Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park is set in a large country house. Its Lord and his son are its dominant figures, choosing what is moral and what is not, almost creating a private kingdom. Lord Thomas's dismantling of the theatricals is perhaps the first overt act of repression, but why does he do it? What does this typically 18th century upper class past-time trigger in him? Within this skewed world, Fanny tries to navigate a responsible life, but how can she when she kowtows to the monstrous Aunt Norris? What must she repress to work uncomplainingly for Lady Bertram? What moral adjustments does she make in order to admire Sir Thomas, the Antigua slave owner? She is a profoundly compromised heroine, so different from Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice and so much more constrained by class and power.
The unbridled energy of the Crawfords exposes so much of what is hypocritical in this society, yet obviously their lack of repression is immoral. Perhaps this is where Lawrence steps in. His novel is a vehement critique of a post-war Britain in which, through the affair between a gamekeeper and an aristocrat, he vents his frustration at the wrong paths British culture has taken. And many of those wrong paths seem to be the paths that the admired Fanny pursues. For him the breaking of taboos - sexual and class - is necessary and the acceptance of conventional authority a moral failing. Where Austen’s language ironises and suggests, Lawrence’s explodes and attacks.
Two writers with very different styles and very different beliefs, addressing similar questions.
In this course we will look at what world they create in order to accommodate their ideas of what Britain should be.
Learning outcomes
- To understand the relation between literature and its period;
- To develop an understanding of working with different literary styles;
- To gain knowledge of interpreting literary ideas.
