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Is she queer?: Fanny Prices Protest Against Sublime and Beautiful Heteronormativity

Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................3

Chapter 1 - Sublime Anxiety Over Theatrical Doubleness.................8

Chapter 2 - Solitary Thoughts: The Burkean Double Bind...............18

Chapter 3 - Pain and Pleasure: Fannys Sexual Desire..............27

Conclusion....38

Works Cited..40

Introduction What if Fanny Price had a Twitter? Yes, the same Fanny Price of Jane Austens Mansfield Park. What if we inserted her username into a program that would analyze her heteronormativity based on the word choice of her Tweets? The theme of Stockholm, Swedens 2009 Gay Pride celebration was heteronormativity and the organizers created a Twitter game that tells users how they rank on the heteronormative scale in the form of a neatly packaged percentage. The organizations website provides a helpful definition of this years theme: "Heteronormativity creates expectations about how a person should behave and be interpreted regarding gender and sexuality. Its limitations can cause the individual to enter a self conflict. More often than others, [LGBT] people must ask themselves whether they should adapt to the norm or break it (McElreavy). Fanny Prices heteronormativity percentage might not be as easy to calculate as one might think if we were to examine her theoretical Twitter feed. What might a quiet young heroine from a conservative household Tweet about to the public sphere? From the novel, we know that Fanny Price does not allow others, except Edmund (and often not even him), to see her true self or emotions. What we might see if Fanny Tweeted would be statements about her external circumstances, such as MissPrice - The attic was cold today. Again. But I shall not trouble @AuntNorris for a fire for fear of appearing ungrateful. What Fanny presents to the world and what she feels are two completely different things and therefore Stockholm Prides Twitter game would not provide a very accurate evaluation of her heteronormativity. When a group of college students, readers new to Austen as well as staunch Janeites, in one of my Jane Austen classes learned that the next book we were assigned to read was Mansfield Park, the announcement was met with heavy sighs, rolling eyes, and even hostile

remarks, mostly directed at Fanny Price. After our class finished reading and analyzing the novel, I interviewed my fellow students about their opinions of Fanny. She was accused of being revoltingly meek, dull, spineless, a bore, and a pansy. The cure for Fanny looks grim: she needs to be medicated or she should be drowned like the wet rat she is. At the same time, she had a small group of supporters that sympathized with her meek behavior and saw her as steady, principled, pious, and most insightfully, misunderstood. These responses made me wonder whether or not her self-proclaimed enemies and some of her fans have simply been reading Fannys Twitter feed or, in other words, have been interpreting Fannys personality based solely on her public presentation instead of looking at her internal life as well. Outwardly, Fanny Price often represents the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century ideal of meek, weak femininity. Internally, she struggles with her fears, jealousies, socially inappropriate sexual desire, and her uncles conservative expectation that she be a submissive woman. Ultimately, Fanny Price is uncomfortable with performing her gender role in the heteronormative world and, as suggested by Stockholm Prides definition of heteronormativity, she enters into a self-conflict and asks herself whether she should adapt to the norm or break it (McElreavy). As Penny Gay points out about Fanny in her book Jane Austen and the Theatre, unlike Elizabeth Bennet, she will not playgames in the social world (108). This reluctance to conform to a social role that makes her uncomfortable seems to be the major problem readers have with Fanny Price. She is a bore, because she doesnt like to have fun at parties or banter playfully with the hero of the novel. In the film adaptation of The Jane Austen Book Club, the characters have a debate over the likability of Fanny Price. The adventurous romantic of the group looks as if she is about to die of boredom and says sleepily, I hate Fanny Price, while the prim and proper school teacher bites back with, Excuse me, were

not electing the homecoming queen, okay? I mean, yes, if this were high school, yes, we all know Elizabeth Bennet would be most popular and that Fanny would be least. Readers have the tendency to compare Fanny Price with what they feel she ought to be: a light, and bright, and sparkling heroine, like Elizabeth Bennet. We want to be charmed, not disturbed, by a heroines dissatisfaction with the marriage market. Elizabeth finds the humor in her situation while Fanny experiences terror. When the novels rake and counterfeit hero, Henry Crawford, attempts to charm Fanny at a dinner party and fails miserably, he asks, Is she queer?Is she prudish? (Austen 180). Claudia L. Johnson notes that Fanny appears strange and standoffish to Henry because she is peculiarly resistant to normal heterosexual seduction and is therefore unlike any woman he has ever encountered before (147). Austens readers may wonder at Fanny in the same manner as Henry Crawford. What on earth could be wrong with her? As Fanny says in her defense, I think it ought not to be set down as certain that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself (Austen 277). Imagine that! A woman making her own choices about her romantic relationships; a rather revolutionary idea in Austens day and apparently, just as much of a novelty in ours. Readers diagnosing Fanny Price as insane or saying that she needs to be medicated because she is unwilling to participate in extremely uncomfortable heteronormative courtship is eerily close to the reaction that nineteenth-century doctors would have had to Fannys discontent, female Sensibility, and alternative form of sexual pleasure and desire. Jane Austen found amusement in the tendency of her readers to make a popularity contest out of her novels and heroines, so much so that she kept a record of her friends and family members feedback in Opinions of Mansfield Park. The overall consensus was that Mansfield

Park is not equal to P. & P. or Pride and Prejudice, but the group was divided in their votes for Fanny as an insipid or delightful heroine (Opinions). Despite the extremely contentious Fanny Price wars which have been drawn out since the novel was first published in 1814, scholars and Janeites alike must analyze the relevance of Austen creating such a controversial heroine, and try to avoid writing her off based on whether they are for or against Fanny either as a heteronormative prom queen or a poster girl of feminine piety (Miss Fanny Price). In order to unravel the mystery behind Jane Austen creating heroines who have such diverse ways of thinking, interacting with the world, and performing gender (the lively Elizabeth and the dour Fanny comparison works here), we should try to understand the significance of femininity and masculinity within the context of late eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century ideology. We can take this analysis further and examine how gender roles are politicized in Mansfield Park. As Claudia L. Johnson states, From the first pages on, Austen is at pains to employ the Burkean vocabulary of the political sublime in order to describe the sexually differentiated dynamics of the Bertram household (97). A basic rundown of Edmund Burkes A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful is that the sublime arouses passions of dread and respect and the beautiful softens and endears (97-98). Sir Thomas, the tyrannical patriarch of Mansfield Park, represents the masculine sublime and Lady Bertram, the passive and quiet mother of the house, represents the feminine beautiful; these aesthetic properties of sexual differencehad already been recognized to serve political agendas in supporting dominant patriarchs and submissive women (Johnson 97-98). In the novel, Austen subverts these notions of traditional masculinity and femininity by displaying how the beautiful does not work the way it is supposed to any more than the sublime does and how

this supposedly ideal domestic dynamic results in poor parenting and eventually a rupture in the household (Johnson 99). Where does this place Fanny Price who, according to some scholars and readers, represents domestic virtue and pale purity (Gilbert and Gubar as cited in Wiltshire 86)? Austen sets out to complicate Sir Thomass and Edmund Burkes idea of the feminine, by proving that it is an impossible role to live up to, and therefore as Fanny herself cannot conform to it, she cannot be as disgustingly flawless as some would like to believe. In the following work, I will address what is at the core of the Fanny Price wars, which is the readers dissatisfaction and confusion over Fannys gender performance in heteronormative society. I want to shed light on Austens use of politicized gender roles and Burkean philosophy to give significance to Fanny Prices otherness. I will be focusing on the sublime anxiety over theatricality and relate this to gender performance and the theatricals at Mansfield Park, the inadequacies of sublime isolation and the double-binds to which women are subjected, and the Burkean concepts of pain and pleasure which relate to Fannys incestuous and homoerotic desire.

Chapter 1 - Sublime Anxiety Over Theatrical Doubleness As Jill Heydt-Stevenson points out in Austens Unbecoming Conjunctions: Subversive Laughter, Embodied History, when Henry Crawford asks his sister Mary, Is she queer?, in reference to Fanny Prices character, he is using the word queer as slang for to counterfeit (156). Henry cannot fathom a woman not returning his flirtation, so he attributes her grave and solemn behavior towards him as a performance of a young woman who has not yet come out into the public sphere or marriage market and who is therefore not allowed to express her attraction to him according to rules of propriety (Austen 180). Henrys observation of Fanny is surprisingly spot on, though not for the reasons he thinks. There is a doubleness to Fannys interactions with the world, as there is in all human relations, for as the narrator states in Austens subsequent novel Emma, "Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken (in Heydt-Stevenson 156, Austen 339). For example, Fanny often conceals her socially inappropriate feelings, such as anger, jealousy, or ingratitude, behind a silent, passive faade in order to pass as a heteronormative woman. Frances Ferguson argues in Solitude and the Sublime: The Romantic Aesthetics of Individuation that Romantic discourse surrounding the natural sublime is directly related to the eighteenth-century conception of theatricality and anxiety over doubleness: the mere consciousness of being beheld comes to be seen as a version of lying. In the terms of this suspicion of theatricality, to be conscious of being seen is always to be in the position of mugging, putting on ones expressions, for the sake of ones audience (129-130). In order to not compromise your true self, sublime philosophy suggests turning to nature for isolation and individuality.

Austens criticism of this sublime anxiety is exemplified in Fanny, a heroine who is so anxious and determined not to put on a performance under the gaze of others that she cannot seem to help doing so. Unlike the Romantic philosophers of her day, Austen suggests that performances and lies cannot be avoided, whether they occur on or off the stage. When the characters of Mansfield Park are suddenly infected with the desire to perform in home theatricals, due to the arrival of the morally questionable Mr. Yates, Austen is not using the event to comment on the immorality of the theatricals themselves, but instead as a device to reveal how the characters have been performing all along. In Fannys case, her anxiety mostly lies with gender performance and her desire to conform to a heteronormative feminine role. As stated before, Fanny often conceals feelings regarded as socially inappropriate for women behind the more appropriate acts of silence and passivity. Not only is she putting on a false performance for the world, but she is lying to herself in thinking that she can conform to the impossible standards of conservative gender roles. In Mansfield Park, Austen examines the eighteenth-century anxiety surrounding theatricality by fashioning a heroine who enters into a self-conflict about whether or not she can conform to her heteronormative role, both in everyday life and on stage. From the onset of the novel, Fanny Price is established as a nervous creature., a result of her being removed from her home as a child so that she may become the ward of her uncle, Sir Thomas, who hopes to relieve the lower-class Prices of some of their financial burden. Once young Fanny has been inculcated with the need to feel constant, feminine gratitude, we get an example of teenage Fannys conflict over living up to such unrealistic expectations. When Sir Thomas is setting off for Antigua, because of his domineering presence Fanny cannot help but feel relieved at the freedom that must follow his departure. However, her more tender nature suggested that her feelings were ungrateful, and she really grieved because she could not grieve

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(Austen 26). Fanny grieves because she does not feel what a proper sentimental heroine or a woman of Burkean beauty should feel. The reactions of her cousins, Maria and Julia, are similar to Henrys when Fanny does not respond to his flirtation: her cousins, on seeing her with red eyes, set her down as a hypocrite (Austen 27). Typical of most of the characters in Mansfield Park, Maria and Julia do not believe that anyone could genuinely feel proper emotions; in this case, they cannot imagine anyone feeling sorrow over their tyrannical fathers leaving. Like Henry, they also accuse Fanny of doubleness. This observation is inaccurate, as Fanny is feeling genuine sadness for reasons of her own, but it does foreshadow Fannys behavior later on in the novel. Fanny cries not only because she does not feel gratitude as she ought, but because Sir Thomas insults her by saying she has not improved in character in the six years she has lived at Mansfield Park. Fanny is genuinely hurt when she fails to live up to her uncles impossible expectations. Sir Thomass disapproval works as a form of conditioning; this incident forces Fanny to hone her heteronormative performance in the future. Claudia L. Johnson notes that Mansfield Park is a novel of isolation (119). Mansfield Park the estate is largely untouched by the outside world. According to sublime philosophy, this removal should aid the residents in avoiding the pitfalls of performance and untruths. The novel sets out to deconstruct this one-dimensional, idealistic belief in the tyrannical, isolated sublime. Though Sir Thomas insists on shutting out the world, sometimes the world finds its way in. While Sir Thomas is away, the invisible barriers surrounding Mansfield Park are weaker, and therefore the Bertram family allows neighborhood newcomers Henry and Mary Crawford into their social circle. Until this point, Fanny may be forgotten by first-time readers and even the narrator herself: And Fanny, what was she doing and thinking all this while? (Austen 38). The narrator is satirizing the forgetfulness of the reader which she herself has caused, for she has

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manipulated the readers vision and has placed Fanny in the margins; she asks this rhetorical question which the reader should be asking, but most likely isnt, as every character but Fanny has proven to be more interesting, or at least more active, in their involvement in the social world thus far. The arrival of Henry and Mary Crawford marks the beginning of Fannys realization of her inappropriate feelings and her attempt to delude herself into feeling as she ought. Fannys socio-economic status plays a large role in the Bertrams subsequent marginalization of her position within the household: Few young ladies of eighteen could be less called on to speak their opinion than Fanny (38). Were she born a Bertram instead of a Price, Fanny would most likely be thoroughly out in the social world by age eighteen, like Maria and Julia. The presence of Henry and Mary Crawford incites Edmund Bertram to call on Fanny to speak her thoughts about something other than the reading he recommends to her. Though both Edmund and Fanny agree that she is so extremely pretty and that her countenanceis so attractive, Marys bawdy pun about her uncles involvement in the navys Rears and Vices, a reference either to sodomy or large bottoms and general bad behavior, elicits differing opinions from them (50, 48, Stabler 400). But was there nothing in her conversation that struck you Fanny, as not quite right?, asks Edmund leadingly. Fanny replies that Mary seemed very ungrateful, but even this is too much of a criticism of their new friend for Edmund: Ungrateful is a strong word (Austen 50). In the realm of the novel, ingratitude is one of the worst offenses of which a woman can be accused, as any sentiment but gratitude implies dissent. Their disagreement over Mary makes Fanny realize that she can no longer be completely honest with her cousin and still please him: [T]here began now to be some danger of dissimilarity, for he was in a line of admiration of Miss Crawford, which might lead him where Fanny could not follow (51). From then on, Fanny scrupled to point out her own remarks to

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[Edmund], lest it should appear like ill-nature (52). Appearances are the key to this novel. Fanny appears like a young woman without negative opinions about anyone else. She feels confident enough in her own thoughts about Mary Crawford to maintain them, but not enough to verbalize them, offend Edmund and possibly lose his affection. Sir Thomass and Edmunds methods of conditioning are important to note, as concealing ones thoughts and filtering them in speech and action are not necessarily natural behaviors. We are controlled to conform to societal norms. The first actual pain which Miss Crawford occasioned Fanny provides the perfect example of how Fanny has learned to appear to conform to her heteronormative gender role and yet how she still experiences the unfeminine feelings of anger and jealousy (52). Edmund asks if he may borrow Fannys beloved grey pony, so beloved because it was originally a gift from Edmund, in order to teach Miss Crawford how to ride, and initially, Fanny is overcome with gratitude that he should be asking her leave for it (53). But when the riding lesson lasts longer than originally planned, Fanny begins to wonder that Edmund should forget her and she feels a pang (53). The passage that follows is revealing of Fannys thought processes. As Fanny, in her solitude, watches from afar as Edmund teaches Mary, she makes assumptions which hold Mary and the absent Henry culpable though Edmund is mostly responsible for Fanny being forgotten in the whole scheme. [T]he imagination could supply what the eye could not reach, observes the narrator, as Fanny silently accuses Mary and Henry of luring the kind-hearted Edmund into a social evil (54). Of Miss Crawford, Fanny assumes everything was at her apparent suggestion, and of Edmund, what could be more natural than that Edmund should be making himself useful, and providing his good-nature by any one? (54). At the end of her internal rant, Fanny began then to be afraid of appearing rude and impatient; and walked to meet them with a great anxiety to avoid the suspicion (54). Fanny is

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terrified of being found out. However, she does not properly label her own feelings. Rudeness? Impatience? Hardly. She feels justified anger after the one person she cares for most at Mansfield neglects her and then she conceals her feelings underneath an extremely civil and more socially appropriate manner (54). Not only does Fanny constantly conceal her true feelings, but her anxiety over being beheld by others is an equally significant example of sublime theatrical anxiety coming into play in Mansfield Park. She refuses to submit to performing in the theatrical: because of her anxiety at being under the gaze of others and because of her moral objection to performing in theatricals as a pious young woman. Paradoxically, her refusal to submit is unfeminine and yet she is refusing so that she may maintain some semblance of feminine propriety. Even though she refuses to perform in the theatricals, she finds herself taking delight in watching others do so and she enjoys reading Lovers Vows, an inappropriate, sentimental English adaptation of a German play. As the rest of the players of Mansfield Park are arguing over which play should be performed, Fanny looks on quietly: For her own gratification she could have wished that something might be acted, for she had never seen even half a play, but every thing of higher consequence was against it (104). Her initial desire is to see a private theatrical, but she struggles against this feeling as she knows higher consequence or Edmund and Sir Thomas would disapprove, as young ladies acting, even at home, would be improper. Too bad acting is just what all of the young people at Mansfield have been doing all along, with their love-triangle flirtations and sloppy cover-ups. Edmund is blind to his sisters already inappropriate behavior (playing tug-of-war over Henry Crawford, even though Maria is already engaged to marry Mr. Rushworth), because his own feelings for Mary Crawford have taken precedence in his mind.

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Though Fanny is more aware of the goings on at Mansfield Park than Edmund, neither of them seem to make the connection between on and off stage acting which Austen is laying out for us. Fanny, the conscientious objector, is aroused by the very work she knows she is supposed to disapprove of: her curiosity was all awake, and she ran through it with an eagerness which was suspended only by intervals of astonishmentthat it could be proposed and accepted in a private Theatre! Agatha and Amelia appeared to her in their different ways so totally improper for home representation (108). No one can read this passage and still accuse Fanny of absolute passivity. She takes just as much delight in the play as any of the others do. Agatha is to be played by Maria and Amelia by Mary, which are no coincidences, as the roles they are set to perform on stage either perfectly parallel the ones they have been representing in the home or allow for them to magnify their preexisting behavior as well as illuminate themes from the novel as a whole. For example, Agatha is a mother who is reunited with her son Frederick, who is to be played by Henry Crawford. Their meeting is sexually charged, but as they are mother and son, their actions are socially inappropriate. When Agatha is overcome with the pain and pleasure of seeing her son again, Frederick replies, Dear mother, compose yourself: [leans her head against his breast] now then, be comforted. How she trembles! She is fainting (Inchbald 335). This scene allows for Henry and Maria to act out their own inappropriate feelings for each other. This is not to say that they have been behaving like a good little boy and girl for all the time they have known each other, but the play gives them a more obvious, more physical outlet for their attraction. The relationship between Agatha and Frederick also mirrors the one between Fanny and Edmund, in that Fanny trembles with her overwhelming, incestuous love for Edmund. But more about that in chapter three.

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Fanny does not object for moral or philosophical reasons or even upon reflection; she objects because she suffers from anxiety in the purest sense. Her reactions are immediate and uncontrollable, and are partly the effect of her disposition and also the mistreatment, neglect and marginalization she has endured while living in the Bertram household. So Fannys reaction to her cousin, Tom, asking her to fill in for an absent cast member should come as no surprise to us. I hope that instead of stepping into Bertram shoes to misunderstand Fanny, we step into Fannys shoes to empathize with her. Readers who feel frustrated when Fanny is not standing up for herself should remember that her personality, her place in the household as a woman of inferior birth, and the treatment she has received all make it difficult for her to speak out. We should be cheering Fanny on for her refusal to participate in the home theatricals, for she finally does speak out when others ask of her what she cannot give, which is to perform for the heteronormative social world. We shall only want you in our play. You must be Cottagers Wife, demands Tom. Fanny shrieks and sitting down again with a most frightened look, she firmly refuses to submit to this demand (Austen 115). Here the anxieties of common life overlap with the alarms of romance, a common theme throughout Jane Austens novels (Northanger Abbey 148). Austen often sets out to blur the distinction between reality and imagination/fiction. In the case of Northanger Abbey, she observes how domestic abuse can occur in the reality of the supposedly civilized and modern Protestant England just as much as it can occur in the gothic fiction depicting tyrannical fathers of medieval Catholic Europe. In Mansfield Park, Austen utilizes playacting to display how deeming plays as morally inappropriate forms of entertainment is hypocritical when we indulge in our desires in everyday common life (148). Fiction is a way for authors to comment on current events and ideologies without explicitly addressing them and for Fanny, her refusal to

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playact is a metaphor for her own self-conflict over heteronormative gender performance. Notice that Tom, the current patriarch of the house, demands that she play the Cottagers Wife, that she play a woman who is defined only by her husband, who has no identity of her own. This foreshadows Fannys stubborn refusal of the true patriarch of Mansfield, Sir Thomas, when he demands that she accept the marriage proposal of Henry Crawford. As we have seen, Fanny wants to outwardly conform to her social role in order to please Sir Thomas and Edmund, but when it comes to matters of the heart, she feels she must be true. After Tom asks her to participate, Fanny is shocked to find herself at that moment the only speaker in the room, andthat almost every eye was upon her (115). She cannot emotionally handle being under the gaze of others: because the socially inappropriate feelings which she has been conditioned to conceal might make themselves known to the others, and because she is immediately repulsed by the idea of being put on display as sexual bait. Her uncles comments about her beauty make her extremely uncomfortable. Edmund says to Fanny, Nay, Fanny, do not turn away about itit is but an uncle, and Fanny finds herself embarrassed and distressed (154-155). Fanny is doubly distressed, because she is not used to such blatant attentions and does not desire them, and because she is receiving her uncles compliment about her beauty through the lips of Edmund, the man she lovesdoubly incestuous, distressing, and inappropriate. Austen has taken the sublime anxiety surrounding theatricality and turned it on its head. Sublime anxiety is about being fearful that performance will lead to lies and Fannys anxiety seems to depend on maintaining her lies and preventing someone penetrating her faade. But when it becomes absolutely necessary that Fanny cease performing her designated heteronormative role of silent, passive, submissive woman, she speaks out and refuses to

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participate in playacting or accept unwanted sexual gaze, which also make her incredibly anxious. Austen has more than complicated Burkes black-and-white conservative agenda by creating a heroine unsatisfied with a role to which it is impossible to conform.

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Chapter 2 Solitary Thoughts: The Burkean Double Bind As discussed in the previous chapter, Fanny Price desires to be neither praised nor censured. The sexual gaze found in praise thrusts her onto center stage, which makes her feel more than uncomfortable. Yet the pain and fear she experiences while being chided motivate her to perform a heteronormative gender role. She desires to be hidden and yet she is hurt when she is neglected. Because the Bertram family marginalizes her, she feels the need to marginalize herself, which leads to this incredibly human, vicious cycle of finding pleasure in hiding and pain in the knowledge that no one wants to find you. In Fanny's Gaze and the Construction of Feminine Space in Mansfield Park, Anna Despotopoulou points out how Fanny avoids the male gaze by insisting on invisibility and creating her own feminine, male-free space (571). But in labeling Fannys space feminine, I think Despotopoulou risks using the black-and-white Burkean codes of gender when in actuality Fannys space is neither wholly feminine nor entirely free from the masculine. Burkes codes are more complicated than he was willing to allow, as he considered solitude the domain of the masculine sublime and public life the domain of the feminine beautiful, which places masculine and feminine space in direct opposition to what was deemed socially appropriate in practice. One of the first things students learn in a history class when they discuss the nineteenth-century is the private sphere and public sphere binary. Women belong to the private sphere and men to the public. Sublime masculinity claiming solitude for itself seems like an example of the Romantic tendency to colonize the feminine space and feeling. As Alan Richardson posits, if femininity was privileged by male writers during the Romantic period it was by the same token debased: if women were valued for natural, intuitive feeling, so were children and idiots (Richardson 21). Fannys space is much more complex than Despotopoulou suggests. If she

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does insist on privacy and invisibility, would not this be a blend of sublime masculinity and the everyday feminine? Further complicating matters is the way Fannys space and mind is infiltrated by external circumstances of the social world, which is the domain of the feminine beautiful and the everyday masculine. Masculinity and femininity, and the sublime and the beautiful, are not absolutely opposed principles, though Burke endeavors to distinguish absolutely rather than relatively between the two (Ferguson 41). What we have here is Austen making a much-needed muddle of gender roles, a discrepancy between the way people want to identify and the way they feel, and satirizing the Romantic male portrayal of the love-mad heroine, all of which is manifested in the divided emotional needs of Fanny Price. After Edmund has neglected Fanny for days by using her grey pony to teach Mary Crawford how to ride, the pain Fanny experiences from her Aunt Norriss mistreatment of her and from a lack of exercise, finally manifests itself physically in the form of a headache. She seeks refuge on a sofa, to which she had retreated that she might not be seen (59). Here we see an example of Fanny first being ignored and then perpetuating her own marginalized position by desiring solitude. However, sublime solitude does not negate the presence of the social world, and Fanny finds her solitude interrupted by the reprimands of her Aunt Norris: That is a very foolish trick, Fanny, to be idling away all the evening upon a sofa, says she, though she has been forcing Fanny to exert herself all day in and out of doors. Fanny seeks the space of a sublime masculine solitude amidst the beautiful social world upon the feminine area of the sofa, which carries connotations of a fainting couch, but finds her desires difficult to apply in the reality of Mansfield Park. The reality of Mansfield is that you cannot escape the interconnected nature of masculine and feminine space, either philosophical or practical. Did you go out in the heat?, inquires Edmund (57). Aunt Norris answers for Fanny, Go out! To be sure she did

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(57). The oppressive heat or the mistreatment Fanny suffers in the Bertram household cannot be escaped either outside or inside. Though Fanny is alone outside, carrying out chores for her Aunt Norris, there is always a string attaching her to the house, the place she must come back to whether she wants to or not. Likewise, sublime solitude is attached to the beautiful social world and one cannot exist without the other. In another instance, Aunt Norris reminds Fanny of who and what she is, of her inferiority within the household, when Fanny does not submit like the perfect heteronormative female the Bertrams demand she be (116). Rising to her defense, Mary Crawford says, I do not like my situation; this place is too hot for me, and she moves her chair closer to the tearful Fanny (116). Mary speaks out against the heat of oppression and physically moves away as Fanny cannot do according to her situation at Mansfield and her disposition. Whether alone in nature or amidst a social circle indoors, Fanny feels the pain of her marginalization and the impossible position it puts her in. The double bind Fanny experiences as a non-heteronormative woman of a lower class shares similarities with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwicks epistemology of the closet theory (Halperin 256). David M. Halperin summarizes Sedgwicks thesis: Sedgwick has shown that the closet is an impossibly contradictory place: you cant be in it, and you cant be out of it (256). The closet is a metaphor for putting on a heteronormative performance. The performance creates a double bind because if you are in the closet, or if you decide to perform, then you can never be certain of the extent to which you have actually succeeded in keeping your homosexuality a secret and if you are out of the closet, or if you decide to cease performing, your sexuality gives itself away to the superior and knowing gaze of others (256). Either in the closet or out of it, you are not in complete control of your secret or sexuality. This situation rings true with Fannys, as she cannot come out of the closet by revealing her inappropriate thoughts, yet

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she carries with her this constant anxiety over whether or not these thoughts are transparent to others. When Henry Crawford proposes marriage to Fanny and she can no longer uphold the perfectly feminine faade and still refuse him, Aunt Norris shows herself to be one of those who has once enjoyed the epistemological privilege constituted by their knowledge of your ignorance of their knowledge and who refuse[s] to give up that privilege (Halperin 256). Fannys refusal of Henry and her disobeying Sir Thomas are only proof to Aunt Norris that Fanny has been the ungrateful, unfeminine girl she always thought she was: there is a something about Fanny, I have often observed it before,--she likes to go her own way to work; she does not like to be dictated to; she takes her own independent walk whenever she can; she certainly has a little spirit of secrecy (Austen 253). This is an unjust assessment of Fanny, of course, but it is also incredibly insightful about Fannys secret non-heteronormativity and the oppressive, inescapable heat and gaze at Mansfield Park. Perhaps if Fannys closet were vacuum-sealed, she might have an easier time enjoying her solitude. When the Mansfield Park party goes on an outing to Sotherton, Mr. Rushworths estate, Fanny is venturing into an unknown place for the first time since her childhood trek from her home at Portsmouth to Mansfield Park. Leaving the humdrum life of the domestic sphere allows Fanny to be very happy in observing all that was new, and admiring all that was pretty (Austen 64). Though Fanny is now in a public space, she opts to turn inwards to her imagination: She was not often invited to join in the conversation of the others, nor did she desire it. Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions (64). Briefly, Fanny escapes the social world through her own thoughts, but even she finds that her observations could only have been heightened by having Edmund to speak to of what she felt (64). The oppressive weight of Mansfields double bind has temporarily been lifted off of

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Fannys body and mind. Still, Fanny did not leave her inappropriate feelings behind and when her solitude ceases to be out of her control, she begins to feel some anxiety about being left alone. At Sotherton, the whole party breaks up into little love-triangle subgroups (Henry, Maria, and Mr. Rushworth in one; Fanny, Edmund, and Mary in another; and Mrs. Rushworth, Aunt Norris and Julia as the odd ones out). Fanny, Edmund and Mary veer off into Sothertons cultivated wilderness, the latter two flirtatiously bantering while Fanny quietly observes, occasionally jumping in to modestly side with Edmund. Eventually Fannys weak disposition forces her to verbalize her exhaustion: I wonder that I should be tired with only walking in this sweet wood; but the next time we come to a seat, if its not disagreeable to you, I should be glad to sit down for a little while (74). Whether she intends to or not, Fanny draws Edmunds attention back to her by admitting her physical weakness. The interest he pays her is not lasting, however, and Edmund returns his attention to Mary Crawfords lively mind and body. Mary, in need of constant amusement, is incapable of sitting still while Fanny recovers, and so Mary and Edmund wander off without her. Fanny was left on the bench to think with pleasure of her cousins care, but with great regret that she was not stronger (76). Fanny delights in Edmunds attention and becomes anxious when she is left in solitude against her inclination. After twenty minutes of sitting alone and dwelling on recent events, Fanny began to be surprised at being left so long (77). Her jealousy of Mary, her desire for Edmund and her feeling of neglect have all followed her to Sotherton, despite her endeavor to enjoy herself in a new place. Soon Maria, Henry, and Mr. Rushworth find Fanny, inquire as to why she is by herself (and of course, neglect to hear the answer), and return to their previous discussion about what improvements should take place at Sotherton. Fannys position as a member of the audience

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becomes apparent while she is sitting upon the bench, as she observes the players (Edmund, Mary, Maria, Henry, Mr. Rushworth, and Julia) acting out small scenes, herself possessing very little influence as to how they will turn out, which foreshadow the theatricals at Mansfield Park as well as actions off the stage. Fanny is first privy to a revealing scene between Henry and Maria, where they discuss in somewhat veiled terms Marias potential to be happy while married to Mr. Rushworth. Though the park looks very cheerful, Maria states, unluckily that iron gate, that ha-ha, give me a feeling of restraint and hardship. I cannot get out, as the starling said (78). In other words, her marriage prospects with Mr. Rushworth appear to be very fine, as he is wealthy and the connection will bring her much consequence in the fashionable world, but Maria still cannot help but feel trapped by signing herself over to a man she does not much care for. Imprudently, Henry provokes Maria into jumping over the gate and into walking with him alone. Fanny protests but the show must go on despite audience intrusion and soon she was again left to her solitude, with no increase of pleasant feelings (79). Any joy Fanny might have found in her solitude has been tainted because her solitude is a result of neglect and because she is continually interrupted by the improper actions of those around her. Just as Mary Crawford verbalizes Fannys discontent against Mansfields oppressive heat, Maria acknowledges the enslavement of women in nineteenth-century England, who are always caged in by their fathers or their husbands control. The reference to the caged starling of Laurence Sternes A Sentimental Journey also works as a metaphor for Fannys closet. Like the starling and the women of her time, Fanny cannot get out of her situation no matter where she turns. Freedom is not an option, unless the owner decides to release the caged object. She cannot conform to her uncles impossible expectations of womanhood and she cannot let her nonconformity reveal itself.

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When Sir Thomas insists that Fanny have her first ball, that she officially come out to society, and therefore become available in the marriage market, we see her forced out of her comfort zone: the sight of so many strangers threw her back into herself (214). All night, Fanny is jittery with conflicting feelings: She was introduced here and there by her uncle, and forced to be spoken to, and to curtsey, and speak again. This was a hard duty, and she was never summoned to it, without looking at William, as he walked about at his ease in the back ground of the scene, and longing to be with him (214). To be seen by so many unknown eyes is extremely disagreeable to her, and she envies her visiting brother William his freedom and ease. And yet she was happy in knowing herself to be admired, as long as this admiration was not too particular, as Henry Crawfords compliments made no part of her satisfaction (218). As the narrator states, Miss Price had not been brought up to the trade of coming out; and had she known in what light this ball was, in general, considered respecting her, it would very much have lessened her comfort by increasing the fears she already had, of doing wrong and being looked at (209). Fanny is unconscious of Sir Thomass ulterior motives in holding this ball, and this quote suggests that if she were aware, she would be repulsed, as she does not want a price placed upon her in the extremely foreign territory of the marriage market, nor does she want to suffer the gaze of others. Not being raised to thrive in the heteronormative public world of flirtation and dancing, Fanny is discomfited by its unfamiliarity. When the night is almost over, Sir Thomas was again interfering a little with her inclination, by advising her to go immediately to bed. Advise was his word, but it was the advice of absolute power (220). Absolute power indeed, as female dissension is prohibited at Mansfield Park. There is no space where disobedience can occur and Fanny must learn this the hard way when she refuses to marry Henry Crawford and Sir Thomas sends her back to Portsmouth.

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When Sir Thomas is hovering over Fanny in an attempt to terrify her into marrying Henry, the line between who induces sublime terror and who experiences it is blurred. Sir Thomas obviously holds the position of power, but when that power is undermined, he trembles like Fanny, as if he were the one being scolded into submission. If Sir Thomas did not feel fear about the power dynamics in his household, he would not have felt the need to unload upon Fanny a two-page long speech on what an unfeminine wretch she has proved herself to be. We learn a few things from this interaction between them: First, that in order to be a true practitioner of the feminine beautiful, a woman must eliminate her own sexual desire, as disguising it would mean that you are not truly good, and yet she must still accept the advances of men and second, that Fanny finally realizes that her uncle might not be the discerninghonourablegood man she thought he was (248). Sir Thomas might want to practice what he preaches. Both he and Fanny pretend to be people who can live up to impossible moral standards of goodness and in this scene, they both reveal they cannot. Here, Austen leads her audience to sympathize with the saddened, terrified Fanny and there is no reason to believe that we are to think of Fanny as immoral just because she does not fit into a Burkean gender role. Lady Bertrams characteristics and reaction to Fannys refusal of Henry Crawford are proof as to why Burkean codes of gender do not play out well in everyday life. Though Lady Bertram is not malicious, she still neglects Fanny as a result of her mindlessness. She idles away her days upon the sofa and, like a vegetable, is unconscious of the goings on of others as well as the inner workings of her own mind. In order for Fanny to live up to the feminine beautiful ideal, she would have to relinquish her opinions and desires. When Lady Bertram realizes Henry Crawfords admiration for Fanny, she attributes it to Fannys beauty, because of course beauty is the only thing a woman has to offer a man; also, Lady Bertrams countenance, as she spoke, had

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extraordinary animation, as she tells Fanny that it is every young womans duty to accept such a very unexceptionable offer as this, this emotionally packed guidance being the only piece of advice, which Fanny had ever received from her aunt in the course of eight years and a half (261). Be careful there, Lady Bertram, the happier you appear over the approving male gaze, the more people might suspect that you desire it. There is a very fine line between merely accepting male desire and desiring that acceptance. You must have observed his attentions; and though you always received them very properly, (I have no accusation to make on that head,) I never perceived them to be unpleasant to you, states Sir Thomas (247). Sir Thomas is placing Fanny in a catch-22. Though Fanny has appeared to him to put on a conservative gender performance much like Lady Bertrams, the proper behavior for a woman is to neither accept nor deny a mans advances. When Sir Thomas says, I have no accusation to make on that head, he is referring to Fanny not encouraging Henry Crawford with flirtation. If she cannot be proper by either accepting or rejecting Henrys admiration, then what options are left for her? Sir Thomas expects her to be a blank slate, to be molded by the men who own her, and to have no agency of her own. Conservative gender expectations serve as a cage that cannot be escaped, either in sublime solitude or in the beautiful social world, and this criticism is reflected in Fannys feelings of neglect and desire. The novel also explores how Fannys inclination towards solitude is never wholly satisfying to her, as the presence of the public life always interferes. The catch22 of womens options, or option, as the only choice they have is to have no mind at all, manifests itself in the closet/gate/cage metaphor and Fannys secret non-heteronormativity.

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Chapter 3 Pain and Pleasure: Fannys Sexual Desire Whats that you say? Theres no sex in Jane Austen? Claudia L. Johnson dismantles conservative readings of Austen by discussing the other Austen, the iconoclastic Austen who is beloved not for the primness, propriety, or romantic conventionality imputed to her, but for the energy of her satire, for the irreverence, and to some, even the bitchiness of her wit, for the trenchant nature of her social criticism and the complexity of her characters passions passions sharpened by intelligence and intensified by good manners (16). Exchange that primness for punk, and you have Austen just about right. The idea that Austen does not discuss sex and politics in her novels supports Michel Foucaults repressive hypothesis, outlined in The History of Sexuality, that the question of sex [is] a constant preoccupation, but this preoccupation manifests itself as a silent discourse: rarely openly discussed, but always quietly controlled (27). In this chapter, I will discuss how Austen complicates the Burkean feminine ideal by displaying how trying to conform to a conservative gender role might lead to inappropriate desire, either of an incestuous or homoerotic nature. When the Bertram family sets out to take on Fanny as a ward in order to relieve her parents of some financial burden, Sir Thomas first wants to make sure that Fanny will be adequately provided for and once questions of survival are evaluated, he immediately thinks of cousins in love (Austen 5). Aunt Norris reassures him : You are thinking of your sons but do not you know that of all things upon earth that is the least likely to happen; brought up, as they would be, always together like brothers and sisters? It is morally impossible (6). What we have learned thus far is that conservative morals are what is impossible. Immoral feelings can and will occur because no one can fit into Burkes black-and-white codes of gender.

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Along with his repressive hypothesis, Foucault discusses some facts about incest in The History of Sexuality: that since the eighteenth century the family has become an obligatory locus of affects, feelings, love; that sexuality has its privileged point of development in the family; that for this reason sexuality is incestuous from the start (108-109). He refers to incest as a dreadful secret which occupies a central place in the family (109). Fanny Prices incestuous desire for her cousin Edmund is her ultimate secret, which is directly related to the revulsion she feels when asked to participate in the heteronormative social world; she prefers a love which does not incite sublime terror in her, which is founded on familiarity, something that the foreign world outside cannot provide her. Though Aunt Norris states that incest is morally impossible and abnormal (Austen 6), Austen treats the development of Fannys love as completely natural in her circumstances, as the family is the hotbed of constant sexual incitement, the germ of all the misfortunes of sex (Foucault 111). Fanny is aware of the inappropriate nature of her love for Edmund, though the authority figures of Mansfield Park have not explicitly discussed it with her. That love between cousins is forbidden and considered immoral is understood beneath the silence. Added on to Fannys insecurities about her love is her feeling of inferiority within the household, which results from her lower class status; not only does she realize that her desire for Edmund is taboo, but she also thinks that she does not deserve to have this love reciprocated. Whats interesting is that the reason Fanny thinks herself unworthy of love is the same as what spurs this love on. From the moment Fanny moves into Mansfield Park, she is taught by Sir Thomas and Aunt Norris to feel grateful for everything that comes her way, implying that she is beneath all she receives, whether it is kindness or neglect. This has all the makings of an insecure young woman. Insecure people have the tendency to fall in love rather easily when they are paid the least bit of attention.

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Edmunds attention as a brother-type is extremely appealing to Fanny in all of its familiarity, as she has an older brother named William whom she holds in just as high esteem as she does Edmund. Initially, she is taught to feel grateful; then she feels inferior and insecure, and because of this insecurity she falls in love with her cousin and is grateful for the comforting, familial attention he gives her. Gratitude, one of the essential traits of the feminine beautiful, incites Fanny to feel morally impossible incest for Edmund (Austen 6). When the Mansfield Park party is planning the Sotherton outing, Fanny is left out of the scheme without question. However, Edmund later finds a way for Fanny to go along. Aunt Norris, Maria and Julia express their confusion over what they feel is an unnecessary addition to their circle. Julia states, I am sure she ought to be very much obliged to you, which is more of a cover for her own character failings than an attack on Fanny (Austen 63). Rising to her defense, Edmund says Fanny will feel quite as grateful as the occasion requires (63). Oh, Edmund! He has no idea just how grateful Fanny does feel. As Janeites say, E.N.A.S.U.T.H. (or Edmund-Needs-A-Slap-Upside-The-Head, as he is notorious for being completely oblivious). Edmund may feel that his inclusion of Fanny in something as simple as a trip to Sotherton should not be wondered at, but as she has not left the estate of Mansfield Park since her childhood, and as she is rarely included in anything, insecure Fanny takes Edmunds kindness and blows it out of proportion. Fannys gratitude when she heard the plan, was in fact much greater than her pleasure. She felt Edmunds kindness with all, and more than all, the sensibility which he, unsuspicious of her fond attachment, could be aware of; but that he should forego any enjoyment on her account gave her pain, states the narrator of Fannys inner workings (63). This passage suggests that Fannys fond attachment is more than just fond attachment, as Edmund is not aware of Fannys feelings for him and divulging her love to him would be as socially

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inappropriate as feeling it. Fannys feminine gratitude and resulting insecurity lead her to feel what must be an unspoken, inappropriate desire for Edmund. The overwhelming sensibility Fanny feels in relation to Edmunds remembrance of her correlates to Burkes theories on how we process sublime objects: Sublime objects create particular problems for the sensationsby presenting themselves as too powerful or too vast or too much a deprivation for the senses to process them comfortably (Ferguson 8). The pain and pleasure Fanny often feels concerning Edmund might be romanticized by another author as an episode in melancholy or a rapture of sensibility, but Austen tempers Fannys emotions with subtle language and humorous reactions from others, suggesting that her feelings are not what a young woman should try to attain. Insecure women like Fanny living in conservative households are made to feel unworthy and constricted in so many double-binds, which leads them to have trouble processing their own emotions. Austen suggests that a balance be struck between sense and sensibility, as too much sensibility leads one to react uncontrollably like Fanny and too little leads one to behave cruelly like Sir Thomas and Aunt Norris. Fannys insecurities shine as she prepares for the ball at Mansfield Park: many a young lady went to bed that night with her head full of happy cares as well as Fanny.To her, the cares were sometimes almost beyond the happiness; for young and inexperienced, with small means of choice and no confidence in her own tastethe how she should be dressed was a point of painful solicitude (199). Here we have an example of Burkes assertion that pleasure and pain are positive terms rather than comparative ones based merely on the absence of the other (Ferguson 41). Pain and pleasure can be placed on a circle, the experience of one easily bleeding into the other. Again, the sublime and the beautiful are not emotions to which women should

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aspire. Fanny cannot enjoy the prospect of a ball without feeling pain, because she has limited choices and no self-esteem. Austen treats Fanny with sensitivity, but she also brings out the humor in a young girl fretting over something as small as a necklace by allowing Fannys neuroses to speak for themselves in the form of free-indirect discourse, the technique for rendering a characters thought in his own idiom while maintaining the third-person reference and the basic tense of narration (Cohn 494). Dorrit Cohn alternately terms free-indirect discourse narrated monologue and states that such narrations tend to commit the narrator to attitudes of sympathy or irony. Precisely because they cast the language of a subjective mind into the grammar of objective narration, they amplify emotional notes, but also throw into ironic relief all false notes struck by a figural mind (504). Both dimensions of Austens portrayal of Fannys emotions and her subtle manipulation of the readers reactions to them are important to consider, as oftentimes readers attribute Austens irony to primness, when in actuality, she is addressing an important political issue of the time by not romanticizing uncontrollable emotions which were crippling to women. In the nineteenth century, women were often deemed mentally ill if they expressed socially inappropriate feelings such as discontent or desire or any opinions of their own. Fannys occasional bouts of love-madness come from a sense of inferiority as a lowerclass woman (Small 90). This issue manifests itself in yet another double-bind. A woman is made to feel inferior by a conservative patriarchal society and yet she is the one who is medicalized and blamed for the extreme and conflicting emotions which result from this inferiority. Austens sympathy avoids assigning Fanny blame, and her irony displays how inferiority and its resulting emotional extremes should not be desired by female readers.

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In Love's Madness: Medicine, the Novel, and Female Insanity, 1800-1865, Helen Small asks, What kind of voice is available to women in a society which instructs them to break down rather than declare intentions of their own? (94). Small asserts that Austens Sense and Sensibility investigates the possibility of using the signs and symptoms of nervous sickness to register the double distress of the woman who loves impossibly or inappropriately, and who must be silent under that distress (94). Much like Marianne Dashwood from that novel, Fanny experiences socially inappropriate desire, though this time around, the love is as incestuous and morally impossible as it is passionate. Her love for Edmund sometimes manifests itself as a sort of nervous fit. As discussed before, Austen does not treat uncontrollable, nervous emotions as desirable, but they do seem to be Fannys only available release. When Fanny is in the midst of fretting over which chain to wear through the pretty amber cross her brother William gave her, Edmund arrives to give her an ideal chain, which is all the more ideal because it is a gift from Edmund (199). [H]e was hurrying away, before Fanny, overpowered by a thousand feelings of pain and pleasure, could attempt to speak, says the narrator of Fannys reaction to Edmunds gift (205). Her gratitude and her inappropriate love for Edmund render her speechless for a moment and later she has trouble verbalizing her feelings: I feel much more than I can possibly express. Your goodness in thinking of me in such a way is beyond (205). Edmund is surprised by her extreme gratitude and humorously brings her mind down from its heavenly flight: My dear Fanny, you feel these things a great deal too much (205). The necklace is a sublime object which agitates Fanny, and Edmund reacts as if Fannys emotions are unnatural, though insecurity and the consequent behavior of overreaction have been brewing within her since she first arrived at Mansfield (Ferguson 8).

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Not only has Fanny been conditioned to have these extreme emotions, she also possesses a sensitivity which, when paired with her low self-esteem, makes for an endearing and amusing narrated monologue. Austens use of free-indirect discourse is more than appropriate when it comes to relaying Fannys thoughts, suspending [them] on the threshold of verbalization in a manner that cannot be achieved by direct quotation (Cohn 495). Her private reveries about Edmund reveal how scandalous they would be if they were ever to be successfully articulated. She had all the heroism of principle, and was determined to do her duty; but having also many of the feelings of youth and nature, let her not be much wondered at if, after making all these good resolutions on the side of self-government she began to rhapsodize on the loveliness of Edmunds chain and the note that came along with it (Austen 207). The narrator manipulates the readers to simultaneously sympathize with and laugh at poor love-mad Fanny by relaying her understandable, and comical, heightened emotions: Never were such characters cut by any other human being, as Edmunds commonest hand-writing gave! (208). Despite her determination to do her duty and check her emotions (207), and because of her wish to live up to a feminine ideal by acting graciously, Fanny cannot help but feel strong passion for Edmund due to her sensitive disposition and the inferiority inculcated in her. The insecurity Fanny has been conditioned to feel also plays a part in her attraction to Mary Crawford. When Fannys cousin, Maria, marries Mr. Rushworth and takes her sister, Julia, along on the honeymoon, Fannys consequence increase[s] within the Bertram household, as she becomes the only young woman in the drawing room (160). As a result, Mary Crawford begins to seek Fannys company. One gloomy November day, Fanny, having been sent into the village on some errand by her aunt Norris, was overtaken by a heavy shower close to the Parsonage (160). Mary comes to the rescue: the sound of a little bustle at the front door, and

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the sight of Miss Price dripping with wet in the vestibule, was delightful (161). The phrase dripping with wet has erotic connotationsgood thing Austen did not substitute Fanny for Miss Price, or the bawdiness of the line would be all the more obvious. Seeing Fanny is a break from the everyday routine of isolated, country living which has grown tiresome to Miss Crawford, especially after the loss of Maria and Julia and the resulting cutback in her visits to Mansfield Park. Fanny, on other hand, does not respond as well to all the bustle. She feels obliged to the point of anxiety, grateful for Marys kindness yet believing herself in the way (161). Not used to all this attention, Fanny thinks herself unworthy of it (161). Anxiety and overwhelming gratitude first hinder Fanny in accepting Marys friendship, but eventually she leaves her feelings of obligation behind to delight in Marys charms and safe, female presence (Anderson 172). In The Different Sorts of Friendship: Desire in Mansfield Park, Misty G. Anderson references Eve Kosofsky Sedgwicks point that homoerotic, physical expressions of desire, particularly those between women, could not constitute a lesbian identity at the time of Austens writing and Catherine R. Stimpsons claim that a lesbian identity is not identifiable in English language and literature until 1890 (168). These assertions let us examine how relationships between women manifested themselves before the lesbian identity came into being, when sexual desire could just as easily be called friendship. Anderson urges readers to resist the anachronistic impulse to categorize sexuality within the modern monoliths of homosexual and heterosexual, while understanding the notion of sexual identity does not capture the substance of erotic energy (177). Unlike the fear of cousins in love (Austen 5), the impossibility of erotic energy between two women is not spoken of, as homoeroticism does not register on the moral radar of

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Sir Thomas and Aunt Norris (Anderson 177). As the heterosexist views of Austens day deny the sexual potential of female friendship, the relationship between Fanny and Mary blooms without interruption from their relatives. In fact, Edmund even encourages an intimacy between them, the two dearest objects [he has] on earth (Austen 207). Fanny accepts this intimacy for the same reason the Bertrams do: she does not think there is any sexual potential and therefore she does not fear it. Any desire she experiences with Edmund and Mary is not terrifying as she is able to enjoy their company on her own terms within a familiar space, without either relationship threatening to bring her into the public sphere in the form of a horrifying, unknown marriage (supposedly morally impossible with the former, legally impossible with the latter). Fanny has a fear of change which stems from her childhood memories of being removed from her home, and manifests itself as distaste for inconstancy (hence her disgust with Henry Crawford) and the marriage market. Her relationship with Mary allows her to experience something new and slightly unfamiliar without forcing her to leave the neighborhood or the domestic sphere. The irony is that attraction can exist between two women. Marys arrival in the neighborhood makes Fanny realize her love for Edmund and throws all three of them into a Ren Girard triangle of mimetic desire (Green). According to Girards theory of mimetic desire, Fanny would be imitating Mary in order to gain the affections of the man they both love, Edmund, but in actuality, the object at the core of her desire would be Mary. Fanny is envious of Mary not only because Edmund finds Mary attractive, but because Fanny finds her worldliness fascinating. While listening to Mary play the harp, Fannys mind wanders with thoughts of Edmund: she fancied him sitting in that room again and again, perhaps in the very spot where sat now, listening with constant delight to the favourite air, played, as it appeared to her, with

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superior tone and expressionshe was pleased with it herself, and glad to like whatever was liked by him (Austen 162). Fanny simultaneously desires Marys worldliness and Edmunds privilege of gaze. Her desire is twofold: she wants them and she wants to be them. Her mimicry of Edmunds love of Marys charms seems like a Burkean feminine act of obedience. Fanny wants to like what Edmund instructs her to like, and this leads to her homoerotic attraction towards Mary Crawford. The concept of mimetic desire proves that Fannys feelings for Mary and Edmund cannot be taken at face value, because they are transitive and because what she thinks she is feeling hardly scratches the surface. The narrator describes the relationship between Fanny and Mary as an intimacy resulting principally from Miss Crawfords desire of something new and which had little reality in Fannys feelingsit seemed a kind of fascination; [Fanny] could not be easy without going, and yet it was without loving her, without ever thinking like her, without any sense of obligation for being sought after (162). At least at the conscious level, Fanny does not experience any real attachment to Mary, yet her not being easy without seeing Mary every few days displays that there may be more at work here than Fanny is aware. Misty G. Anderson posits that Mary is the only female character to whom Fanny can speak openly (173). This is true, as the tyrannical Aunt Norris, the zombie-like Aunt Bertram, and the arrogant Maria and Julia do not offer Fanny the opportunity to express herself without scrutiny. As Mary fails to live up to the conservative gender expectation of demure gratitude due to her subversive wit, Fanny does not feel pressure to conform in her presence, though her enjoyment in Marys humor comes at the expense of her judgment (162). With Mary, Fanny is able to rhapsodize about her sensibility in a controlled, yet passionate manner which she is unable to do in front of Edmund, with whom she experiences crippling pain and pleasure.

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Fannys uncharacteristically long tender ejaculation about the wonders of the mind and memory is Austen-approved sensibility. Once Fanny is done with her speech, she realizes that Mary is untouched and inattentive and has nothing to say, and so Fanny brings back her own mind to what she thought must interest (163). Unlike Fannys outburst over Edmunds gift of the necklace, this rhapsody still allows her to bring her own mind down from its heavenly flight (205). Of course, Austens characteristic irony is also present in this situation, as both women are acting out of character: Mary is comfortable enough with Fanny to be silent as opposed to flirtatious, and Fanny is comfortable enough with Mary to actually speak. Humor can be found in Fanny ranting on and on until Mary is at a loss for words. Still, this sort of sensibility seems infinitely preferable to the pain and pleasure experienced with Edmund, as Fannys mind is under her control. Fannys attraction to Mary offers her an escape from unfair familial expectations and her fear of the marriage market, as well as a safe outlet for her deeply felt observations. In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen complicates the nature of filial duty and the feminine gender role by displaying how an attempt to submit to this strict code might lead to socially inappropriate feelings of desire, which are not supposed to exist within the realm of Mansfield Park. Austen also criticizes the Burkean concepts of pain and pleasure, subtly comments on female desire as mental illness, and offers an alternative sensibility which allows women control over their emotions. Fanny is gracious towards Edmund to the point of experiencing incestuous desire and she is so intent on obeying him that she imitates his love for Mary with homoerotic attraction. Like a member of the LGBTQ community, Fanny Price is forced to enter a selfconflict (McElreavy) over her secret, non-heteronormative, morally impossible desire (Austen 6).

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Conclusion In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen complicates Edmund Burkes philosophies by displaying how the heteronormative gender roles of the sublime masculine and the feminine beautiful cannot be strictly adhered to. Try as she might, Fanny Price cannot conform to the expectations and limitations of heteronormativity (McElreavy). The irony of the novel reveals the inconsistencies of the conservative agenda, which make conformity impossible, not just for Fanny, but for the rest of the characters in the novel, as well. Fannys internal conflict over her inadequacies as a gracious, obedient woman affects how she feels about the philosophical issues surrounding performance, solitude, and pain and pleasure. Like a philosopher of the sublime, Fanny shuns performance and its falsities, but little does she know that performance is inescapable in the social world. Fanny proves this herself by donning a faade of seeming piety while experiencing socially inappropriate emotions such as anger, jealousy, ingratitude, and desire (Austen 69). And though Fannys thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions, she is unable to escape into Burkes ideal solitude without her unfeminine thoughts following her. Furthermore, Austen satirizes Burkes concept of pain and pleasure which renders women intellectually crippled and explores how Fannys occasional adherences to feminine gratitude and obedience lead her to experience incestuous and homoerotic desire. Claudia L. Johnson comments on Mansfield Parks conventionally happy ending which ensconces Fanny there [at Mansfield Park], indispensable at last, and still adulating now enervated figures whose discernment has been radically impeached, sustains rather than settles the problems the foregoing material has uncovered. (Johnson 116). If the ending sustains rather than settles the problems of the text, then it cannot be wholly conventionally happy, even if it does end with a marriage (Johnson 116). After all, the novel ends with a marriage

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between cousins, once considered morally impossible by the authorities of Mansfield Park (Austen 6). A conventional marriage tainted by unconventional desires is yet another example of Jane Austen blurring the lines between what is considered moral and immoral, proving again that all is not what it seems at Mansfield Park. Austens portrayal of such a corrupt household seems to call for moral reform. Edmund argues about the current state of the clergy: It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation (Austen 74). In the context of Mansfield Park as a whole, this can be seen as a comment on the queerness of human nature, of our appearing one way and feeling another. However, Austen differs from Edmund in that she proves people cannot be what they ought to be, as such conservative expectations are impossible to perform (74). In our interactions with others and our own minds, something is always a little disguised, or a little mistaken (Emma 339), and in that way, we are all queer.

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Works Cited Anderson, Misty G. The Different Sorts of Friendship: Desire in Mansfield Park. Jane Austen and Discourses of Feminism. New York: St. Martins Press, Inc., 1995. Austen, Jane. Emma.New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2003. ---. Mansfield Park. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2003. ---. Northanger Abbey. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2003. ---. Opinions of Mansfield Park. The Republic of Pemberley website. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/opmansfp.html. Cohn, Dorrit. Narrated Monologue. Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Despotopoulou, Anna. Fanny's Gaze and the Construction of Feminine Space in Mansfield Park. The Modern Language Review, Vol. 99, No. 3 (2004): pp. 569-583. Modern Humanities Research Association. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3738987. Feminism and Romanticism. http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:8668/space/feminism+and+romanticism. Ferguson, Frances. Solitude and the Sublime: The Romantic Aesthetics of Individuation. New York: Routledge, 1992. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: Volume I. New York: Random House, Inc., 1990.

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Gay, Penny. Mansfield Park: Fannys education in the theatre. Jane Austen and the Theatre. Camridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Green, Georgina. Reference to Ren Girards theory of mimetic desire. Jane Austen Class Lecture. Bath, England: Advanced Studies in England Program, Spring 2009. Halperin, David M. Saint Foucault. Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality: The Big Questions. Malden, MA; Blackwell Publishers Inc. 1998. Heydt-Stevenson, Jill. Austens Unbecoming Conjunctions: Subversive Laughter, Embodied History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Inchbald, Elizabeth. Lovers Vows. Mansfield Park : authoritative text, contexts, criticism. Claudia L. Johnson, ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1998. Johnson, Claudia L. The Divine Miss Jane: Jane Austen, Janeites, and the Discipline of Novel Studies. boundary 2, Vol. 23, No. 3 (1996). Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. http://www.jstor.org/stable/303640. ---. Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. ---. Run mad, but do not faint. Times Literary Supplement, 1999, http://www.patriciarozema.com/mad.htm. McElreavy, Tim. Gay Pride in Stockholm Goes Hetero. Carnal Nation website. http://carnalnation.com/content/15473/4/gay-pride-stockholm-goes-hetero. Miss Fanny Price. The Austen-L Mailing List. The Republic of Pemberley Website. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/austen-l.html#X12.

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Richardson, Alan. Romanticism and the Colonization of the Feminine. Romanticism and Feminism. Anne K. Mellor, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. Small, Helen. Love's Madness: Medicine, the Novel, and Female Insanity, 1800-1865. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Stabler, Jane. Endnotes. Mansfield Park. By Jane Austen. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2003. Wiltshire, John. Jane Austen and the Body. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.