Sexuality and Desire in Jane Austens Mansfield Park Essay -- Mansfiel

Sexuality and Desire in Jane Austens Mansfield parkland In a letter to her brother dated 1814, Jane Austen boasted more or less a compliment she had sure from a friend on her close to recent work, Mansfield Park Its the most advised novel hes ever read (263). Austen prided herself on creating literature that represent realistic characters and honest situations, but perhaps more importantly, she strove to create fable that was moral and instructional as well as entertaining. So what does sensible say about the sexual? In Mansfield Park, the answer appears blaringly before us, as we repeatedly witness sexuality and desire represented in the darkest of terms, and a great deal resulting in the most sinister of outcomes. Those who emit a sexual double or awareness are to be seen as dangerous, and those whom possess sexual desire are inevitably the ones in danger, and are often penalize for their untamed emotions and erratic behavior. The Bertrams and lowlife Price reside at Mansfield Park peacefully enough until their quiet, domestic world is turned upside coldcock by outsiders, all of who, in their own ways, threaten to upset the lives of the inhabitants with a passion, desire, and sexuality that is new to them. In this essay, I would like to examine the relationships that modernize from connections with these outsiders, what role sexuality and desire play in them, and what Austens treatment of them says about sexual transgression and desire in a larger grit as well. It seems only natural to begin with the two most magnanimous intruders in Mansfield Park, Henry and Mary Crawford. As jaded individuals accustomed to the fast-paced (and amoral) life of the city, Mary and Henry view Mansfield Park and its residen... ...ot given decent examples of how to conduct ourselves. Instead, Austen leaves us, rather uneasily, stranded between the platonic relationship of Fanny and Edmund, and the debauched affairs of the other characte rs, wishing for some sort of glad medium. Bibliography Auerbach, Nina. Jane Austens Dangerous Charm. Mansfield Park and Persuasion. Judy Simons, ed. New York Macmillan, 1997. Butler, Marilyn. Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1975. Handler, Richard and Daniel Sega. Jane Austen and the Fiction of Culture. Tucson University of genus Arizona Press, 1990. Le Faye, Deirdre, ed. Jane Austens letters, 3rd. ed. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1995. Trilling, Lionel. Mansfield Park. Jane Austen A Collection of Critical Essays. Ian Watt, ed. Englewood Cliffs, New island of Jersey Prentice Hall, 1963.