When I read a book, I don’t stop at the last page. I return to my highlighted passages and notes, and I try to think about the connections the author has made between the text and the entire concept of the novel. Here is a little something about this passage in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.

“There will be some difficulty in our way, Mrs. Norris,” observed Sir Thomas, “as to the distinction proper to be made between the girls as they grow up; how to preserve in the minds of my daughters the consciousness of what they are, without making them think too lowly of their cousin; and how, without depressing her spirits too far, to make her remember that she is not a Miss Bertram. I should wish to see them very good friends, and would, on no account, authorize in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation; but still they cannot be equals. Their rank, fortune, rights, and expectations, will always be different. It is a point of great delicacy, and you must assist us in our endeavors to choose exactly the right line of conduct” (10).

     Sir Thomas addresses this concern of equality among his daughters and niece as a personal agenda for Mrs. Norris to take on, and she certainly does so. She seems to take this role of discerning between the sisters and cousin as her purpose in life, or at least in Mansfield Park. Above all things, Mrs. Norris wants to ensure that Fanny knows her “rank.” However, her ineptitude at dealing with matters of “great delicacy” leads to her constant establishment of Fanny as a much less important family member.
     Sir Thomas’s diction in this passage subtly reveals his true feelings at this point in the novel toward Fanny. Most significant is his use of the word “too.” Sir Thomas does not want his daughters to “think too lowly of their cousin,” but he apparently does not mind if they think somewhat lowly of their cousin. Similarly, he does not want to “[depress] her spirits too far,” but Fanny’s spirits can be somewhat depressed. Though Sir Thomas may not outright acknowledge these ideas, he would have otherwise omitted the word “too” altogether. However, “depressing her spirits” and allowing his daughters to think “lowly of their cousin” is a small price to pay so long as Fanny and, more importantly, any outside observers are aware that the girls are not “equals.”
     Despite his revelation of his fears about his daughters and niece being perceived as equals, Sir Thomas contradicts himself by denying that he wants his daughters to portray “the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation” because he does believe they have the right to be arrogant since they were born into a higher rank. This contradiction foreshadows Sir Thomas’s eventual realization that Fanny is actually more worthy of arrogance than his daughters, despite their difference in social status.
     Sir Thomas also interestingly groups together the concepts of “rank, fortune, rights, and expectations.” In fact, the first three of these terms represent well the way Maria, Julia, and Fanny are treated. Because Maria and Julia are of a higher “rank,” and they have a bigger “fortune,” they have established more “rights” than Fanny, especially concerning social situations since they are allowed to spend so much time with the Crawfords and other friends. However, Sir Thomas establishes a bit of irony by associating the higher “rank, fortune, [and] rights” with a sense of higher “expectations,” because Sir Thomas, Lady Bertram, and especially Mrs. Norris invert this notion and repeatedly expect more of Fanny than any other character. Though one might assume parents would expect more of their supposedly higher educated daughters who have more to gain, they instead place the burden of chores and responsibility almost entirely on Fanny. The Bertrams may have even anticipated expecting more of Fanny than their daughters, in which case it is interesting that Sir Thomas is blind to his own parenting style by structurally grouping these terms together as though they are inseparable.
     This passage is important to the novel as a whole because it sets up one of the only characters who fundamentally alters in some way. Sir Thomas, so early in the narrative, presents the challenge of setting Fanny apart in a purposeful but unnoticeable way. He wants to distinguish between his “daughters” and “their cousin.” In the end of the novel, however, Fanny is one of the only children, besides her own siblings, who Sir Thomas is actually proud of . He, and Lady Bertram for that matter, come to think of Fanny as one of their own daughters, even though he so clearly intended to establish her, quite successfully, as an outsider. Thus, this great concern of his becomes shrouded in the reality that Fanny is truly much more worthy of a higher “rank, fortune, [and] rights” than his daughters, despite their mothers’ different marriages.