Mansfield Park

I read Jane Austen’s most unlikeable work, and I have thoughts. 😬 For context, this is the story of Fanny Price, a poor young girl who is sent to live with her wealthy relatives at Mansfield Park. Shy and often overlooked, she grows up feeling like an outsider and learns to stay in the background. Their normal routine is disrupted when two charming siblings from London arrive and stir up emotions of romance, jealousy, and family conflict. The premise is very interesting, and the book delivers on gossip, scandal, and love affairs. Along with this, there’s a lot of social commentary on class, marriage, and morality. What makes it different from Austen’s other works is Fanny, who is not strong-headed like many of Austen’s heroines. She reminds me a lot of the female leads in Indian daily soaps—over-sacrificing, self-righteous, and burdened with gratitude at all times. In fact, none of the characters are particularly likeable. They are complex, though, and what’s interesting is that my feelings towards many of them kept fluctuating throughout the book. Even more fascinating is how their feelings towards one another constantly shift as the story progresses. One character I absolutely hated, but also found incredibly interesting, was Mrs. Norris (one of Fanny’s aunts). Although she herself is not part of the highest social class, she becomes one of the strongest enforcers of class hierarchy. She’s a great example of how people can internalise a system that disadvantages them and then become its most enthusiastic gatekeepers. More than the wealthy characters themselves, Mrs. Norris is obsessed with reminding Fanny of her place and preserving the social divide. The romance between cousins also gave me the ick, but as I progressed through the book, I made peace with the fact that this was not unusual in 19th-century England. A lot of people dislike this book because of the way patriarchy, rigid morality, and colonial attitudes seem to be upheld. The story exists against the