TEAM HENRY CRAWFORD

ABSTRACT: This blog post aims to prove that Henry Crawford did possess a certain degree of morality, and had Fanny not been so blindly in love with Edmund, she would not have suffered as much as she thought she would by marrying Henry. It would have actually been a better ending to 'Mansfield Park'.

“He was in love, very much in love; and it was a love which, operating on an active, sanguine spirit, of more warmth than delicacy, made her affection appear of greater consequence, because it was witheld, and determined him to have the glory, as well as the felicity of forcing her to love him.” 

Just like the classic ‘knight in shining armour’ or the ‘damsel in distress’, literary tradition has often played on the notion of a ‘reckless philanderer’ who finds his entire world turned upside down when he falls prey to true love for the very first time. Today’s modern playboy takes shape in the character of Henry Crawford of ‘Mansfield Park’, whose self-professed, genuine attachment to Fanny Price reminded me of James Harthouse’s pursuit of Louisa Gradgrind in Dickens’ ‘Hard Times’, and Victome de Valmont’s conquest of Madame de Tourvel’s heart in Choderlos de Laclos’ ‘Dangerous Liaisons’. While all these attachments begin as frivolous games and unanimously transform the hearts of the predators respectively, Henry Crawford’s case stands out because Austen endows him with a degree of likability, making it hard for the reader to loath him. When pitched against Edmund Bertram, I realized I was rooting for Henry to end up with the virtuous Fanny, especially since Henry’s proposal is timed parallel to Edmund’s constant, desperate yearning for Mary Crawford in the novel.

If ‘Mansfield Park’ is read as a bildungsroman tracing Fanny’s growth and development as a character, Henry can easily be evaluated along similar lines. Fanny says, “I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman’s feelings”, but it is important to note how no character in ‘Mansfield Park’ is designed to be perfect. Unquestionably, the way Henry Crawford toys with Julia and Maria Bertram simultaneously makes his morality debatable, while Edmund, the aspiring clergyman, serves as the moral compass of the entire structural framework of the novel on account of his firm principles. However, Austen adds complexity by offsetting this balance through a subtle contrast of the way both characters react under the influence of love. In his desperation to win over Fanny, Henry exhibits traits of decency and goodness that redeem him after his past indiscretions in my eye, such as the way he helps William secure a promotion, and willingly immerses himself into the lower class world of Portsmouth while courting Fanny. Edmund, on the other hand, falls in my opinion, as he chooses Mary over his value system when he consents to the performance of ‘Lovers Vows’ at Mansfield, and spends months attending parties in London hoping to win Mary's favour, despite explicitly claiming to dislike such meaningless socializing. 

This brings to light an interesting alternate ending to the one presented in the novel – since Henry evidently has potential for moral development, marrying Fanny would have truly “saved” him as Mary claims, and similarly, Mary also displays a certain level of goodness that could have been cemented by a match with Edmund. If Edmund and Fanny are constructed as the ‘ideal’ Christian man and woman, it is certainly arguable that they would have gained more from a chance to use their morality to help the Crawfords overcome their fundamental flaws and become more righteous people, than they would attained from a marriage with each other. There's nothing more noble than being handed a chance to reform a fellow human being's life for the better, especially if the change under discussion is as massive as converting a philanderer into a faithful, one-woman man. 

One might question whether Henry’s fall out with Maria Rushworth after their scandalous affair is a disguised forecast of how Henry and Fanny’s marriage would have turned out if it had happened, but Henry never claims to love Maria the way he is attached to Fanny. He knows Maria is engaged, and he believes, “All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done”, which practically defines how meaningless he considers his endeavors with her are. On the other hand, he comes to see Fanny as an “angel”, and realizes he will never be good enough for her, but is still determined to benefit her, and himself, through his companionship. Here, the psyche of a character like Henry Crawford should also be considered; for an aimless wanderer with enough resources to always be in search of entertainment, the constancy he displays in his pursuit of Fanny is novel and commendable. Even the closing chapter of the novel reiterates the sincerity of his love despite his disgraceful association with Mrs. Rushworth, for he seemed to be “regretting Fanny even at the moment, but regretting her infinitely more when all the bustle of the intrigue was over”. Time with Maria serves as a “force of contrast”, and he wretchedly misses Fanny – the woman “he had rationally as well as passionately loved” for the “sweetness of her temper, the purity of her mind, and the excellence of her principles”. Safe to say, Henry Crawford did charm me enough to slightly hate Fanny for being a little selfish. Her virtue verges on being too extreme when she completely disregards the possibility of Henry's sincerity, consequently rejecting him and subjecting him to such emotional misery, that too in favour of a cousin who spent months using her as a shoulder to cry on while the girl he really loved toyed with his emotions.

Proponents of the Edmund-Fanny match might criticize Henry all they want, but it would be too harsh a judgment to call him an entirely immoral character. Austen leaves it to the reader to imagine the possible implications of Fanny becoming Mrs. Crawford, and Mary becoming Mrs. Bertram, but she ends up shaping the moral of ‘Mansfield Park’ on the basis of the protagonist’s meaningful comment, “I think it ought not to be set down as certain, that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself”.