Signs of Crypto-feminism in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park Antara Vashistha College

“But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.” (Austen, 03)

First published in 1814, Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, while on the surficial level posits itself as a conventional text conforming to the contemporary myths pertaining to the idea of feminine ideal and passivity; it also conceals a tension between rebellion and conformity and questions the gender-based codes of conduct. Much like her other novels, Mansfield Park too revolves around the traditional theme of matrimony, bringing in a formulaic structure of romantic code, which though, in tone differs from her novels, such as Pride and Prejudice (1813), and marks itself as more somber and harsher in tone, the resolution though, remains similar as it ends in a matrimony which can be seen as both desirable and mandatory. Meenakshi Mukherjee in her text, Re-Reading Jane Austen (1995) argues that Austen’s texts conceal a sense of crypto-feminism which allows the author to challenge the traditional notions of femininity, highlighting the double standards in gender present as present in contemporary times. Mukherjee argues that unlike the mainstream “maiden-aunt” myth of Austen; her heroines, in various and...