Haniya's Post: The Colony in Mansfield

The function of Space is an important theme when looking at Mansfield Park.  Said asserts that “Mansfield Park is very precisely about a series of both small and large dislocations and relocations in space that occur before, at the end of the novel” it coincides with the colonial/imperialist mission of naturalizing lands and organizing space; just like Mansfield is seen as an ordered and organized place in contrast to Portsmouth. This reallocation and organization of space is most evident at Mr. Rushworth’s estate Sotherton.

The walls beyond his estate were referred to as “wilderness” which corresponded to the colonial mindset of lands outside their motherland or the metropolis as being wild and unorganized. The grounds of the Sotherton estate were “bowling-green and the terrace.” It was an artificial way of organizing the “wilderness.”  The avenue that had the old trees was being cut down to “open the prospect amazingly” shows how colonizers reallocated and dislocated spaces to organize a place. The woods at the Rushworth estate were also planted and “laid out with too much regularity.” We see a very conscious effort of the colonizer dominating nature and taking over the space to organize it to suit him. Mr. Rushworth also wants to give the old house a “modern dress” which the colonizers also did to native lands; they took away their culture, history and tradition and replaced it with modern imperial ones. Whatever happens in the colony is not talked about at home and the morally sick are sent there for instance Tom is sent to Antigua. Similarly, when Maria and Henry jump over the gates and escape into the wilderness, the reader does not get to know what happens there and what the two characters are up to; the “wilderness” and the grounds beyond the gates are like Antigua about which we do not know much.