answered: My Thesis Statement While eighteenth-century marriages were

  

My Thesis Statement
While eighteenth-century marriages were often arranged to advance families’ social standing, in Mansfield Park, Jane Austen makes a case for marriage for love’s sake. Particularly through the outcomes of Sir Thomas’s daughters, Austen disavows wealth as grounds for marriage and encourages families to embrace attachment as the true path to marital happiness.
Mansfield Park sits at the center of what is probably the most significant critical debate about any Austen novel. Here is how the debate is framed by Robert Tindal in a recent article:
“One of the most influential readings of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel Mansfield Park is that of Edward Said, which focuses on the seemingly minor detail that the Bertram family owns property in Antigua at a time when slaves are still being used in the West Indian island’s sugar plantations, and that various members of the family are seemingly complacent about the fact. Said’s analysis, which is also one of the most memorable literary interpretations in his 1994 work Culture and Imperialism, has been criticized by those who would defend Austen against accusations that she was relatively indifferent to the issue of slavery. However, the issue is ambiguous because the novel is simply not transparent in its attitude toward slavery – not in the outlook of the characters and certainly not in the novel’s position toward slavery as a social institution.”
Related to the prompt above, this essay option gives you the opportunity to close read and evaluate one of the following characters: Sir Thomas, Fanny, Henry Crawford, or Mary Crawford. By finding quotations in which Austen’s narrator ‘judges’ a character and by using the words or actions of the character him or herself, evaluate the character for yourself. Consider his or her merits and flaws. Your essay will need at least four moments to evaluate (if I am doing Sir Thomas, I might look at Sir Thomas’s multi-pronged efforts to convince Fanny to marry Henry (having the ball, objecting to her refusal, sending her to Portsmouth) and his response to the elopements) and 6 or more quotations.
Requirements:
Your essay should be 3-4 pages and include a “Works Cited.” Your essay should contain 5 or 6 quotations in total.
Remember to introduce the speaker of each quotation and provide analysis of the quotation at least as long as the quote itself.
A primary goal of this class is to learn MLA style and formatting. Here is what you will be responsible for:
Proper MLA heading; suitable title; proper spacing (double spaced throughout entire paper); proper margins (1 inch all around); proper font (12 point, Times or Arial); proper in-text citations; proper Works Cited page.