Mansfield Park/Headscratchers

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Just what was Mrs. Norris' true motivation for insisting the Bertrams adopt 10-year-old Fanny?

Probably as a companion for Mrs. Bertram and a desire to look good to her family.

• Remember, Mrs. Norris is a vicar's wife: she is supposed to look after the poor and promote family union. It was quite usual for the rich to adopt a child of their poorer relatives. By suggesting it, Mrs. Norris manages to look good while other people spend the actual money.

• I think I know. Check out how Mrs. Norris condescendingly considers the condition of the Price family in Chapter 2... it's not a huge leap of the imagination that she wanted to take away Fanny Jnr (the oldest girl, who should have been the most useful child to her mother, certainly the least encumbrance!) as a way of 'sticking it' to Fanny Snr for being such a slut as to marry below her family's position (Lieutennets of the Royal Marines were not 'gentlemen', for some reason. Don't know why, but neither were officers of the Royal Engineers or the Royal Artillery; and it shows in Price's behavior) (and possibly out of jealousy for her sister having more children than she could afford, when she- Mrs. Norris- could have none.) Routinely humiliating the kid who shared the sister's name with 'kindness' was a way to get back at her while being able to be still convinced, at some level, of one's righteousness.
  • That is brilliant. It never occurred to me that, by taking Fanny, Mrs. Norris/ the Bertrams were actually making life more difficult for the other sister, not easier.

Just why does Fanny dislike Mary Crawford so much other before she actually does anything bad? For that matter why is she treated as being so irredeemably evil in the first place?

1) Dislike her? She admires her riding and wishes she could ride as well, admits to Edmund she finds her beautiful, is grateful to her for rescuing her from Mrs. Norris, willingly goes to her for fashion advice... she doesn't actively start to dislike her until she starts flirting with Edmund - an inadmirable but very common, understandable, human reaction and really dislikes her after she learns how complicit she's been in her brother's unwelcome pursuit of Fanny herself. As for Fanny's observations of her lightness of mind, Anne Elliot criticizes Louisa Musgrove's unrefined mind much more, and nobody objects.
2) She's not, but her flippant view of adultery and love of money and status make her an incompatible match for Edmund. She foolishly ignores the opportunity to apply what she has had every opportunity to learn. The text portrays her as guilty of stupidity more than malice; at least it doesn't brutally physically punish her like it does Louisa Musgrove.