The Unsatisfying Conclusion of Mansfield Park Mackenzie Tomlinson College

Mansfield Park is widely regarded as Austen’s least popular novel. Both the novel’s more serious and didactic tone, as well as the timid personality of its heroine, differ considerably from those of Austen’s other works. However, the main problem with the novel lies not in its moralizing or the passivity of Fanny Price, but in the novel’s abrupt and disappointing ending, which combines the two in the most undesirable way. The ending of Mansfield Park is distinct in terms of plot from Austen's other novels due to the fact that neither Fanny or Edmund underwent any significant change and the unconvincing circumstances of their marriage. The role of the narrator is also disparate from Austen’s previous works, as well as the rest of the novel itself. The narrator transforms from a more anonymous background force to a distinct figure who uses first-person language and gives up her omniscience to make guesses and ambiguous statements regarding the fates of the characters. Due to these stylistic choices, and the anticlimactic match between Fanny and Edmund, the conclusion falls short of being satisfying. The ending of Mansfield Park is forced and hurried, and it does not match the rest of the novel in terms of narrative style or tone....