The Colony in Mansfield Park, A Said and Maryam Wasif inspired analysis

The Colony in Mansfield Park

In Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, the concept of a colony holds a rather nuanced meaning for me. The obvious thing to note about it is the scarcity of reference – the word colony or the colony in question “Antigua” has been mentioned according to Said, “a mere half a dozen times of passing reference”. At face value, it might seem that this relegates the colony in terms of importance to the periphery, in stark contrast to the metropolis of the English imagination that happens to be Mansfield Park. However, the brilliance of Said’s argument in my opinion lies in him pointing out the contradictory nature of this relegation. Even though Mansfield Park happens to be the metropolis and Antigua the periphery, the metropolis or the core wouldn’t be so without the periphery. In an almost Hegelian way, the interaction of the periphery and the core and the otherizing that takes place hitherto, fuels the nationalism of the English imagination that terms these colonies as mere agricultural “estates” or “extensions” as Mill’s quotation in Said would have it. Once, the otherizing process reaches its natural conclusion, the colony becomes a point of contrast for the adherents of the English imagination. To begin with, according to Said, the dominant discourse of the one wielding power “assumes the silence” of the dominated. By virtue of falling outside an exclusive national outlook, a lot of processes including spatial and territorial “incorporation”, “inclusion”, “Direct rule” and “coercion” take place but due to the fact that the imagination is exclusive and its exclusivity is dependent upon its superiority, the inferiority of the colony and its recognition is assumed and the “acknowledgement” necessary is never forthcoming.

Even if and when the acknowledgement does come, its one which is more or less, always tinged by a degree of condescension. Fanny considers her uncle’s talk of the West Indies as something entertaining. This doesn’t imply a sense of true curiosity because an objective and non-partisan listener would find them informative or satiating. The degree of hilarity implied via the use of the word entertaining shows the same superiority, encapsulated in the English imagination and typified and epitomized by Fanny that Said was so quick to point out. The fact that the colony is merely seen as an “object” to support and sustain the empire can also be extrapolated via the reference made of the East Indies as the place where William could get a shawl. If East Indies was a human being, people would allege Austen of gross commodification and dehumanization. In this context, though, this only holds up Said’s argument about the periphery’s identity as a source of convenience to the metropolis. Another instance where we can see the chauvinism intrinsic to the English imagination is the musings of Mrs. Price in which she is wondering whether Sir Thomas would take send her eldest of 10 years old to the West Indian estate as “no situation could be beneath him”. This shows, firstly, a very pessimistic view of the colony as a place that wasn’t the safe haven that England was and going there would be unfortunate to say the very least. Also, it could be seen as a place for disposing of the excess for the economic situation of Mrs. Price made William a burden she would love to get off her chest.