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Friday, January 24, 2014

Morality vs Immorality

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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