Mansfield Park Characters

In the immortal words of Patches O'Houlian of the movie Dodgeball, "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball." However, if you're Fanny Price, you don't bother dodging anything at all. See,...

The Poster-Boy for MoralityEdmund has a lot of things in common with a Greek guy named Pygmalion. In the myth, Pygmalion was a sculptor who made a piece representing his ideal woman and then fell i...

Add some stuff on her background (bad upbringing) and morals.The Almost-HeroineMary Crawford really seems like she should be the heroine of this book. She's charming and funny and witty. She proves...

Henry the Almost-Romantic HeroHenry would make a fantastic lead in a modern-day romantic comedy movie. As in so many movies, Henry does the classic "I'm going to make this nerdy girl fall in love w...

Sir Thomas Bertram is like a Dementor, from Harry Potter. OK, so he doesn't suck out people's souls. Though his daughters might argue that is so. No, Sir Thomas is like a Dementor of fun. He can su...

Mrs. Norris is the kind of relative that you attempt to hide from at family reunions. The woman is pretty awful and is the most easily identifiable antagonist in the novel. And in a story where cha...

Maria Bertram is not a nice girl. She's arrogant and rude and is often mean to her family. She's also selfish and greedy – she wants to marry for money just so she can escape Mansfield Park a...

Julia Bertram is a bit of a mystery. For much of the novel she functions as Maria's shadow. She's always second-best: she loses Henry to Maria; she loses a part in the play to Maria and then to Mar...

It is possible that Lady Bertram is actually a zombie. We're not entirely sure that she's fully aware, awake, or alive half the time. Lady Bertram is so lazy that she comes across as constantly out...

Tom, the oldest of the Bertram children, stands to inherit his father's estate. He starts off the novel as Mary Crawford's love interest, and he's instrumental in getting the "Mansfield theatricals...

William Price is the good brother in this book. He is Fanny's best friend and he treats his sister very well. And, interestingly enough, William actually has a lot in common with Edmund for much of...

According to the narrator and every character in the book, Mr. Rushworth is a fool. And it is probably true. In fact, Mr. Rushworth appears to be more slow on the uptake than completely foolish. Si...

Mr. Yates was totally born in the wrong era. If were alive now he'd probably be on one of those reality shows that tries to cast someone in a Broadway musical. Mr. Yates only cares about the theate...

Susan Price, Fanny's little sister, acts as a "what-if" scenario for Fanny. The entire time Fanny is visiting her family in Portsmouth, she is continually confronted with questions of "What if?..."...

Mrs. Grant is one of the most easily likable characters in the book. Even Fanny, who often silently judges people, can find nothing but nice things to say about Mrs. Grant: Mrs. Grant was of conseq...

Fanny's mother is basically Lady Bertram's poor doppelganger, which is a fun German word for "double." Even Fanny notes the similarities between the two sisters and, had circumstances been differen...

There is no love lost between Fanny and her father. Mr. Price scarcely notices Fanny at all when she comes home to visit. And Fanny disapproves of her drunk, loud, and rude father. He often embarra...

The youngest Price child, Betsey is very spoiled by her mother and tends to run amuck in the household, not doing what she's told and stealing from Susan. She's a little kleptomaniac, or shop-lifte...

Rebecca is the Price family's incompetent house maid. She's never around when she's needed, she never does what she's supposed to, and when she does do something it is done very slowly. Mrs. Price...

The husband of Mrs. Grant, and fifteen years her senior, Dr. Grant is a friendly and educated clergyman who moves in to the parsonage at Mansfield Park and conveniently allows the Crawfords to move...

The guardian of Mary and Henry, he's generally considered to be a bad influence and his home is presented as a bad place to raise the young Mary and Henry. The Admiral invited his mistress to move...

Mr. Rushworth's overprotective mother causes some serious problems for Maria Bertram by the novel's end. The narrator hints that Maria behaved pretty badly around her mother-in-law, Mrs. Rushworth...

Christopher Jackson is a tenant at Mansfield Park and he pops up on occasion to do work around the house. Tom Bertram hires him to build sets for the play and he overall seems like a hardworking gu...

Charles Maddox is the person who was going to act in the play Lovers' Vows before Edmund decides to take the part himself. Charles is a friend of Tom's and Mary chooses him over the other candidate...

This is the family that Edmund stays with while he is getting ordained to be a clergyman. While he's gone, Mary gets increasingly anxious and begins to grow jealous of the unmarried Owen daughters....

These two couples are Mary's friends and she goes to visit them while Fanny is away in Portsmouth. Edmund doesn't like her friends at all and sees them as part of the "evil London influence" that r...

These are two families referenced in the anecdotes that Henry and Mary tell during their discussion of girls being "out" in society. Henry and Mary agree that families really should be more clear a...

Lord Ravenshaw is the person at whose house Mr. Yates first encountered the play Lovers' Vows. This production was interrupted by the death of one of the cast member's grandmothers. A depressed Mr....