Chapter Two The Problem of Propriety
2.1 Property and Propriety
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Chapter Two The Problem of Propriety
2.1 Property and Propriety
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, property and propriety originate from the same Latin word proprietas which means “one’s own, particular.” To elaborate these two words, Edward Neill takes Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as an example. He argues that the real reason why Elizabeth chooses Mr. Darcy at the end of the novel is that when she sees Mr. Darcy’s property, Pemberley, she “becomes convinced of his propriety” (Neill 63). In the eighteenth century, one’s estate could reflect the owner’s personality and moral character. If the property is taken care of and presented in good order, the owner is supposed to be a proper one, because only a decent gentleman could manage his property well. The propriety of Pemberley assures that Mr. Darcy has no “improper pride” (Neill 63).
In Mansfield Park, the existence of Mansfield Park is also considered as a representative of “elegance, propriety, regularity, harmony” and “peace and
tranquility” (MP 266). The shape of an estate allegedly can reveal the mentality of the inhabitants or the virtues they are devoted to preserving. For Fanny Price, the heroine who spends part of her childhood in her squalid and overcrowded home in
Portsmouth, Mansfield Park is everything she craves. Jane Austen also designs Mansfield Park as her “eighteenth-century landscape— balanced, reposed, dignified by architectural forms, yet with a hint of the picturesque— where the pattern of human figures takes its meaning from the placement of the figures in the setting”
(Banfield 24). The estate is not just property anymore because it becomes the
embodiment of ideals or virtues. In the novel, Fanny worships representative ideals of Mansfield Park and those ideals also have a strong influence on what she would and
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“Throughout the eighteenth century the general order and stability of society and the ‘rights of property’ were not only inseparably linked: they became regarded as identical” (Tanner 16). In the eighteenth century, property is a visible sign of a man’s inner worth. Moreover, a man’s property involves not only his estate but also those women living therein. Women’s propriety, therefore, becomes an important indicator of their masters’ management skills. If a woman misbehaves, the reputation of her master, usually the patriarch of her household, would suffer, because her misbehavior suggests that he is unable to govern his property well. On the other hand, a proper lady can strengthen a man’s social status. She can embody what a patriarchal society requires correctly, and moreover, she can teach the assumptions of a patriarchal society to their children. We can say that feminine propriety can not only consolidate the connection between men’s property and propriety but also stabilize social order.
Mansfield Park is a novel suffused with properties. Characters in this novel repeatedly
mention and comment on the ownership and the status of others’ properties, be it a house or an object. When Mrs. Prince asks Sir Thomas to help her troubled family economy, she writes: “Was there any chance of his being hereafter useful to Sir Thomas in the concerns of his West Indian Property?” (MP 6). This is not the only example. When Maria talks about what belongs to Mr. Rushworth in Sotherton, “‘she believed it was now all Mr. Rushworth’s property on each side of the road’” (Austen 58). When Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Rushworth discuss the relationship between Henry and Julia, they also mention property: “Miss Julia and Mr. Crawford. Yes, indeed, a very pretty match. What is his property?” (Austen 84)The word “property” also refers to object. Edmund gives Fanny his own horse to stop Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris’s objection. “As the horse continued in name as well as fact, the property of Edmund” (MP 28), Mrs. Norris has to tolerate that Fanny
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can ride her horse regularly. Furthermore, when Fanny goes back to Portsmouth, she brings Betsey a new silver knife to solve the quarreling between Betsey and Susan.
Susan is “pleased . . . to be mistress of property which she had been struggling for at least two years” (MP 270).
It is a strong indication of the importance of the word “property” that, apart from inanimate houses and objects, it also refers to individuals. When Julia meets Henry, she refers to him as her own. “Miss Bertram’s engagement made him in equity the property of Julia, of which Julia was fully aware” (MP 33). After Edmund goes to Peterborough (MP 193), Mary is agitated. She regrets that she speaks ill of the
clergymen, and feels jealous of the sisters of Edmund’s frined Owen. She fears that when she leaves Mansfield Park to London, Edmund may think the Owen sisters are ideal marriage partners (MP 196). When Mary wants to know whether her absence matters to Edmund or not, she asks Fanny whether Edmund is interested Miss Owens.
She mentions that the Owen family could consider Edmund as their future son-in-law.
“He is their lawful property, he fairly belongs to them” (MP 198).
On the other hand, the concept of propriety mostly appears when Austen wants to comment on social expectations. When Sir Thomas considers adopting Fanny, Mrs.
Norris says to Sir Thomas, “I entirely agree with you in the main as to the propriety of doing everything one could by way providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one’s own hands” (MP 7). It is proper to offer help due to “generosity and general conduct” (MP 7). Propriety here indicates that people are required to do what they are capable of doing. In Sir Thomas’s case, as the head of a rich family and the relative of Fanny Price, he is morally obliged to adopt Fanny to save this poor child.
Propriety also involve moral standard and social expectation. When Edmund hears thatMary criticizes her uncle, he remains silent because it does not “suit his sense of propriety” (MP 42). After Mary condemns her uncle in the public space,
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Edmund and Fanny talk about her improper behavior. Except for Mary’s ingratitude toward her uncle, the more severe problem is to “speak so freely of others” (MP 42).
Speaking freely means no concealment. If one can express their opinion without thinking of other’s feeling, such latitude will disturb social order. Mary’s misdeed violates the social norm. It is improper and is not compatible with social expectation governing how people express themselves in the public space.
Propriety is quite relevant to social expectation and norm, but it is stricter when it comes to women. When Maria is jealous of Julia because she gains an opportunity to be with Henry Crawford, Maria thinks of her propriety before expressing her annoyance.
For the first seven miles Miss Bertram had very little real comfort: her prospect always ended in Mr. Crawford and her sister sitting side by side, full of conversation and merriment; and to see only his expressive profile as he turned with a smile to Julia, or to catch the laugh of the other, was a perpetual source of irritation, which her own sense of propriety could but just smooth over…She had Rushworth-feelings, and Crawford-feelings, and in the vicinity of Sotherton, the former had considerable effect. Mr.
Rushworth’s consequece was hers (MP 58-9).
Maria has to consider her position as a woman, who cannot express her feeling freely in the public place, and furthermore, she is an engaged woman. Although Maria does not care about Mr. Rushworth that much, it is her duty to maintain her future
husband’s prestige. In this case, propriety is related to women’s public image. They have to act like a proper lady who perfectly lives up to the expectation of patriarchal society, and their decisions are supposed to keep up the good reputations of their masters, their fathers or husbands.
Their behavior symbolizes their master’s control of them because they are the
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embodiment of men’s property. Women cannot transgress the social norm which is established by men. We can see, again, that women’s propriety is the strategy to stabilize a patriarchal society. This strategy, as the passage above suggests, is deeply rooted in women’s consciousness and persuades women to believe that propriety is a virtue they should devote themselves to upholding.
The main controller of propriety in the novel is the master of Mansfield Park, Sir Thomas. He has every right to decide what is proper and what is not. He is the only standard of propriety, and Mansfield Park is not only his property but is also the embodiment of Sir Thomas’s propriety. When Sir Thomas is not at home, the only standard and the judge disappear. Everything is out of control. His children choose a scandalous play to perform without his permission (MP 122). When he comes back home, he has to put everything in order again. He believes that the timing, the group, and the play are highly improper so that everything about the performance must be canceled (MP 129). The improper behavior is not only against the social norm but also dishonors and disrespects the master’s reputation. Sir Thomas here is the only one who can decide what is proper because the propriety of his children is also part of his property. He has to maintain the order of Mansfield Park so that his property, including his house and reputation, will not be endangered by rebellious behavior.
Mary Evans, in her book Jane Austen and the State, also supports the connection of male propriety and his estate. She states that “[t]he country estate is again crucial here, for Austen makes men’s attitude to it one measure of male virtue and good judgment” (Evans 21).
A master’s will is everything to the establishment of propriety. Every inhabitant is under his government. He has the right to allow Fanny to accept an invitation for Mrs. Grant dinner party (MP 149). An inhabitant, especially women, who cannot inherit the property and become their master, has to follow their master’s order. Their
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propriety is also the embodiment of their master’s will. Fanny is required to wait for Sir Thomas’s permission so that she can go to the party. A submissive woman is the representative of propriety. However, her master alone decides whether she behaves properly or not. If Sir Thomas thinks she is compatible with his standard of propriety, then, she is a proper lady. Through these cases, we can see that feminine propriety is constructed by men, not by themselves. Women are just an embodiment of men’s ideal propriety or even a tool that can help them to keep their property and reputation in good order.
The propriety decided by men’s expectation is deeply bound to the image of their property. When Fanny leaves Mansfield Park to Portsmouth, all she thinks of Mansfield Park is how orderly and peaceful it has always been (MP 250). She significantly forgets the tears, sorrow, repression and emotional violence that she has experienced in Mansfield Park. This forgetfulness suggests that she firmly believes that Mansfield Park is a “proper” place for a woman to live in and that everything there goes on “properly.” It also indicates how effective Sir Thomas’s skill of management is. He succeeds in linking his property with propriety, making the two synonymous terms. Fanny plays an important role in validating the interconnection of property and propriety. At the same time, she subordinates her own individuality to that of a man. This self-effacement is the price that eighteenth-century women are expected to pay for the title of “proper lady.”