Syed Abbas Shah's Post: The Colony in Mansfield Park

A brightly colored object will cast a shadow that, upon being seen, will not enable one to discern the properties of its subject. Nebulous. Enigmatic almost. Similar to the handful of references to Antigua strategically knitted in the large web of power dynamics woven by Jane Austen. What one should bear in mind is that, notwithstanding the seemingly casual position of the colony in the novel, the Imperial Society cannot function without the colony and it would be unwise to look at the two as separate entities in any sense, just as one cannot negate the link between the shadow and the object.

The Colony in Mansfield Park serves the function of a bulwark to the structured, stratified and sophisticated society in which the Mansion is supported. Said societies seek solidification of their own standards and practices by devaluing and subsequently exploiting colonies, whom they consider to be merely convenient extensions of the Empire- akin to farmlands. The ethnocentric lens which is used to survey the indigenous denizens makes them be perceived as “Savages” or “Primitives” who can be effectively regulated by the helpful assumption of their rightful place in a morally consolidated hierarchy employed by their civilized Masters. And so Lord Bertram the Slave Owner goes to oversee the business in Antigua along with his son Tom whose profligate ways added to the financial burden faced by the family. Lord Bertram practiced and enforced himself and his morality with the same authoritarian austerity he maintains at home, while his son Tom was sent back after a short period of time. Everyone and everything in the Structure has a position and a set of roles that they need to follow; for the inhabitants of the Colony, it is an unenviable one of legitimizing and aiding the continued existence of a structure that is crushing their backs.

The troubles and traditions of existence in colonies is rather inadequately expressed by the few references to Antigua that we read of in the novel. Issues like slavery are met with silence when they are raised. In short, the all-consuming nothingness of the shadow successfully enshrouds the colony, obfuscating it from the eyes of all but the most astute of readers.