Mansfield Park Ch. 37: Send Her to Portsmouth

Summary

With Mr Crawford gone, Sir Thomas wants Fanny to miss his attentions. He hopes that she will feel the blank. When she does not, he decides on what he calls a medicinal project: a visit to her parents at Portsmouth, where eight or nine years in a house of wealth and plenty can be set against her father's poor home. He hopes she will learn the value of a good income.

Fanny is moved at the offer of seeing the parents, brothers and sisters she has been parted from for almost half her life. She writes to offer herself, her mother's answer is kind, and William will take her. Edmund, who meant to go to London about this time, delays a week or two so as not to leave his parents when everyone else is leaving them. He confides in Fanny about Miss Crawford one last time, and tells her he will write when he has anything she will like to hear. The next morning William and Fanny set out together.

In this chapter: Key Quotes

Why This Matters

Belonging When You Are Overlooked

Stand with Fanny on the bench, in the East room, and in a small house in Portsmouth where nobody asks what she thinks. With Mr Crawford gone, Sir Thomas wants Fanny to miss his attentions.

Notice who is left on the bench in your own group, and ask them what they think.

Coming Up in Chapter 38

Fanny reaches Portsmouth, and what she finds is very different from what she remembers.

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Original text

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Chapter 37

Send Her to Portsmouth

Mr. Crawford gone, Sir Thomas’s next object was that he should be missed; and he entertained great hope that his niece would find a blank in the loss of those attentions which at the time she had felt, or fancied, an evil. She had tasted of consequence in its most flattering form; and he did hope that the loss of it, the sinking again into nothing, would awaken very wholesome regrets in her mind. He watched her with this idea; but he could hardly tell with what success. He hardly knew whether there were any difference in her spirits or…

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Critical Thinking Exercise

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Practise Belonging When You Are Overlooked

Write six lines on Send Her to Portsmouth: who asked, who paid, and what you would have said. Keep it to this chapter.

Consider:

•The working skill is Belonging When You Are Overlooked.
•Use only beats from this chapter.
•Name a cost, not a slogan.

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Summary

In this chapter: Key Quotes

Why This Matters

Belonging When You Are Overlooked

Stand with Fanny on the bench, in the East room, and in a small house in Portsmouth where nobody asks what she thinks. With Mr Crawford gone, Sir Thomas wants Fanny to miss his attentions.

Notice who is left on the bench in your own group, and ask them what they think.