Edmund Bertram seems to me like one of those Disney
characters, who is good to the core, yet is entranced by the beauty and wit of
the evil woman (Mary Crawford), and hence is unable to realize the evil of Mary
and the good in the sweet-natured princess, who in this case is Fanny price.
Although, yes, the dominance of the men stand out in the
novel, Edmund uses his dominance in a kind and fair manner where he helps Fanny
Price settle in and adjust to her new-found family and environment. He consoles
her, gets her a horse of her own, and empathizes with her; such that Fanny
secretly starts to fall in love with Edmund.
Edmund basically has a conscience so to speak. Henry
Crawford is another story altogether. Not only does he seem to not have a conscience,
he treats women as objects that are to be played with and won over. Not only is he found flirting with the Bertram
sisters, but he had the audacity to claim; “I do not like to eat the bread of
idleness. No, my plan is to make Fanny Price in love with me”. The fact that he
calls it his ‘plan’ is enough for the reader to establish his level of morality
and conscience.
Hence, Austen has portrayed both the moral men and the
amoral men, who are then seen as defining the morality of the women in the
novel.
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