Mansfield Park Chapter 10 Summary

  • Fanny is sitting by herself, which is pretty sad. Eventually Maria, Henry, and Mr. Rushworth stumble upon her.
  • They comment on what a bummer it is that she got ditched.
  • However, the group quickly ditches Fanny as well. They want to go check out a hill to get a good view of the property. But there's a locked gate, so Mr. Rushworth goes back to the house to get the key.
  • Maria and Henry start flirting big time in front of Fanny.
  • Henry and Maria then seize this chance to run off by themselves and they hop the fence. They tell Fanny to let Mr. Rushworth know they've gone on ahead. Fanny finds this all very awkward and borderline scandalous.
  • Fanny sits by herself yet again.
  • This entire chapter has a really interesting construction, almost like a play. Nearly the entire chapter takes place at one bench, where Fanny sits while all the other main characters parade by her.
  • Julia now shows up. She's trying to escape from Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Rushworth and she complains that Fanny always manages to get out of situations like that by making herself scarce.
  • Julia is alarmed when she hears that Henry is alone with Maria. She, too, hops the fence and runs off to find the pair and break up their party.
  • Fanny is alone again.
  • Finally Mr. Rushworth comes back out of breath. Mr. Rushworth isn't in the best of shape so his trip back to the house wasn't fun nor very easy.
  • He's upset to find that the others left him. He starts complaining about Henry, and Fanny just lets him rant a while.
  • He leaves, too, and Fanny is alone on her bench yet again.
  • She's upset that Edmund is totally ignoring her.
  • Finally Edmund and Mary return, having been gone way longer than they said they would.
  • They had found a nice tree to sit by and had a very long conversation.
  • Everyone finally makes their way back to the house for dinner. Mr. Rushworth and Julia are both in foul moods.
  • But Julia gets in a better mood when Henry asks if she'll sit next to him on the ride back home.
  • Mrs. Norris has been making a nuisance of herself all day and has somehow managed to get a bunch of free food and other stuff from Mrs. Rushworth. Mrs. Norris is super crafty that way.
  • She'd totally be that person who would hit all the free sample tables at a grocery store way too many times.
  • The ride back is not fun – Mrs. Norris won't shut up and she makes everyone in the carriage hold all her new belongings for her.