The failure of Mr Rushworth

“I think they might as well have staid for me”

       In my opinion this statement by Mr. Rushworth summarizes his character entirely. This was all he said to Fanny, when he was ‘illused’ by Maria Bertram and left behind in the woods, while she went off gallivanting with Mr Crawford, a man to whom she owed nothing other than a few pleasant conversations. What remained in the readers mind particularly after this point was a lack of the establishment of a norm of propriety in Maria and Mr. Rushworth’s relationship.

      At several points in the novel it has been reinstated that morality and propriety exists where it has been firmly laid down by the master. In the case of Fanny and the Bertram sisters, Sir Thomas is the centre of morality as it is his honour that the enslaved must uphold. Free from this bond of morality to her father after her engagement, it is now up to Mr. Rushworth to set a standard for propriety in Maria’s life.

      In Maria and Mr. Rushworth’s relationship what is most evident is the inability of the later to establish control over the former, therefore there has not been a successful transfer of ownership. Mary is free to do as she chooses without regard to the man she intends to marry, and as such there is a great lack of morality primarily because Mr. Rushworth is unable to enforce the bounds of propriety. He is the very picture of weakness, and stands in stark contrast to the often imperious Sir Thomas. He does not so much as bat an eyelash when his betrothed romances another man in the play, and is merely concerned with the colour of his sash and never takes it up with Maria. This indicates a collapse in the notions of propriety and morality, primarily because of the weakness of  a master.