Character Analysis of Mary Crawford in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park Essay

The Character of Mary CrawfordIt can be useful to examine the values and ideas of a novel through the characterand portrayal of one character. Mary Crawford is a character central to the themes andevents of Jane Austen s Mansfield Park. At all significant points in the play, barring onlyFanny s rescue from her parents, she is either present or involved. Through such acharacter, a great deal about the morality and ideas so central to this book can be revealed.However, examination of a character and the way that character is portrayed can becomeespecially useful when comparing a book to a film based on the same material. Throughthe changes, or the similarity, in the portrayal of the character, it becomes again possibleto examine the values behind the production. Patricia Rozema s version of MansfieldPark, made in 1999, projects modern values onto character living in the early 19thcentury. This projection, however, is more appropriate then one might imagine, and isalmost necessary to make the character necessarily despicable. Mary Crawford is a vitally important part of the story of Mansfield Park. Sheprovides one of the key complications in the plot and is essential in it s role as a study ofcharacter and morality. She is also key in her role as a contrast to Fanny Price, the moreamiable of the female characters. Before one can fully understand Mary s vital role in the unfolding of events atMansfield Park, it is first important to understand exactly who Mary is and where she fitsin to the story. The story revolves around the family that occupies the vast estate ofMansfield Park. Years earlier, they had taken into their care the daughter of LadyBertram s sister, who had married below herself and now had many children and nomoney. The girl, Fanny, had grown from the age of ten, in the household of Sir Thomasand Lady Bertram, and their children Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia. Some years later,when Fanny reaches seventeen, the position at...