move to London, and Mary moves in with them. Comparing every man she meets to Edmund, Mary struggles to find anyone to match up to him.
Edmund soon realizes that Fanny is his perfect match and proposes. Sir Thomas happily approves the marriage, and Susan takes Fanny’s place as Lady Bertram’s companion. When Dr. Grant dies, Edmund takes on the living of Mansfield, and they move to the parsonage to be nearer to Mansfield Park.
Chapters 41-48 Analysis
Fanny’s time at Portsmouth is her greatest moral test in the novel. The protagonist’s sense of dislocation, combined with Henry’s timely reappearance, causes her to consider his marriage proposal more seriously. Also on Henry’s side is Fanny’s opinion that his character is “decidedly improved” (398). Austen addresses the theme of Virtue and Vice in the apparent transformation of Henry. His manner is both thoughtful (recognizing Fanny’s failing health) and sensitive to the embarrassment she feels about her family. Most significantly, Henry appears to have eschewed his irreverent urban perspective in favor of more traditional rural values. By attending church with the Prices and detailing his attempts to become a more responsible landowner, he alters Fanny’s view of him as a dangerously destabilizing force. Fanny’s new faith in Henry is illustrated in her naïve certainty that he will follow his conscience and return to his estate in Norfolk. Perhaps because of the potentially dire circumstances she finds herself in, Fanny is willing to consider Henry’s improved behavior as something that he can only continue. Fanny believes in the potential good in people and, through naivety, cannot envision a reversion to his old ways.
By contrast, Mary’s letters highlight her amoral viewpoint and disregard for tradition. Her continued contempt for Edmund’s vocation is underlined in her relief that he did not spoil the good impression he made on her friends by wearing the vestments that would identify him as a clergyman. Meanwhile, the extent of Mary’s mercenary streak is revealed when she wishes Tom dead so that Edmund would become Mansfield Park’s heir. When Mary writes urging Fanny to ignore rumors about Henry, her letter has the opposite effect. Knowing Mary’s lack of ethics, Fanny reflects, “[T]here must have been some strong indiscretion, since her correspondent was not of a sort to regard a slight one” (426). This assessment also demonstrates Fanny’s overall good judgment of character, despite her briefly altered feelings toward Henry.
Throughout these chapters, the theme of Stability Versus Change is explored as the corrupting effects of London are emphasized. Fanny’s opinion that “the influence of London [is] very much at war with all respectable attachments” is demonstrated by the actions of the characters who voluntarily stay there (422). Edmund’s letter to Fanny regretfully relates the unwelcome change in Mary in the presence of her fashionable London friends. Meanwhile, Maria and Julia’s adultery and elopement are the consequence of the dangerous freedoms urban life offers. Henry’s decision to stay in London rather than return to his country estate tempts him into vice with Maria, sabotaging his chances of marrying the virtuous Fanny. This pattern again signals to the effects of the changes of industrialization and a corresponding modernization of thought and behavior.
Henry’s adultery with Maria ultimately vindicates Fanny. Her refusal to marry him is proved to be based on solid ethical grounds. At the same time, Mary’s response to the affair leads Edward to conclude that the flaws he has tried to overlook in Mary are evidence of “a corrupted, vitiated mind” (442). Reinstated at Mansfield Park, Fanny finally secures a stable position in the world. Sir Thomas acknowledges her as a daughter, while Edmund recognizes Fanny as his ideal mate. The couple’s marriage seals the protagonist’s meretricious rise in social status.
On a symbolic level, Fanny’s return signals the restoration of stability and order at Mansfield Park. Ultimately, Austen suggests the household is in a healthier condition than at the beginning of the novel. The epiphanies experienced by Sir Thomas and his heir, combined with the expulsion of Maria and Mrs. Norris, indicate the family is cured of its inner decline. By delivering a happy ending for the protagonist and poetic justice to the antagonists, the author concludes the novel in a traditional manner. However, the introduction of a more intrusive narrative technique draws attention to the ending as a work of fiction. The narrator points out that the details of how Edmund falls in love with Fanny have been purposefully omitted, urging readers “to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural […] Edmund did cease to care about Miss Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny, as Fanny herself could desire” (454). Deliberately avoiding the cliches characteristic of romantic fiction, Austen asserts that Fanny and Edmund’s happiness “must appear as secure as earthly happiness can be” (456). The detached tone of the novel’s resolution is typical of Austen’s wry narrative style.
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By Jane Austen
