Fanny Price - Fanny's Arrival at Mansfield Park

Fanny's Arrival At Mansfield Park

Fanny Price is the eldest daughter of an obscure and poor retired Marine lieutenant in Portsmouth, who is father to eight other children. Fanny's mother's sisters, the wealthy Lady Bertram and Mrs Norris, offer to take her in and bring her up at Sir Thomas Bertram's estate, Mansfield Park in Northamptonshire. Upon her first arriving in Mansfield, she is intimidated by her new home and her cousins (Thomas, Edmund, Maria and Julia), and is very homesick. None of her cousins are very obliging to her except Edmund, the younger son, who befriends her and helps her adapt to her new life. Mrs Norris, who prefers her richer cousins, constantly emphasises her inferiority, while Fanny's female cousins make fun of her apparent ignorance. As she grows, she finds Edmund to be a considerate companion and confidante, and she also becomes attracted to him. As a child, Fanny is described as being small, not a striking beauty, with an awkward but not vulgar air and a sweet voice.

As an adult, Fanny is pretty with a good figure and countenance but tires quickly from any exercise, including dancing. Fanny is a quiet and conscientious character, timid, who is frequently walked over by her more vibrant and forceful relatives and reluctant to giving her own opinions or asserting herself. She is intelligent and insightful and lives by a strict moral code that has made some Austen reviewers consider her to be "priggish". Kingsley Amis described Fanny as "morally detestable". Other critics point out that she is a complex personality, perceptive yet given to wishful thinking, and that she shows courage and grows in self-esteem during the latter part of the story. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin argued that "it is in rejecting obedience in favour of the higher dictate of remaining true to her own conscience that Fanny rises to her moment of heroism."