Does anyone like Fanny Price from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park?

Question

Most 21st readers seem to hate her because of her strong morals and 'boring' character. When the book was first written, however, Fanny was liked.

This makes me think that modern people are only thinking in 21st century terms and that they don't like Fanny simply because she's old-fashioned, 'boring', and moralistic. Personally, I have always liked Fanny because she shows that true goodness and strong morals are better than superficiality.

Does anyone else agree with me and actually like Fanny Price, who is known to probably be Jane Austen's most disliked character?

Maybe Fanny isn't as exciting or witty as some of Austen's other characters and maybe she may seem a little boring to some readers. But sometimes a character like Fanny can be a breath of fresh air, especially when compared to all the multitudes of witty and more modern female characters that are popular today.

Answer 1

I don't know if I agree that society in general doesn't like Fanny Price because our morals are so much more depleted than during Austen's time.

I do agree that Fanny is not usually mentioned as anyone's favorite Austen heroine. Personally, I think today's society really idolizes and supports strong women, women like Elizabeth Bennett for example. Modern society continuously places less and less emphasis on a passive woman. I know that is why I always see Lizzy as my favorite heroine. She is strong and witty, intelligent yet beautiful. I guess she gives me someone to look up to, and her flawed nature makes her more human to me.

Fanny is a bit boring, but she also frustrates me. Why doesn't she just open her mouth and stand up for herself! Some parts of the book I just want to reach in and shake her. lol... its not that I dislike Fanny Price. I just have a harder time relating to her. I respect her and there are times I know I should act more like her and less like Lizzy, but it is still harder for me to identify with her passive nature. Does that make sense?

Answer 2

Fanny Price is my most favourite female character in all the Austen novels. The only one that comes close is the girl who is the main character of Northanger Abbey. People criticise Fanny for being virtuous and even consciously so. People complain that Fanny never feels doubt. Tell me, how can you be "unconsciously" moralistic? And how do you know Fanny never feels doubt? She does, but she overcomes them. More important, she helps others overcome their own doubts so they can do the right thing. She is given one chance to get out of a life of poverty and she takes it. She cannot afford to make mistakes so she doesn't. Think today. How many plain, poor girls, with no education and no parents or friends to help her, stay on the right path? Fanny is a wonderful girl! If only girls today were like her. Look around you and see the number of teen pregnancies and crack babies. Fanny's not just better. FANNY IS GOOD! And remember, it is bad to be bad and it is good to be good. People lose sight of this simple truth all the time!

Answer 3

I like Fanny, though I have to say that it is hard to read the book in the context in which it was written. Fanny is a very good person. But I wanted her to have a backbone through a lot of the book. I like her in the very beginning and for the last 50-100 pages, but in the middle she's just too beaten down - which I definitely think has to do with her family situation. But in the end, she gets what she wanted because she has always been a good, steady person. She is the kind of person you would want to know in real life, and want to root for in a book, but it is harder to convey in a book. It might have gone over better at the time it was published because Fanny would be someone women would strive to be more like, and today girls are taught to be more assertive (not condemning either way, just a thought).

Answer 4

What's great about Fanny is that she's such a departure from Austen's other female characters. She's not as vibrant perhaps, but I don't think she's boring.

I think the best way to look at her is to see how she relates to the family business. Slavery supports the English society of Fanny's time, and so one might ask, based on her character, is Austen writing a pro-slavery text, an anti-slavery text, or something in between.

Answer 5

It's funny that you ask this question because I just read an essay on Mansfield Park (in "The Opposing Self" by Lionel Trilling) which gave me a bit of a new perspective on the novel.

I love Jane Austen, but I have always had trouble with Fanny because she is quiet, self-effacing and moralistic - not attributes I particularly share and ones I generally find difficult to be sympathetic to. However, my favorite Austen character has long been Anne Eliot in Persuasion, who is also quiet and self-effacing, so I have to ask myself what exactly it is about Fanny that disturbs me.

I realized that it isn't her temperament; it's her self-satisfaction. She is so well grounded in her moral view of the world, and very certain of her own rectitude. That, I think, is what bothers most people about Fanny - it's not that she's good; it's that she knows it.

As far as the pantheon of Austen’s heroines goes - she is without flaw. Emma's interference, Elinor's reticence, Marianne's romantic ridiculousness, Elizabeth's prejudice, Catherine's over-active imagination, Anne's over reliance on other people's opinion - all of these heroines have a flaw, and the novels about them have much more to do with each of them discovering and overcoming these flaws than any of their (admittedly delightful) romantic adventures.

Fanny is altogether too perfect for modern sensibility. She does what she is told. It's true that now we value independence in women, and as a result Elizabeth Bennet is the most admired Austen heroine.

I agree with you that strong morals and true goodness are traits to be valued, but I would find Fanny more appealing if she had to struggle with staying true to them as the rest of us do.

Thanks for an interesting question – and one which happened to parallel my own recent thoughts.

Answer 6

Ppl are very bad