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Today on The Literary Life, we continue our conversation on Jane Austen\\u2019s Mansfield Park. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas share their commonplace quotes, then dive into the book chat, beginning with some commentary on Fanny\\u2019s education in contrast to that of the Bertram sisters. They also talk about the concepts of restraint, temptation, and boundaries and how we see these ideas play out in the various characters. Angelina points out how Fanny is the fixed moral center throughout this whole section. She also talks about the play within the novel and how Austen\\u2019s use of this form reflects Shakespeare. We hope that the discussion opens up new levels of understanding for you as you read this novel along with us!

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Commonplace Quotes:

I entirely agree that it\\u2019s no good trying to coerce or argue artists into giving what they haven\\u2019t got. Either they burst into tears, or go sullen, or\\u2013if they are hearty extraverts\\u2013they cheerfully turn out fifteen new versions, each worse than the last. Actors too. They\\u2019re the most kittle cattle of the lot.

Dorothy Sayers, in a letter to C. S. Lewis

While affording some secrets of the way of the will to young people, we should perhaps beware of presenting the ideas of self-knowledge, self-reverence, and self-control. All adequate education must be outward bound, and the mind which is concentrated on self-emolument, even though it be the emolument of all the virtues, misses the higher and the simpler secrets of life. Duty and service are the sufficient motives for the arduous training of the will that the child goes through with little consciousness.

Charlotte Mason

She is almost a Jane Austen heroine condemned to a Charlotte Bront\\xeb situation. We do not even believe in what Jane Austen tells us of her good looks; whenever we are looking at the action through Fanny\\u2019s eyes, we feel ourselves sharing the consciousness of a plain woman.

C. S. Lewis, \\u201cA Note on Jane Austen\\u201d

Sonnet 23

by William Shakespeare

As an unperfect actor on the stage
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength\\u2019s abundance weakens his own heart;
So I for fear of trust forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love\\u2019s rite,
And in mine own love\\u2019s strength seem to decay,
O\\u2019ercharged with burden of mine own love\\u2019s might.
O, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love and look for recompense
More than that tongue that more hath more expressed.
O, learn to read what silent love hath writ.
To hear with eyes belongs to love\\u2019s fine wit.

Book List:

Towards a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason

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