Mansfield Park and the Formation of English Nationalism : Action without Principle and Principle without Action

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In a time of incessant war, capitalist ventures and social restructuring, Austen carefully pieces together national and international realities in Mansfield Park (1814), depicting the formation of English modernity. With the establishment of capitalist rationalization and the rise of a middle class, traditional values of civic society were destabilized against a newly commercialized and politically empowered public. As such, Austen’s England sought a new legitimate “Britishness” that could incorporate the new cultural and social demands. Within this context, I provide an allegorical reading of the different values upon which Mansfield Park’s inhabitants act as a representation of the values shaping the idea of Britishness in Austen’s time. I particularly look at Sir Bertram’s self-indulgent actions which arise from materialistic capitalist values, his inability to act morally because of his obsession with traditional values of distinction, and how such values induce chaos in his home. These values are juxtaposed with what is refereed to as Fanny’s “active principle.” Her values counterbalance the self-indulgence abounding in Mansfield estate throughout the novel and rises to be the ideal that it should uphold in order to save itself from destruction. As such, this paper argues that Sir Bertram’s acknowledgement of Fanny’s active principle reveals the futility of action without principle, manifested through disinhibited capitalist mentality and principle without action, revealed through his flaw of emphasizing traditional distinction. In reflecting the context surrounding the discourse shaping modern English nationalism, Mansfield Park suggests a version of the values modernity should actively embody.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. Mansfield Park, Austen’s Account of English Nationalism
• II. Capitalist Mentality: Failure to Act with Moral Principle
• III. Traditional Values of Distinction: Moral Principle Without Application
• IV. Fanny’s Active Principle
• V. The Principle to Act on
• Works Cited
• Abstract