Mansfield Park
Fanny Price
The heroine
A shy ten-year-old from a poor home in Portsmouth who is raised among her wealthy cousins at Mansfield Park. She is quiet, but she will not give up what she believes is right.
Fanny Price arrives at Mansfield Park at ten, in a plain dress, frightened and homesick. Her aunt Lady Bertram and her uncle Sir Thomas take her in as an act of charity, her aunt Mrs. Norris reminds her daily that she is not a Miss Bertram, and her cousins Maria and Julia treat her as a poor relation. Her one comfort is her cousin Edmund, who finds her crying on the stairs and helps her write to her brother William.
Fanny grows into a modest, observant young woman who loves books, plants and her private retreat in the East Room. She is timid, but not weak. She has a firm conscience, and when the whole house leans one way, she is the one who says no.
“I cannot marry where I do not value or respect, Uncle. I am sorry to displease you.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Fanny refuses to act in the family theatricals, and she warns Maria at the iron gate that what she is doing is wrong. When Henry proposes, she turns him down, because she cannot respect his character, and Sir Thomas sends her to Portsmouth to teach her what poverty means.
In Portsmouth she befriends her sister Susan and realizes that Mansfield is her real home. Henry's elopement with Maria and Julia's elopement with Mr. Yates bring the family to ruin, and Sir Thomas calls Fanny back. She becomes the family's comfort, Sir Thomas admits that she was right, and at last Edmund recognizes his love for her. They marry and live at the Mansfield Parsonage.
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