Constancy and the Ethics of Jane Austen's 'Mansfield Park'

5. Constancy, Love, and Beauty

133 133 Chapter Five Constancy, Love, and Beauty y A characteristic of Jane Austen’s work that suggests a Christian sensibility is the theme of the beautiful as the good. Henry Crawford ’s impressions of Fanny Price, filtered through the narrator’s perspective , illustrate that sensibility by representing Fanny’s beauty in spiritual terms: Fanny’s charms . . . Fanny’s beauty of face and figure, Fanny’s graces of manner and goodness of heart were the exhaustless theme. The gentleness, modesty , and sweetness of her character were warmly expatiated on, that sweetness which makes so essential a part of every woman’s worth in the judgment of man. . . . Her temper he had reason to depend on and to praise. . . .Her affections were evidently strong. . . . [T]he warmth of her heart was equal to its gentleness. . . . [H]er understanding was beyond every suspicion, quick and clear; and her manners were the mirror of her own modest and elegant mind.1 Perhaps the most sustained passage on feminine beauty in Austen’s novels, Henry’s praise continues for most of the page, adding to his portrait additional spiritual qualities, which were featured in an earlier discussion. The passage embodies some important ideas to link this discussion of beauty to a kind of medieval Christian sensibility.2 1. MP 294. 2. It is important to distinguish this medieval Christian sensibility from the feudalism connected with the medieval era. For a discussion of the latter, see Dunn, “The Ethics of Mansfield Park,” 485, 498. For an alternate view of Austen’s attitude toward class, specifically those in poverty, see Wood, “The Birth of Inwardness,” 28. 134 134 Constancy, Love, and Beauty First, the emphasis on qualities of mind rather than body reinforces the claim that, as indicated earlier with other topics, Austen’s preoccupation is with the mind or the soul. Furthermore, the fact that Henry’s budding love for Fanny allows even him to perceive her in this manner affirms a foundational idea in Christian philosophy: that our perception of reality is influenced by our loves, by our passions, which are, in turn, driven by what we perceive to be beautiful. Love, Beauty, and Dante’s Purgatorio Austen’s treatment of this theme links her narrative to Dante’s Purgatorio , a medieval Christian text that represents the ways in which love can err and lead the soul to pursue apparent rather than real beauty, which is good and true. That the most sustained admiration and delineation of Fanny’s beautiful mind is filtered through Henry Crawford’s consciousness reinforces another link to the Purgatorio: the premise that man is drawn by nature, or by what Dante’s Virgil calls the “primal will,” to certain kinds of beautiful objects, which may or may not be good for him. Like all the characters in Mansfield Park, Henry is capable of being attracted to both real and apparent beauty, and every character has “the power to curb [their] love [for the beautiful object] . . . by free will.”3 For Austen and Dante, the rectification of this will is the goal of a particular kind of education that both recommend: the Christian liberal education. Only the will that is nurtured and guided by truth becomes , as Dante’s Virgil says, “upright, whole and free.” Constancy, by fulfilling this function, enables the mind to detect and rectify its errors in the pursuit of beauty. This treatment of the beautiful and its power to influence the will is not necessarily influenced by Austen’s actual reading of Dante’s Commedia any more than her conception of virtue is necessarily influenced by her actual reading of Aristotle or Saint Thomas Aquinas. As emphasized throughout this study, Austen’s moral philosophy synthesizes elements from various ethical frameworks—frameworks 3. Dante, The Divine Comedy of Dante Aligheri: Purgatorio, Trans. Allen Mandelbaum (New York: Bantam Books, 1982), 18.72, 74, p. 167. 135 Constancy, Love, and Beauty 135 that would have permeated the neoclassical culture in which her thought developed and flourished. That culture included not only classical but also medieval influences, and Austen’s treatment of beauty in Mansfield Park reflects the latter. Anthony Cunningham aptly describes this framework in The Heart of What Matters: The Role for Literature in Moral Philosophy: The medievals placed God at the center of ethics and fleshed out ethical life in terms of appropriate fidelity to fitting objects of love. All good things derived...