Jocelyn Harris (2010) views Austen's main subject in Mansfield Park as the moral and social status of theatricality, a controversy as old as the stage itself. Some critics have assumed that Austen intended the novel to promote anti-theatrical views, possibly inspired by the Evangelical movement. Harris says that, whereas in Pride and Prejudice Austen shows how theatricality masks and deceives in daily life, in Mansfield Park "she interrogates more deeply the whole remarkable phenomenon of plays and play-acting".[76]
Antitheatricality
Lovers' Vows, 1796 edition. The controversial play is rehearsed at Mansfield Park during Sir Thomas Bertram's absence.Returning unexpectedly from his plantations in Antigua, Sir Thomas Bertram discovers the young people rehearsing a production of Elizabeth Inchbald's Lovers' Vows (adapted from the German August von Kotzebue). Scandalized, he halts the play and burns the rehearsal scripts. Fanny Price is astonished that the play was ever thought appropriate, and considers the two leading female roles as "totally improper for home representation—the situation of one, and the language of the other so unfit to be expressed by any woman of modesty".
Claire Tomalin (1997) says that Mansfield Park, with its moralist theme and criticism of corrupted standards, has polarised supporters and critics. It opposes a vulnerable young woman with strong religious and moral principles against a group of worldly, cultivated, well-to-do young people who pursue their pleasure and profit without principle.[77]
Jonas Barish, in his seminal work, The Antitheatrical Prejudice (1981), adopts the view that by 1814 Austen may have turned against theatre following a supposed recent embrace of evangelicalism.[78] Austen certainly read and, to her surprise, enjoyed Thomas Gisborne's Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex, which stated categorically that theatricals were sinful, because of their opportunities for "unrestrained familiarity with persons of the other sex".[79] She may well have read William Wilberforce's popular evangelical work that challenged the decadence of the time and also expressed strong views about theatre and its negative influence on morality.[80]
However, Tomalin argues that Austen is not known to have condemned plays outside Mansfield Park.[77] Austen was an avid theatregoer and a critical admirer of the great actors. In childhood her family had embraced the popular activity of home theatre. She had participated in full-length popular plays (several written by herself) performed in the family dining room at Steventon (and later in the barn), supervised by her clergyman father.[81] Many elements observed by the young Austen during family theatricals are reworked in the novel, including the temptation of James, her recently ordained brother, by their flirtatious cousin Eliza.[79]
Paula Byrne (2017) records that only two years before writing Mansfield Park, Austen had played with great aplomb the part of Mrs Candour in Sheridan's popular contemporary play The School for Scandal.[82] Her correspondence shows that she and her family continued as enthusiastic theatre-goers. Byrne also argues that Austen's novels, particularly Mansfield Park, show considerable theatricality and dramatic structure which makes them particularly adaptable for screen representation. Calvo sees the novel as a rewrite of Shakespeare's King Lear and his three daughters, with Fanny as Sir Thomas's Regency Cordelia.[83]
Eight chapters discuss anti-theatrical prejudice from shifting points of view. Edmund and Fanny find moral dilemmas, and even Mary is conflicted, insisting she will edit her script. However, theatre as such is never challenged. The questions about theatrical impropriety include the morality of the text, the effect of acting on vulnerable amateur players, and performance as an indecorous disruption in a respectable home.[84] Fanny's anti-theatrical viewpoint goes back as far as Plato, and continued to find expression into the 20th century.[85]
Impropriety
Austen's presentation of the intense debate about theatre tempts the reader to take sides and to miss the ambiguities. Edmund, the most critical voice, is actually an enthusiastic theatre-goer. Fanny, the moral conscience of the debate, "believed herself to derive as much innocent enjoyment from the play as any of them". She thought Henry the best actor of them all.[86] She also delighted in reading Shakespeare aloud to her aunt Bertram.
Stuart Tave emphasises the challenge of the play as a test of the characters' commitment to propriety.[87] The priggish Mrs. Norris sees herself as the guardian of propriety. She is trusted as such by Sir Thomas when he leaves for Antigua, but fails completely by allowing the preparation for Lovers' Vows.[88] Edmund objects to the play, believing it somehow improper, but fails to articulate the problem convincingly.[89] His intense objection to an outsider being brought in to share in the theatricals is not easy for the modern reader to understand. Mr Rushworth's view, that "we are a great deal better employed, sitting comfortably here among ourselves, and doing nothing", is affirmed only by Sir Thomas himself.[90]
Fanny alone understands the depth of impropriety in what is proposed; she knows from her penetrating observations of the household that the acting will dangerously inflame the emotions of the actors, but she lacks the strength to persuade the others.[91] During rehearsals, Fanny observes the ongoing flirtation between Henry and the about-to-be-married Maria, "Maria acted well, too well."[86] She also sees the sexual tension and attraction between Edmund and Mary as they play the part of the two lovers. This fills her with misery but also jealousy.[92] Later, Mary describes to Fanny her favorite episode, playing the dominant role of Amelia with Edmund as Anhalt, her besotted admirer. "I never knew such exquisite happiness ... Oh! it was sweet beyond expression."[93]
Tave points out that, in shutting down Lovers' Vows, Sir Thomas is expressing his hidden hypocrisy and myopia. His concern is with an external propriety, not the principles that motivate moral behaviour. He is content to destroy the set and props without considering what had led his children to put on such a play.[94] Only later does he come to understand his shortcomings as a parent.
Acting
Another classical anti-theatrical theme is the need for sincerity in everyday life, avoiding pretence and hypocrisy.[85] Fanny is often criticised because she 'does not act', but beneath her timid surface is a solid core.
Henry Crawford, the life of any party, is constantly acting; he has many personas but no firm character or stable principles. Thomas Edwards says that even when Henry tries to please Fanny by denouncing acting during a discussion about Shakespeare, he is still performing. He measures his every word and carefully watches the reaction on her face.[95] He is a man who constantly reinvents himself in the pattern of those around him: he considers a career as a minister after encountering Edmund, and as a sailor after meeting William.[96] At Sotherton, Henry acts the part of a landscape improver, a role he later reprises for Thornton Lacey, though he lacks the consistency to manage effectively his own Norfolk estate. At the first suggestion of a theatre at Mansfield Park, Henry, for whom theatre was a new experience, declared he could undertake "any character that ever was written". Later still, in reading Henry VIII aloud to Lady Bertram, Henry impersonates one character after another,[97] even impressing the reluctant Fanny with his skill.[98] When Henry unexpectedly falls in love with Fanny, he enthusiastically acts out the part of devoted lover, but even the hopeful Sir Thomas recognises that the admirable Henry is unlikely to sustain his performance for long.
Edwards suggests that the inherent danger of Lovers' Vows for the young actors is that they cannot distinguish between acting and real life, a danger exposed when Mary says, "What gentleman among you am I to have the pleasure of making love to?"[99]
Regency politics
David Selwyn argues that the rationale behind Austen's apparent anti-theatricality is not evangelicalism but its symbolic allusion to Regency political life. Mansfield Park is a book about the identity of England. Tom, whose lifestyle has imperilled his inheritance, and the playboy Henry are Regency rakes, intent on turning the family estate into a playground during the master's absence. If the Regent, during the King's incapacity, turns the country into a vast pleasure ground modelled on Brighton, the foundations of prosperity will be imperilled. To indulge in otherwise laudable activities like theatre at the expense of a virtuous and productive life leads only to unhappiness and disaster.[100]
