Pashmeena Problems

" Fanny, William must not forget my shawl, if he goes to the East Indies; and I shall give him a commission for any thing else that is worth having. I wish he may go to the East Indies, that I may have my shawl. I think I will have two shawls, Fanny."

While reading this line in Mansfield Park, I couldn't help but notice how unbelievably rude Lady Bertram was being. Not that I appreciated her existence in the first place, all she did was complain about her sick health and play with her Pug but here she was being just plain selfish. If somebody told me that they hoped my brother, who I had recently parted with, went halfway across the world just so they could get their shawls or something equally stupid, I would have been furious. Of course, Fanny was occupied with different thoughts at that time. I told myself that if she wasn't so stunned by Henry Crawford's proposal, she would have shown some displeasure at her aunt's suggestion.

After reading what Said had to comment on Mansfield Park did I realize the reasons for Fanny's 

lack of reaction. Fanny herself is a commodity. I wouldn't go as far to say just like the shawl Lady Bertram desires but not very different from it either. Said writes: "the facts of the empire are associated with sustained possession"

The Bertrams, and more specifically Sir Thomas Bertram, are characterized as the empire. Sir Thomas possesses Fanny and William just as he possesses his estate in Antigua and just as Lady Bertram wishes to posses one, no wait, two shawls from East Indies. The colonies exist at the disposal of the empire. Lady Bertram has every right to own as many shawls as she wishes and the colony of East Indies exists only to provide her with what she wants. Similarly, she has every right to wish an around the world journey for William to fetch her the said shawls. 

I don't want to come off as hating on Lady Bertram, in fact I believe we don't give the woman enough credit. She was able to woo Sir Thomas and from what I'm getting Sir Thomas isn't an easy fellow to woo. The Lady has clearly got some tricks up her sleeve.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that the comparison that Maryam made in class and Said makes in his book(?) is apt. That is all.