Essays on Mansfield Park

Joseph Lew’s 1994 critical analysis essay of Mansfield Park, “’That Abominable Traffic’: Mansfield Park and the Dynamics of Slavery”, originally published in History, Gender, and Eighteenth Century Literature, discusses historical background leading to the writing of Mansfield Park, the way family households can mimic governmental regimes, and how Mansfield Park is a metaphor for the downfalls of absentee landlordism. Lew establishes historical context by informing the reader that the summer of 1814 brought a strong desire for abolition in England…

Jane Austen hasn’t gotten the best reputation over the years. A lot of people, especially those who have never read her novels, think of her books as wordy, complicated, and boring. However, these people are just plain wrong. Austen’s writing is full of social commentary, making fun of things that her contemporaries took for granted as just a part of life. She deals with her own life and that of her characters with a witty confidence that was unusual for…

The Role of Fiction in Mansfield Park Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park closely examines a multitude of social and political issues, as well as scrutinizes nineteenth century middle to upper class marriages. One of the most intriguing aspects of the novel is the importance of acting as a general theme in Mansfield Park. Considering that acting can be used as a method for depiction, and as a metaphor for false attempts to express and characterize oneself. However these attempts can…

In the novels of Jane Austen, there has been a common stigma of the absent parent and the child that is left to develop their own moral character. Primarily in the eighteenth and nineteen century, the family dynamic focused mainly on social class and how they were viewed by the public. This, ultimately, effected the children of the family as they lacked parental guidance and emotional support. In her novels, Jane Austen highlighted this fault by commonly producing heroines that…

Mansfield Park is Austen’s 3rd published novel, which came after the critical success of Pride and Prejudice. However, Austen’s style in Mansfield Park takes a darker tone as opposed to her previous work such as Pride and Prejudice, which Austen came to see as “rather too light”. In Mansfield Park, Austen tackles controversial issues such as class differences, disgraced women, illegitimacy, and most importantly love. These issues are discussed at lengths in the character’s production of the play, Lovers’ Vow,…

Postcolonialism or postcolonial studies is the academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands.Postcolonialism encompasses a wide variety of approaches, and theoreticians may not always agree on a common set of definitions. On a simple level, it may seek through anthropological study to build a better understanding of colonial life from the point of view of the colonized people, based on the…