THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY

By Tamara Gapar
In this seminar paper I am going to discuss how absence of love and common human decency, as
well as expression of feelings made Mansfield Park look like a gold digger freakshow powered by a
serious absence of compassion. To even discuss the recurrent problem of absence in Mansfield Park
we must first know the definition of absence itself. The definition states that absence is everything
that isn't visible in the text, everything that is left unsaid and helps us to interpret the text in the
deeper sense, by taking into account all that isn't present and how it changes the visible meaning.
"To know is not to listen to some pre-existing word, which would be a story or fable, and
translate it: it is to invent a new word, give the word to that which essentially guards a silence,
not that it is prevented from saying something, but rather because it is the guardian of a
silence." What might be even more interesting is Barthes' term called "The Third Meaning" which
talks about the moment before the reaction, that moment in which we don't know which direction
the plot will take. That too can be seen in this novel due to its impeccable aura of supressed feelings
errupting in the most inappropriate moments and manners. All of this makes us polemicize about
the possible outcome of the novel if Fanny was treated like a human being and given the love she
more than deserves from the beginning, not only in the end.
While discussing absence in Masfield Park, we have to take into account the fact that Jane Austen
uses absence throughout her novels to define her characters, the plot and to make us realize the
current political and social views that dominated in that time and age. She, of course, uses absence
in Mansfield Park as well, mostly to portray Fanny more clearly through the scenes in which we see
absence of her reactions, or absence of her presence or involvement in the daily life of the Bertram
family's household. We can certainly argue that Fanny is, without a doubt, perfectly characterized
when put in contrast with her cousin Maria Bertram. There was a particular scene in which Fanny
was left alone by both groups that she was with and here we clearly see how furious she is but there

is, again, absence of her expressing those feelings which undoubtedly leads to her feeling left out.
On the other hand, we see her cousin doing whatever she feels like doing.
""Prohibited! nonsense! I certainly can get out that way, and I will. Mr. Rushworth will be
here in a moment, you know; we shall not be out of sight."
"Or if we are, Miss Price will be so good as to tell him that he will find us near that knoll:
the grove of oak on the knoll."
Fanny, feeling all this to be wrong, could not help making an effort to prevent it. "You will
hurt yourself, Miss Bertram," she cried; "you will certainly hurt yourself against those spikes;
you will tear your gown; you will be in danger of slipping into the ha-ha. You had better not
go."
Her cousin was safe on the other side while these words were spoken, and, smiling with all
the good-humour of success, she said, "Thank you, my dear Fanny, but I and my gown are alive
and well, and so good-bye."
Fanny was again left to her solitude, and with no increase of pleasant feelings, for she was
sorry for almost all that she had seen and heard, astonished at Miss Bertram, and angry with
Mr. Crawford." (10, 53)
Fanny's obvious absence of courage is what keeps this novel going. Had she admitted her feelings,
not only to her cousin and her adoptive family, but to Edmund as well, all of this would have been
much less complex. Absence of her reactions and expressing her emotions gives us a better
view into her character. "Let us remember that the idea of a circle is not itself circular: it is
not because there are circles that we have the idea of a circle." All of this shows us the possibly
bad side of absence.
Fanny's involvement in home theatre, or lack of, set in Betram household, shows us more cases of
absence which, inevitably, contributes to her feelings of self-doubt, jealousy and the ever-present
feeling of being a guest in Bertram family. "She alone was sad and insignificant: she had no share in

anything; she might go or stay; she might be in the midst of their noise, or retreat from it to the
solitude of the East room,without being seen or missed. She could almost think anything would
have been preferable to this. " (17, 84-85)
"I am not going to urge her," replied Mrs. Norris sharply; "but I shall think her a very obstinate,
ungrateful girl, if she does not do what her aunt and cousins wish herveryungrateful, indeed,
considering who and what she is." (15, 79)
Also, we can see absence in obvious meaning, when the play was chosen and Henry chooses Maria
over Julia: "I must entreat Miss Julia Bertram," said he, "not to engage in the part of Agatha, or it
will be the ruin of all my solemnity. You must not, indeed you must not" (turning to her). "I could
not stand your countenance dressed up in woe and paleness. The many laughs we have had together
would infallibly come across me, and Frederick and his knapsack would be obliged to run away."
Pleasantly, courteously, it was spoken; but the manner was lost in the matter to Julia's feelings. She
saw a glance at Maria which confirmed the injury to herself: it was a scheme, a trick; she was
slighted, Maria was preferred; the smile of triumph which Maria was trying to suppress shewed how
well it was understood. " (14, 72-73) And there you have the ugly.
Furthermore, we have quite a pecculiar change of heart in case of Maria Bertram. Absence of love
throughout her life made her engage to Mr. Rushworth only for his money. Having met Henry and
fallen in love with him, she starts thinking more and more about leaving Rushworth, but after Henry
leaves Mansfield she goes back on the "right" path of greed-powered rebounding method of living
ensuring his father that she is happy." Had Sir Thomas applied to his daughter within the first three
or four days after Henry Crawford's leaving Mansfield, before her feelings were at all tranquillised,
before she had given up every hope of him, or absolutely resolved on enduring his rival, her answer
might have been different; but after another three or four days, when there was no return, no letter,
no message, no symptom of a softened heart, no hope of advantage from separation, her mind
became cool enough to seek all the comfort that pride and self revenge could give." (21, 105) But,
not long after, she sees Henry and runs away with him. From all of this we can conclude that her

unstable character was defined through absence of father's love that isn't so clearly showed in the
text but can be more or less visible through their relationship, restraints she has towards him and
lack of love for him. One other characteristic which defined her was her upbringing, having been
told that money is as important as happiness and having grown up in a wealthy surroundings and
being told her whole life how special and important she is it's no wonder her biggest concern is
money to keep being as important as she was before or even more, that is, until she discovers love.
That kind of absence made her actions more reasonable, but considering that barely anyone
noticed her change of heart her runaway seemed extremely improper and embarrassing for
the whole family. "And let us bear in mind that the appearance of a knowledge institutes a
certain distance, a certain difference or displacement (cart): in limiting by this difference the
initial domain, it makes of it a measurable space, the object of a knowledge."
All of this brings us to the good. Fanny was a terrific judge of character, so when she refused Henry
everyone was astonished. In some way she sensed that he wasn't as brilliant as he seemed. In this
sense, her absence of action, of courage to accept his proposal lead to, in the end, a good decision
judging by Henry's latter actions with Maria. ""No, no, no!" she cried, hiding her face. "This is all
nonsense. Do not distress me. I can hear no more of this. Your kindness to William makes me more
obliged to you than words can express; but I do not want, I cannot bear, I must not listen to such
No, no, don't think of me. But you are not thinking of me. I know it is all nothing."" (31, 157) We
can connect this with the theory of absence, arguing that Fanny adds this new knowledge of
Henry's affections to her reality: "To know, therefore, is not to rediscover or reconstitute a
latent sense: hidden or forgotten. It is to constitute a new knowledge, i.e. a knowledge that is
added to the reality from which it sets out and of which it says something else."

We can clearly see how the absence helped Jane Austen build one of her most complex novels and
how it helped her to describe characters through the things they didn't say, the acts they didn't do
made most of them look as selfish and egocentric. Most of the family was too busy thinking about

themselves to acknowledge the little details of others' behaviour which undoubtedely led to most of
the unexpected turns in the novel. If they paid more attention to Fanny, they would have noticed
how much in love she was with Edmund, how Maria, who was always in control of her feelings and
collected, didn't care that much about money anymore as much as she cared for new-found love.
They were blinded by Henry's good manners and proper behaviour to realize how unstable a
character he was and how none of the rules applied to him. We can say that absence of love,
compassion and understanding made most of the characters act in selfish ways due to having been
brought up thinking that they are all-powerful, capable of doing whatever they wanted within the
limits of repectful behaviour. It makes us think what would happen if their parents and relatives
taught them more about love and common human decency, if they taught them to take other
people's feeling in consideration and not only care for social position, I dare say their lives would be
much more pleasant.

To conclude, just like in any other Jane Austen's novel, the good, the bad and the ugly is present in
considerably uneven proportions in Mansfield Park as well. How much absence influences the
novel can be seen through a series of missed opportunities and lack of feelings and emotions.
Perhaps the main absence in this novel is the absence of a clear end and a happily-ever-after we can
actually dwell on. Sure, the good are rewarded and the bad are punished (not severely or too
harshly, except for Maria who was exiled from her family and, even, England) but we can't know
for certain what really happened to the characters. All through the novel we can see Fanny's struggle
to fit in and to rise to a position in which she can be seen as a part of a family and not just a guest,
love interests are extensively described, but when it comes to an end, a conclusion, it all ends far
too soon and too abruptly. Absence, in this sense, gives us space to fill in the blanks the way we see
fit.
The quotes were taken from an online version of the book, found at
www.gutenberg.org