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

Index

271 271 Achilles (Iliad character), 78 Adler, Mortimer J., 88, 89 Admiral (character): constancy practice in estate space by others and, 101–13; household tyranny by, 96; influence on Henry, 94; poor marriage of, 69; stewardship practice of, 106 adultery: Fanny’s response to Maria and Henry’s, 181; Mary’s casual attitude about, 93, 191, 193; Mary’s remarks on expecting Henry’s future, 200; pleonexia vice exemplified by, 247; sinful thoughts leading to, 52, 59, 93, 142; worship of money leading to unhappy marriage and, 146. See also marriage Aeneid (Virgil), 2, 78 Aeschylus, 2 aesthetics: as basis for ethics, 139–42; choice between ethics and, 198–99; the Crawford family as examples of, 139–40; distrusting relation between morality and, 140–42; Kierkegaard on, 91, 157 amber cross symbolism, 7 Antigua: cross and necklace incident on return from, 209–11; political insights on novel’s role of, 205–6; Sir Thomas’s new appreciation of Fanny on return from, 145, 154, 206–8 apatheia doctrine, 143 apparent (or infernal) comfort, 245–51 Aquinas. See Thomas Aquinas Aristotelian moderation, 6 Aristotle: cleverness as defined by, 29–30; contrasting constancy with cardinal virtues of, 3–5; ethical narrative context used by, 2; on leisure (schole), 88, 89; natural virtues of, 28, 29; on pleonexia rooted in human nature, 247; right reason ethics of, 39–40; on role of literature in depicting emotions, 16. See also Christian-classical synthesis Augustine, St.: Christian-classical synthesis, 9; Confessions, 164–65; on knowledge through Christ, 202; “The Teacher,” 25 Austen, Jane: Dante compared to, 136–37; defense of habit of synthesis by, 4; Mansfield Park as reflecting maturity of, 254–55; representation of religion by, 5–7, 11; understanding of comfort by, 244–58 Austen’s ethics: aesthetic basis for, 139–42; choice between aesthetics and, 198–99; comfort concept of, 244–58; comparison with Shaftesbury’s, 139– 41; complex blending from different ethical frameworks, 1, 28–29, 134–35; Index y Note: Fictional characters are listed in the index by their first name or title; for example, Fanny Price; Sir Thomas Bertram. 272 272 Index Austen’s ethics (cont.) on moral life and absolute standards, 179; narratives on how to live one’s life, 243–58; rejection of reasonable behavior used for moral decisions, 58; right order of beautiful estate as ideal of, 154–56. See also Christian-classical synthesis; Christian liberal education; ethics Austen’s novels: Augustinian understanding of meaning of words in, 25–26; authorial control in, 236–39; battlefield metaphor for virtue used in, 57–58; conveying that privilege obligates leisure profitably, 114–15; “critical faculty” of skepticism in, 232–33; debate over religious dimension of, 6–7; education theme in, 57; Emma, 237; ethical themes synthesized by, 1, 28–29, 134–35; God used as overarching context in, 241; “how to live one’s life” purpose of, 243–58; narrative closure in, 239242; Northanger Abbey, 20; pattern of heroines being tested in a crisis in, 128; Persuasion, 165, 179; polyvocal narrative/FID required by, 60–61, 201–5, 220–31, 235–39; Pride and Prejudice, 17, 236, 241–42, 243, 254–55; Ryle on wider conception of rationality supported in, 9; Sense and Sensibility , 110n40, 141, 254; unfinalizability of, 219, 254–56. See also Christian-classical synthesis; Mansfield Park; novel genre “Austen’s Powers” (Michie), 145–46 authorial control, 236–39 Babbit, Irving, 156–57 Bakhtin, Mikhail: Discourse in the Novel, 237; Galilean language consciousness of, 220; global concept of dialogue, 219–20, 221; on narrative closure, 239; on novel as polyphonic genre, 60–61; “Problems of the Text,” 241; prosaics and theoretism of, 218; subversive view of Austen using insights by, 234–35, 239; unfinalizability concept of, 218, 219, 254–55 battlefield metaphor, 57–58 beautiful moments: created by Henry, 160–63; Edmund drawn in by Mary’s, 157–59; Fanny drawn in and tempted by Mary’s, 44–46, 159–60; Mary’s narrative creating, 156–59. See also reality beauty: and aesthetic basis for ethics, 139–42; Austen on errors of individual conceptions of, 136–38; constancy as overcoming errors in pursuit of, 134–39; contrasting Mary and Fanny’s, 156, 169–70; Fanny’s attempts to define, 168–69; Fanny’s spiritual, 133, 150; Henry and Mary representing objects of, 137–38, 157; medieval ethics ranking goodness with, 135–36; nature, Romanticism, and, 178–81; present vs. recollected beauty, 168–70; primal will as attraction to, 134, 137–39, 144–45, 149...