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Sun 3 Apr, 2016 04:58 am
I want to write an essay about Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. And i am thinking of a good topic on it. Which aspects can i choose?
@veraslq,
Which aspect would you suggest?
The character Fanny Price is a complex character, and arguably the least popular of Austen's heroines. You might explore that. The novel has been criticized for ignoring slavery, which was indirectly the source of Sir Bertram's wealth. It has also been criticized for ignoring the Napoleonic wars. That, however, is just ignorance on the part of critics. After the battle of Trafalgar, in 1805, the English were no longer worried about invasion. (In fact, Napoleon had already abandoned his plan to invade, but Trafalgar was the apotheosis of that vulgar man Horatio Nelson, and it doesn't do to point out that the greatest victory and scene of the death of a national hero was irrelevant to the war.) Austen takes little note of the wars of the French Revolution and of Napoleon because she accurately reflects how little real impact they had on English society. Satirizing English society was Austen's métier. That should give you enough to chew on.