“Mansfield Park is too dark.” Really???

I don’t think so. How can a novel where nobody perishes, a novel where there is no scene of violence, war, destruction or self-destruction possibly be dark?

Some people do fret about the slave trade (Sir Thomas’s plantations were 99% certain to have been worked by slaves. This is mentioned, obliquely, exactly once.)

Now, there’s almost no subject on earth wickeder than slavery, and I’m 99% sure that Austen herself opposed it — though there’s no actual evidence beyond the fact that three of her brothers were well-known abolitionists. It’s even possible that she disagreed with them.

However, Sir Thomas is never represented as a wicked slaveholder. Instead, he’s portrayed as rigid, unimaginative and a little humourless but still conscientious and caring. Even when angered — whether justifiably about Lovers’ Vows messing up his property or unfairly about Fanny’s refusal of Mr Crawford — he appears humane, mannerly and self-controlled. As even Mary Crawford acknowledges at one point, “He is just what the head of such a house should be. Nay, in sober sadness, now I love you all!”

Another supposedly “dark” part of Mansfield Park is the “cruelty” of sending poor children away from their parents to their richer relatives — despite this generally gifting them more comfortable life outcomes. (This fate befalls Frank Churchill in Emma. Frank Churchill was adopted by the Churchills and given their name — yet still, somehow Emma isn’t generally considered “dark”.)

In fact, one of the Jane Austen’s own brothers — Edward, was adopted similarly, greatly to his benefit. Jane Austen, to whom Edward was always generous, probably considered this practice as beneficial — as it certainly was for Fanny (and later, her sister Susan) in Mansfield Park.

Of course, not every child plucked from the bosom of their family was as lucky as the real Edward Austen and the fictional Frank Churchill. Some were certainly exploited — as unpaid child-minders, errand-runners, scullery maids, farm hands etc. But then, most children in the Regency era were exploited, simply because most people were exploited. Really, by considering Austen’s parents cruel for relinquishing Edward, or the Prices heartless for relinquishing Fanny, we’re guilty of…