The Ledger
Everyone in Mansfield Park gives Fanny Price something. I wrote down what each person gives, and what it costs her.
You get the whole cast of Jane Austen’s novel, with counts from the Project Gutenberg text. It has spoilers for the whole book, so if you are still reading, come back after the last chapter.
Names By Count
First, who the book talks about. I counted how often the text uses each label. Fanny comes first, by a mile, nine hundred and twenty-four times. Then Edmund, four hundred and twelve. Sir Thomas, three hundred and twenty-nine. Miss Crawford, two hundred and sixty-six. Mr. Crawford, one hundred and ninety-nine. Mrs. Norris, one hundred and seventy-four. Further down, William gets one hundred and forty-six, and Mrs. Grant ninety-seven.
These are counts of labels, so Henry Crawford and Mary Crawford also turn up under other names. But the shape is clear. A shy girl is on almost every page, and the people around her take turns deciding what she should do.
Fanny Price
Fanny arrives from Portsmouth at ten, small and frightened. Her cousins look down on her. She has two sashes and has never learned French. Her aunt Norris tells her all the way from Northampton how grateful she should be, which makes her feel wicked for crying.
She takes over the East room, which comes to be called hers, with her plants and her books. What she gives back is steady. She writes to her brother William. She listens to everyone’s complaints during the play. She reads to Lady Bertram. And when her family in Portsmouth quarrels over one silver knife, she spends some of her uncle’s ten pounds on a second one for Betsey. She is the one who keeps giving, whether anyone notices or not.
Edmund Bertram
Edmund is the first person who gives Fanny anything. He finds her crying on the attic stairs, rules her paper, and sends her brother half a guinea. Later he lends his own quiet mare so she can ride, and gives her a gold chain for William’s cross.
The cost is his attention. The same Edmund who rides with Fanny forgets her at Sotherton, because Mary Crawford is walking beside him. He also talks to her about her reading, and that is a gift she never forgets. In the last chapter, he asks to marry her.
Sir Thomas
Sir Thomas gives Fanny a home, ten pounds at parting, and a ball in her honour. When he finds she sits all winter in the East room with no fire, he orders one. He also sends her to Portsmouth on purpose, to make her miss money. That is his word, medicinal.
He also approves Maria’s engagement to Mr. Rushworth, an alliance he is truly happy about. Edmund is the only one who sees a fault in it. The price of his help is obedience. When Fanny refuses Henry, he calls her ungrateful. By the last chapter, though, he decides she was the daughter he wanted, and blames his own mistakes.
Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris
Lady Bertram is easy and indolent, with a pug on the sofa. What she gives Fanny is small and real. She sends her own maid to help Fanny dress for the ball. She promises her a puppy when Pug has a litter. And when she is asked to spare Fanny, she says only that she will miss her very much.
Mrs. Norris is the other aunt, and her gifts are lectures. She tells Sir Thomas what extraordinary advantages they have given Fanny. She calls Maria’s marriage to Mr. Rushworth her own doing. She promotes the play, saves half a crown here and there, and takes the green baize curtain home. At the end, she leaves with Maria, and not even Fanny has tears for her.
Maria, Julia and Tom
The Bertram children give Fanny very little. As a child, she gets some of their least valued toys. Maria is engaged to Mr. Rushworth, who has twelve thousand pounds a year. Julia is the sister Henry Crawford also flirts with. Tom takes up the play, which his friend Mr. Yates brings.
Tom changes. He falls ill after Newmarket, and the book says he is the better for it, because he has suffered and learned to think. Maria and Julia do not get that second chance.
Mary Crawford
Mary is the best company in the book. She plays the harp and says what she thinks. When Mrs. Norris scolds Fanny over the play, Mary moves her chair beside Fanny and tells her not to mind them. She presses a necklace on Fanny for the ball.
She also gives the worst advice. In her letters, she hints that Tom’s death would make Edmund Sir Edmund. And when the scandal breaks, she blames the discovery, not the act. Mary gives Fanny charm, and what it costs is Fanny’s trust.
Henry Crawford
Henry gives Fanny the biggest gift in the book. He gets William made a lieutenant, through his uncle the Admiral. He also reads Shakespeare to Lady Bertram, so well that even Fanny has to listen.
But he gives with a hook. The promotion is part of his plan to make a small hole in Fanny’s heart, and he asks for her hand the next morning. The narrator says that if he had stayed steady, Fanny might have been his reward. He lingers for one party, and loses her.
The Prices
William is the one person Fanny loves without a hook. He is a midshipman when we meet him, and becomes a second lieutenant on the Thrush. He brings her an amber cross from Sicily, and company on the road to Portsmouth.
Her parents have no space to give. Her mother is worn, and her father is the one who spots the scandal in his newspaper. Susan, fourteen, is the sister Fanny takes home with her. She has a quick mind, and Fanny teaches her history and tales of Mansfield, which she loves to hear. By the end, Susan is the one who stays at Mansfield. Betsey is the child who gets the knife.
The Others
Mr. Rushworth is rich and dull, and offers Maria Sotherton. Mr. Yates arrives for the play. Dr. Grant is the rector of Mansfield. He eats too many dinners, and when he dies Fanny and Edmund get his living. Mrs. Grant is the Crawfords’ sister, which is why they are at Mansfield at all. She and Dr. Grant live at the parsonage Fanny is nervous of, and she is the one who first welcomes Mary.
My Reading
Here is my reading, and it is an opinion. Almost every gift in this ledger comes with a hook. Edmund’s chain, William’s cross and Fanny’s knife for Betsey do not.
If this helped, subscribe, and tap like. And tell me in the comments which character you would have trusted with a secret.
