Mansfield Park Ch. 30: What Henry Means

Summary

Mary is lighter after her talk with Fanny and walks home. That evening her brother returns from London in high spirits. He has been sitting with Lady Bertram and Fanny for an hour and a half. Then he tells her he is quite determined to marry Fanny Price.

Mary is amazed and then pleased: she would like a connexion with the Bertrams, and does not mind her brother marrying a little beneath him. Privately she thinks there could not be two people less alike, but she says nothing. Henry says his first design was idle, but he is fairly caught. He praises Fanny's sweetness and patience, and says he cares neither what people say nor what they feel. They will now see what sort of woman can attach him.

In this chapter: Key Quotes

Why This Matters

Reading Charm Against Character

Learn to hear what the Crawfords say, and what they do when it costs them something. Mary is lighter after her talk with Fanny and walks home.

Watch what someone does when it costs them something, not only what they say they feel.

Coming Up in Chapter 31

Henry arrives at the Park early, with news about William. Fanny does not yet see what it is meant to buy.

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Original text

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Chapter 30

What Henry Means

Miss Crawford’s uneasiness was much lightened by this conversation, and she walked home again in spirits which might have defied almost another week of the same small party in the same bad weather, had they been put to the proof; but as that very evening brought her brother down from London again in quite, or more than quite, his usual cheerfulness, she had nothing farther to try her own. His still refusing to tell her what he had gone for was but the promotion of gaiety; a day before it might have irritated, but now it was a pleasant joke—suspected…

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Critical Thinking Exercise

12 minutes

Practise Reading Charm Against Character

Write six lines on What Henry Means: who asked, who paid, and what you would have said. Keep it to this chapter.

Consider:

•The working skill is Reading Charm Against Character.
•Use only beats from this chapter.
•Name a cost, not a slogan.

Master this chapter. Complete your experience

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Summary

In this chapter: Key Quotes