An activity Henry Crawford should not try
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Mr. Rushworth is "proud of his forty-two speeches, which in fact he is never able to memorize." Part of Austen's genius was in finding exactly the right running joke for her comic or tragicomic characters, a trait she shared with Dickens. In the entire play sequence, Mr. Rushworth works the forty-two speeches into almost every line of dialogue he gets. For such a self-important buffoon, the size of the part is distinction enough, even if the words are hollow. In Mansfield Park itself, Fanny seldom speaks, sometimes doesn't even use her own words, but her voice and presence mean everything to the story.
Mary awakens a "dizzy passion" in Edmund which "overcomes his scruples." Edmund rejects his true nature, at least temporarily, to lend himself to the play. The novel is full of men who go to greater than expected lengths for their objects of passion. Mr. Rushworth tries to impress Maria with the self-aggrandizing "improvements," and Henry will carefully reconstruct himself as the ideal true and faithful suitor for Fanny. In contrast, Fanny expects nothing from Edmund but for him to be himself.
(Blogger's Note: I am sitting right now in the lobby of the Americana at Brand, Glendale, California, perched in a leather chair next to a player piano and typing up a storm before a four-hour cashiering shift. To write this commentary, I keep referring to the underlined passages and handwritten notes in my copy of Nabokov. Just now, I was flipping through the lectures in totum and wondering why I underlined some of the things I did, especially since some titles have less notation than others, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde most of all. Upon reviewing my marking of the previous passage, the true meaning of its significance leaped into my brain. As Nabokov says, we can never read a book, only re-read it. I find re-reading my notes that the things I wished to say may not have been clear at the time of first perusal but are certainly clear now. Thus this blog now has the firm potential to surprise myself…just as every time we read or re-read a book, we should be surprised.)
For Edmund and Mary during rehearsal, Fanny is a "Cinderella, polite, dainty, without hope, attending to the needs of others." This is a return to the fairy-tale theme. We know Cinderella gets her prince in the end. But it also reflects the play theme, as Fanny now reminds me of the usually no-sex drive-in-sight characters in Shakespeare and others who facilitate the meetings of lovers, star-crossed and otherwise.
37
"Julia gets the most important part after all" at the end of volume one, heralding Sir Thomas's return. Julia, who has backed out of the play since she cannot perform to her satisfaction, is important for two reasons (I see) which Nabokov does not specify. First, after nine chapters of creation, leading up to this first rehearsal, Julia destroys everything in a mere twelve words. Second, Fanny is just about to speak as the Cottager's Wife, much against her will, when Julia bursts on the scene. Fanny thus never fully acts in the drama and emerges with dignity and values intact, which not even Edmund can say.
John Yates, in character as Baron Wildenheim, meets Sir Thomas in the billiard room: two heavy fathers. Yates carries a double heaviness, both in his pastiche of a domestic tyrant and as the "father" of the entire theatrical scheme. But again, though Yates can regroup and try again following the death of the dowager, he has no hope of withstanding the living, breathing, in-control Sir Thomas. Nabokov calls it "a relinquishment." Yates's surrendering of the game in a charming manner upon Sir Thomas's arrival is key, for it suggests a better side of Yates which makes him a suitable partner for Julia in the final chapter.
38
"Yates, the last prop of the play, is removed." He leaves Mansfield Park only after witnessing the demolishment of his theatrical apparatus, including the complicit Mrs. Norris taking the curtains she made. With Yates gone, reality returns, but his giving the house over to complete antithesis of the opening image inspires a roundabout of uncoupling and recoupling which dominates volumes two and three. Empty stages always need to be filled.
40
During the game of Speculation, Henry combines two different schemes in his conversation: his suggestions to Edmund on how to "improve" Thornton Lacey and his increasingly serious flirtation with Fanny. All of Henry's words carry the notion of a plan within them; even his casual attitude to the play represents an overall determination to try every experience which comes his way. Perhaps that and his mild "wooing" of Maria he stumbles into were better for him, because when he thinks his plans through, they don't quite work out the way he wants them to or others would want them to. Henry makes a grand effort to woo Fanny, not realizing Fanny is the last person in the world who would want him or submit to such treatment. And as he carries on about the potential of Thornton Lacey, a debate rages in his sister's mind about Edmund. From this point on, symbolized by her "tossing in" her Speculation, Mary no longer finds herself 100% certain marrying Edmund is best for her, as her brother moves in the opposite direction regarding Fanny. Her future ambivalence will only cause Edmund pain and help push him into Fanny's arms after Henry, perhaps intuitively sensing this, rejects her in turn.
Planning and scheming are two major Thematic patterns in the novel, usually symbolized by improving grounds, rehearsals, and complex games. I noticed this right away in the first volume…almost all the characters have desires and agendas which they pursue without fail, or find other pursuits to channel their energy into. I felt a small measure of pride on reading this passage of Nabokov, confirmation that my own thought was on the right track.
41
The "necklace theme" links up Fanny, Edmund, Mary, Henry, and William. A relatively small object with a powerful role to play. When I said in the last note that almost every character has a desire or agenda, Fanny is the most prominent exception—at least if we count only conscious desires. Like Doctor Zhivago, she wants only to live, love the people she loves, and not be any trouble. Following this, for the great ball of Chapter 26 she wants to wear her only jewelry, the amber cross William gave her. But she falls prey to scheming, as Mary gives her a beautiful necklace for the cross, one she says is HERS as an old gift from Henry but is actually a recent purchase for Fanny alone. Edmund, still in the dizzy passion, gives Fanny a braid for the cross as well but insists she wear the necklace, a "proof of Mary's good nature" in Nabokov's words. Now Fanny is stuck…until she discovers she cannot fit the necklace through the cross and thus wears both, pleasing everyone. Is this why Fanny is triumphant at novel's end, because she can through nothing but good sense and innocence outwit the scheming?
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