Analysis of the Differences between Women"s Love Attitudes Reflected in Mansfield Park

Abstract：Jane Austen is a famous 19th century English novelist， Mansfield Park is Jane Austen's most famous novel. The article analyzes Jane Austen's Mansfield Park， tries to have a comparative analysis of the three major female characters from the concept of love view in the work，especially analyzes the differences of three main female characters' love view：differences of love motivation and differences of love endings and the cause of such differences..

Key words：Jane Austen； Mansfield Park；Women；Love Attitudes；Differences

中图分类号：I106 文献标识码： A 文章编号：1672-1578（2015）02-0001-02

Jane Austen is a famous 19th century English novelist， Mansfield Park is Jane Austen's most controversial novel. The article analyzes Jane Austen's Mansfield Park， tries to have a comparative analysis of the three major female characters from the concept of love view in the work，especially analyzes the differences of three main female characters' love view：differences of love motivation and differences of love endings.

Mary， Maria Fanny，three of them were eager for beautiful love and took actions to pursue their love.In fact，their concept of love and love ending were different from each other.In the face of money and love，Mary shook herself and missed Edmund.At first，Maria chose a decent marriage， but she can not endure the boring marriage and eloped with Henry eventually .Only Fanny had been sticking to her true love and conquered all obstacles and get happiness finally.

1 Differences of Women's Love Motivations

Three female character's living environments， personalities and family educations are very different.Different growth environment has different affections for women's concept of love.Fanny's social statue was not as good as Mary and Marie.She simply looked forward to a true love which has nothing to do with money and status. On the contrary， prosperous life made Mary and Mary in a dilemma between money and love.

1.1 Mary：Wandering Between Money and Love

Before Mary enters the Mansfield society， she is already well experienced with love affairs and believes she has seen through it. Mary seems practical and assured of herself： “Matrimony was her object， provided she could marry well” （Jane Austen，1990：31）.The Miss Bertrams rapturous admiration is beyond “anything which Miss Crawfords habits made her likely to feel” （Jane Austen，1990：35）. But not long after she enters Mansfield， Marys self-assurance is seriously disrupted. The man she falls in love with plunges her into a deep confusion. Edmund Bertram is reserved， prudish， domestic， and above all， a younger-son without a fancy vocation.

Mary is blinded by her own escapist attitude and self-deceit. Unlike Fanny， she never comes around to know her own “self”， and that is why she is bewildered by her feelings towards Edmund.

Mary and Edmund relationship divided and united，ups and downs several times because of money.Eventually Edmund saw Mary's desire for material life and vanity clearly， and their relationship came to an end.Between material life and love，Mary can not gave up the superior material life for love，eventually she gave up the relationship with Edmund.

1.2Maria： Choosing Money but Desiring for Love

Maria Bertram agreed to marry rich and stupid Mr. Rushworth because of his high income and his house in the city of London.While her aunt Mrs. Norris also strongly match them and the marriage was seen as the most perfect combination.

As the story turned out， shortly after her marriage to the rich and stupid Mr. Rushworth， Maria was once again allured by Henry Crawford and eloped with him without scruples of consequence.

Maria，as the eldest daughter of a wealthy family， she is beautiful，talented and spoiled， always acted according to her own wishes at home.However，her selfishness and caprice brought her a tragic fate.After marrying Mr. Rushworth，capricious Maria can't endure the boring marriage life without love and chose to eloped with Henry.。Maria was not satisfied with superior material life from Mr.Rushworth，she also wanted romantic love.Her voracity for money and love made her being abandoned and spurned.

1.3 Fanny：Choosing the True Love

As a adopted girl from poor family，heroine Fanny's social status was not as good as Mary and Maria，but she did not marry a rich husband as common sense expected.She can be different from other women in Mansfield Park.She always stood in the height of the intellect and respected her inner spiritual needs，and her love for Edmund's was unnervingly.In the face of relatives and friends' exhortations， even the most severe Mr. Thomas scold her ingratitude， she still insisted her love for Edmund， did not give up her faith in the sincere love.She refused to accept Playboy Henry， she steadfastly refused loveless marriage， never took her own happiness to do business.

Compared with Mary and Maria， Fanny was more eager for the warm love than money， and status.As a adopted girl，she desired for warm family and love.Only her cousin Edmund cared her in Mansfield Park when she was a little girl.These experiences made her full of desires for warm family and true love.Also insist on true love， so she finally got happiness.Her insistence for true love brought her happiness eventually.

2 Differences of Women's Love Endings

Three different women in Mansfield Park had different love ending.Mary drew water with a sieve，she chose superior material life but missed Edmund.Maria chose to marry Mr. Rushworth but eloped with Henry and abandoned by Henry.The heroine Fanny insisted on her true love and refused temptation of money and status.Eventually she gain the happiness and be the hostess of Mansfield Park.It is not anything but their own choices decided their love endings.

2.1 Mary：Getting the Material Enjoyment but Missing Love

Mary intended to Edmund at first.But when she learned that Edmund would to be a pastor， her enthusiasm to Edmund cold down immediately.

Later， when Edmund's brother was in the critically ill， she quickly realized that Edmund could become Bertram's inheritor， her attitude became better again.But Edmund saw her face clearly， finally she also failed to marry Edmund or become mistress of Mansfield Park.

Mary lost herself in money and love because of her desire for superior material life.Finally although she lived a luxurious life， but in love，she draw water with a sieve.

2.2 Maria：Eloping with Henry and Being Abandoned

Maria is a skittish girl，while tempted to gross obesity， intellectual mediocrity Mr. Rushworth who had twelve thousand pounds income a year， while privately flirted with playboy Henry. When she found Henry lacked of true feelings for her，she married Mr. Rushworth indiscreetly.At the same time，she developed dubious relationship with Henry and eloped with him eventually.

Maria is ruined by her unchecked desires even more. She is abandoned by Henry and rendered a “powerless sexual being” （McDonnell 1984： 201）， just like Agatha of Lovers Vows she plays in the family theater.

2.3 Fanny：Pursuing True Love and Getting Happiness

Henry Crawford wanted to amuse himself by winning Fannys love as he used to do. But to his surprise he found that Fannys resistance stimulated his interest， and he determined to marry this girl. Henry more and more perceived that Fanny perfectly fitted the patriarchal model of an excellent wife.With the result that Fanny would never accept Henry， she could resist his attack. Fanny protected herself against the sex-role stereotyping in the patriarchy.What was Fannys justification？ It was that one should never marry without affection； a woman could not love the one whom she did not admire at all. Fanny's insisting on true love and moral principle lead her a happy ending.

She won her uncles favor and received the others appreciation. She won her rival in love —— Mary， whom was a rich and charming girl and once loved deeply by Edmund. She got her happiness —— living together with her beloved Edmund forever.

3 Causes of Women's Different Love Endings

Three female characters had different concepts of love， eventually they came to different fates.What makes such a big differences of these three women in the contemporary？Through the novels we can see their living environment has a very big difference.

In Mansfield Park， London is identified with moral corruption. London is a city which is full of copper stink， without money people cant survive here. The city has a kind of corrupted power because of its liquidity. Mary and her brother Henry came from London， they stand for the ambitious urban bourgeoisie， and they ignore the harmony of nature， in their opinions， money can change everything.Mary and her brother lodged at his uncle's home in London for many years.London， Interesting and dangerous capitalist lifestyle in London made her can not get ride of extravagant life and accept dull life.This complicated living environment made her can't make a right choice between love and money

Mary's situation was very different from Fanny ： as the eldest daughter of a wealthy family， she had beauty and talent.She was spoiled by parents，she always acted according to her own aspiration at home.It seemed that she had greater autonomy on marriage，but her selfish and capricious made her tragic fate.Superior growth environment made her more daring，but her heart was always unwilling to set her life on this conclusion.Definition of marriage at that time made her desired for a marriage of superior material condition.But from the formation of a selfish spoiled her and capricious character，She formed selfish and capricious personality because of being spoiled by family，such selfishness and capricious made her lack of responsibility.

Fanny left her own biological parents and came to Mansfield manor when she was ten years old. As a adopted daughter ， she spent her childhood life here.Before Fanny came to manor， elders got together and discussed how to define her identity.Finally， Mr. Thomas solemnly declared： He does not allow his daughter has a little pride to Fanny， he hopes they can become friends； at the same time， they can not be equally person. After all， their identities， possessions， status and prospects are still different.Strict identity boundaries settled by Mr. Thomas to her， making reticent Fanny covered with a layer of melancholy color.In the early days of Fanny came to the manor， everyone thought that she has no special attractive place.Her aunt commanded her to do all kinds of things and she never resisted this injustice.At her most helpless time， she met second cousin Edmund's help.Under the leadership and positive impact of Edmund， she gradually grew into an elegant， intelligent， gentle girl. She gradually was able to decent discourse and etiquette to interact with others， and in the secular crowd she always maintained her mettle and wisdom firmly.The heroine Fanny，went into Mansfield as an outcome at the beginning of the novel， she came from the noisy Portsmouth， her uncle and aunt once worried that she was a vulgar and fatuous girl. And this worry was greatly reduced until they see Fanny. Because the life experience during the period of Portsmouth didnt bring her too much undesirable influence. Fortunately， Fanny was in Mansfield where she finished the formation of her view of life and values.

By analyzing the novel Mansfield Park from the point of feminism， we could draw a conclusion that this fiction could be regarded as a feminist work that challenges the patriarchy， and left much of the thinking space to the readers.Three female characters had different concepts of love， eventually they came to different fates.From the novel， we can see that the living environment， personality and family education are important for woman.The selected topic has realistic guiding significance on how to cultivate a contemporary excellent woman from the living environment， family education.

Works Cited：

[1]林文琛.我读《曼斯菲尔德庄园》[J]. 外国文学研究，1993（01）.

[2]张丹丹.倔强的灵魂——略论简·奥斯汀的女权主义思想[J].

当代文坛，2001（03）.

[3]黄如敏. 地点的隐喻——《曼斯菲尔德庄园》地点刍议[J]. 泉州师范学院学报，2005（03）.

[4]Austen，Jane . Mansfield Park. Oxford University Press， 1990.

作者简介：孙旭轲（1983-），女，河南叶县人，河南农业职业学院旅游管理系讲师，硕士，研究方向：英美文学。