Fanny Price: She’s just trying to help!
It is easy to dislike Fanny because we have so much insight into her inner thoughts and those thoughts are often judgemental and jealous. But when you consider what she does, I hope you will give Fanny a second chance.
Before Mansfield, Fanny was a devoted eldest daughter, who acted as “playfellow, instructress, and nurse” to her younger siblings. She did her best in a house full of children to help out. When she is brought to Mansfield, she is despondent partially because she wants another role. She finds this eventually with Lady Bertram.
Fanny does not resent Mrs. Norris or Lady Bertram for making her into a near servant/unpaid ladies companion. She even has compassion for Mrs. Norris, “Fanny’s disposition was such that she could never even think of her aunt Norris in the meagreness and cheerlessness of her own small house, without reproaching herself for some little want of attention to her when they had been last together” Fanny wants to be helpful, so she does the difficult part of Lady Bertram’s sewing and runs errands for Mrs. Norris without complaint.
When the play happens, Fanny thinks it is a wrong thing to do, but then she helps everyone, “Fanny, being always a very courteous listener, and often the only listener at hand, came in for the complaints and the distresses of most of them.” This is almost exactly the role Anne Elliot takes on at Uppercross in Persuasion. Fanny is also sewing half the costumes at least, acting as a prompter, and trying to teach Rushworth his lines. She could, like Julia, have glared at everyone from the corner and she would have had a better excuse to do so. But she doesn’t, she helps.
When Fanny returns home to Portsmouth, she helps again by preparing her brother’s things for his navy service, “She had great pleasure in feeling her usefulness.” She is able to perceive that Susan and her mother have a toxic relationship. So she uses her small amount of money to buy a knife, resolving one major conflict and then removes Susan from the arguments. She is trying, again, to use whatever resources she has to help.
When Tom is sick, Fanny, “felt truly for them all” and she wants to go home, not just because she is starving and miserable in Portsmouth, but because of “the longing to be useful to those who were wanting her!… Could she have been at home, she might have been of service to every creature in the house. She felt that she must have been of use to all.” Fanny is self-sacrificial and good. She wants to get to Mansfield because she cannot bear being unable to soothe their grief.
Fanny is a nice person who wants to help. She does struggle with unkind feelings, and if we are all honest, who doesn’t? But she does not act on them, she always, constantly, finds a way to help. Is it any wonder that Austen makes her the wife of a clergyman, ready to serve? Can any of us doubt that the children of the parish will be warmly wrapped in clothes lovingly sewed by Mrs. Fanny Bertram? I certainly cannot.