|
Fanny Price is the heroine in Jane Austen's 1814 novel ''Mansfield Park''. Austen describes Fanny Price as "extremely timid and shy, shrinking from notice", and repeatedly reinforces that Fanny is shy, timid, and afraid of everyone and everything.〔Emily Auerbach, ''Searching for Jane Austen'', Univ. of Wisconsin, 2006.〕 ==Fanny's arrival at Mansfield Park== Fanny Price is the eldest daughter of an obscure and poor retired Marine lieutenant in Portsmouth, who is father to eight other children. Fanny's mother's sisters, the wealthy Lady Bertram and Mrs Norris, offer to take her in and bring her up at Sir Thomas Bertram's estate, Mansfield Park, in Northamptonshire. Upon her first arriving in Mansfield, she is intimidated by her new home and her cousins (Thomas, Edmund, Maria and Julia), and is very homesick. None of her cousins are very obliging to her except Edmund, the younger son, who befriends her and helps her adapt to her new life. Mrs Norris, who prefers her richer cousins, constantly emphasises her inferiority, while Fanny's female cousins make fun of her apparent ignorance. As she grows, she finds Edmund to be a considerate companion and confidant, and she also becomes romantically attracted to him. As a child, Fanny is described as being small, not a striking beauty, with an awkward but not vulgar air and a sweet voice. As an adult, Fanny is pretty with a good figure and countenance but tires quickly from any exercise, including dancing. Fanny is a quiet and conscientious character, passive, shy, and timid, who is frequently walked over by her more vibrant and forceful relatives and reluctant to give her own opinions or assert herself. She is intelligent and insightful and lives by a strict moral code that has made some Austen reviewers consider her to be "priggish". Kingsley Amis described Fanny as "morally detestable".〔Kingsley Amis, ''What Became of Jane Austen?'', 1963.〕 Other critics point out that she is a complex personality, perceptive yet given to wishful thinking, and that she shows courage and grows in self-esteem during the latter part of the story. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin argues that "it is in rejecting obedience in favour of the higher dictate of remaining true to her own conscience that Fanny rises to her moment of heroism."〔Claire Tomalin, ''Jane Austen: A Life'' (New York: Vintage, 1997), p. 230.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fanny Price」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|