Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: How does Fanny Price’s letter expose Sir Thomas Bertram’s corruption?

hello and welcome to close reading classic literature with me Dr Octavia Cox today I want to consider a seemingly tiny detail from Jane Austin's marvelous novel Mansfield Park which was published in 1814 it's one of the most wonderful things about reading and studying and examining Austin's texts that details are never irrelevant Jane Austin is such a highly well wrought author her writing is so tightly constructed so trimmed of all fat that even a seemingly tiny seemingly irrelevant seemingly innocuous detail can be incredibly revealing about the broader important themes within the novel as a whole so what is the tiny detail that I am looking at today today it's to do with S Thomas Bertram's correspondence Behavior so how he treats his letters and his written Communications and from this tiny detail that is how S Thomas berum Franks his post we might think further about what this reveals more generally about his character about the Bertram family and about the misuse of power and privilege that underpins the novel mansvi Park so let's get to the analysis at the beginning of the novel a 10-year-old Fanny price is desperately sad because she wants to write to her beloved brother William price but feels that she cannot for a start she doesn't have any paper but cousin Edmund Bertram kind steps in with a plan she was found one morning by her cousin Edmund the youngest of the sons sitting crying on the attic stairs my dear little cousin said he with all the gentleness of an excellent nature what can be the matter and sitting down by her he was at Great pains to overcome her shame in being so surprised and persuade her to speak openly for a long time no answer could be obtained Beyond a no no not at all no thank you but he still persevered and no sooner had he begun to revert to her own home than her increased sobs explained to him where the grievance lay he tried to console her on pursuing the subject he found that dear as all her brothers and sisters generally were there was one among them who run more in her thoughts than the rest it was William whom she talked of most William did not like she should come away he had told her he should miss her very much indeed but William will write to you I dare say responds Edmund yes he had promised he would but he told her to write first and when shall you do it she hung her head and answered hesitatingly she did not know she had not any paper if that be all your difficulty I will furnish you with paper and every other material and you may write your letter whenever you choose would it make you happy to write to William yes very then let it be done now come with me into the breakfast room we shall find everything there and be sure of having the room to ourselves but cousin will it go to the Post yes depend upon me it shall it shall go with the other letters and as your uncle said Thomas Bertram as your uncle will Frank it it will cost William nothing my uncle repeated Fanny with a frightened look yes when you have written the letter I will take it to my father to Frank Fanny thought it a bold measure but offered no further resistance so the seemingly tiny detail that I want to explore is that Sir Thomas Bertram will Frank Fanny's letter but first let me just explain some regeny context about the postal system Edmund says as your uncle will Frank it it will cost William nothing in the early 19th century when Mansville Park was written and and published it was generally the recipient who was expected to defay postage to pay for the cost of the postage and this was an expense that Jane Austin herself as is evident from her own letters was very very conscious of she ended a letter to her C her sister Cassandra for example rather abruptly in December 1815 and this is when Jan Austin Was busily preparing Emma another her novels for the press and she ended this letter to her sister with God bless you excuse the shortness of this but I must finish it now that I may save you two P best love yours affectionately J A so she's conscious of saving Cassandra the two pence so postage fees were charged not only according to distance so it would cost more for you to send something from Cornwall to uh Edinburgh than it would from London to hartfordshire let's say but also by the number of sheets within the within the packet within the package within the letter um and sometimes also the the weight of of the paper of the of the package and this is why letters in the period were often what's called crossed so to save on the costs of the paper but also on the cost of the postage for the recipient um both of which were very expensive at the time so Crossing was where you would you would write the letter as normal and then when you got to the bottom of the page you would turn your sheet of paper 90° and you would carry on writing over what you had already written so that's called Crossing so you write one way turn the paper and then you cross it and many many many many many of J 's own letters especially to her sister Cassandra were crossed and that's because both of them both Jane and Cassandra were not particularly well off um so they both wanted to save on the paper and they wanted to save on the postage um and you can see across letter from Janos SIM for example this one to Cassandra dated Monday June the 20th and that's from 1808 return to Mansfield Park so Fanny is worried about imposing the cost of her letter on on William who will be receiving it but Edmund generously steps in telling Fanny not to worry about the cost because Sir Thomas Bertram will Frank it so what is franking well a Frank is a Mark or a label applied to a letter that qualifies it to go through the post and and to be delivered in Jane Austin's period members of parliament MPS had the authority to send and receive letters concerning parliamentary business free of charge uh as long as the letter didn't weigh more than 1 ounce so to authenticate the letter to Frank it MP's members of parliament just had to put their signature on the address we are told explicitly in in the novel that S Thomas Bertram is a member of parliament he's a member of the House of Commons indeed we are told in the very same chapter as Edmund's and Fanny's franking conversation of s Thomas's attending to his duty in Parliament now is this use of Duty here in relation to Parliament ironic by Jane Austin because Frank King post he should not was a dereliction of his parliamentary duty of course on the one hand it is a kind gesture of Edmunds to help to alleviate Fanny's distress by finding a way for her to write to her beloved brother William but on the other hand Edmund clearly feels free to misuse sir Thomas' parliamentary letter franking privileges misused because only letters concerning parliamentary business were supposed to be franked by MPS for free delivery so even though it is only a very very tiny example this abuse of privilege might lead the reader to think more about how S Thomas abuses his positions of power and privilege elsewhere in the novel and equally how free his family feel to benefit from those abuses also thank you very much indeed for watching remember if you like what I do here on my channel where I analyze classic literature then do please subscribe and if you have liked the video then do please press the thumbs up button it helps me out in YouTube's algorithm and what do you think do you have any of your own examples within mansvi Park of tiny details that you think expose perhaps some of the bigger abuses misuses of power and privilege shown by the bertrams