“He had told her the most extraordinary, the most inconceivable, the most unwelcome news; and she could think of nothing else. To be acting! After all his objections- objections so just and so public! After all that she had heard him say, and seen him look, and known him to be feeling. Could it be possible? Edmund so inconsistent. Was he not deceiving himself? Was he not wrong? Alas! It was all Miss Crawford’s doing.”
The incident of the play during Sir Thomas’s absence questioned the morality, in a most glaring manner, of one of the principal men in Mansfield Park, Edmund Bertram. To see Edmund, the embodiment of Christian morality, of goodness in a sense, fall from the high pedestal on which he had been standing on formerly, was quite a surprise for the reader. However, considering that Edmund’s inconsistency was the most natural thing in the world, it should not have been a surprise. It was the most natural thing in the world because it showed what it means to be profoundly human; that human beings as a species are flawed, full of contradictions that they are constantly trying to grapple with, that in the face of intense desire, even their reason succumbs. Moreover, most often than not, they are aware of orienting their rationality towards the fulfillment of their desires, but they do it anyway.
This being one of the greatest weaknesses of being human, we are always trying to hide this weakness by forming broad/general narratives to which we try to conform. For example, being aware that the determining factor in his decision to act was his own attraction to Miss Crawford, Edmund constantly tries to justify his decision in terms of being forced into it for the sake of the interests of the others, i.e. he tries to justify the contradiction in his beliefs and action by saying he is “….being driven into the appearance of such inconsistency…” for the sake of the others. Consistency, then, is something unquestionable, the overarching ideal here that Edmund tries to conform to. To explain what I mean more clearly, to be consistent in belief and action is considered to be inherently agreeable, and so even when Edmund is following his heart by deciding to act the part of Anhalt which contradicts with his beliefs, he tries to show that his actions are still consistent with his beliefs by saying that he is doing this for the good of the others.
The incident of the play during Sir Thomas’s absence questioned the morality, in a most glaring manner, of one of the principal men in Mansfield Park, Edmund Bertram. To see Edmund, the embodiment of Christian morality, of goodness in a sense, fall from the high pedestal on which he had been standing on formerly, was quite a surprise for the reader. However, considering that Edmund’s inconsistency was the most natural thing in the world, it should not have been a surprise. It was the most natural thing in the world because it showed what it means to be profoundly human; that human beings as a species are flawed, full of contradictions that they are constantly trying to grapple with, that in the face of intense desire, even their reason succumbs. Moreover, most often than not, they are aware of orienting their rationality towards the fulfillment of their desires, but they do it anyway.
This being one of the greatest weaknesses of being human, we are always trying to hide this weakness by forming broad/general narratives to which we try to conform. For example, being aware that the determining factor in his decision to act was his own attraction to Miss Crawford, Edmund constantly tries to justify his decision in terms of being forced into it for the sake of the interests of the others, i.e. he tries to justify the contradiction in his beliefs and action by saying he is “….being driven into the appearance of such inconsistency…” for the sake of the others. Consistency, then, is something unquestionable, the overarching ideal here that Edmund tries to conform to. To explain what I mean more clearly, to be consistent in belief and action is considered to be inherently agreeable, and so even when Edmund is following his heart by deciding to act the part of Anhalt which contradicts with his beliefs, he tries to show that his actions are still consistent with his beliefs by saying that he is doing this for the good of the others.
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