The colony in the novel

“The empire must be maintained, and it was maintained”

In his essay, Said analyses a wide range of literary texts, which he uses as sources for understanding the dynamics of the whole imperialist enterprise. Mansfield Park represents the center of the empire, the imperial holding of sorts. It is the place where moral values are upheld and it is important to point out that this location is distinguished from all other locations within the novel because of these very values. The colony, on the other hand, is the ever-present but more importantly, silent reference within the novel. Sir Thomas Bertram’s livelihood whisks him away to this foreign land for months on end and yet his business activities are hardly ever mentioned in detail. According to Said the geographical locations that underlie Western fiction are built into a hierarchy within which “the metropolitan center and, gradually, the metropolitan economy are seen as dependent upon an overseas system of territorial control, economic exploitation, and a socio-cultural vision: without these stability and prosperity at home would not be possible” Thus the colony serves a very important purpose within the novel for it services the British imagination. Antigua is not allowed to infiltrate upon the estate but rather it stands as a direct parallel to it. Though Austen displays the “audacity” to speak about the existence of these colonies, she does not explicitly condemn them. As Said says, ”Austen sublimates the agonies of Caribbean existence to a mere half dozen passing references to Antigua.” In this way the colony is not just physically exploited but constantly devalued as well.

When Fanny returns to Portsmouth, her perspective of her own home is completely altered. She sees it through the eyes of the colonizer, lamenting at the “smallness of the house, the thinness of the walls” and the fact that her return fails to elicit any response from her father. There is almost a superiority that she attaches to her cultured self that is a direct result of her stay in Mansfield. She serves as a critical instrument of the empire in the novel, almost as a lens, for she provides a change in perspective. She looks to reform people in her home space to an ordered setting, which is the same logic that the colonizer sets out with. Portsmouth then stands as a parallel to the uncivilized colony of Antigua.