Top 10 Period Drama Villains: #3

3. Henry Crawford (Alessandro Nivola) - Mansfield Park

Just to warn you in case you haven't read or watched Mansfield Park - there will probably be some spoilers in this post.

Jane Austen created some of the most truly good, honourable, gentlemanly heroes in literature, but she generally didn't write too many charming, conflicted villains - she was too sensible and too realistic for that. Her scoundrels are almost always - well, just plain scoundrels! No romantic illusions here! Mr. Elliot, Mr. Wickham, Frank Churchill, John Thorpe. . . There are two great exceptions, however - John Willoughby and Henry Crawford. Henry Crawford has always been my favourite Jane Austen villain/anti-hero.

But why? Probably because he seemed so close to truly reforming/repenting. Or maybe that was just my romantic fancy, as a 14-year-old girl reading the book for the first time. I loved Henry and Fanny as a couple. They make a much more intriguing combination than Edmund and Fanny, who are arguably the most boring couple in the Austen canon. I desperately wanted Henry to get his act together and mend his ways, so that he could be truly worthy of Fanny. Of course, in the end, he stumbles and throws away every chance of future happiness with Fanny. Stupid, stupid Henry.

Could he have been satisfied with the conquest of one amiable woman’s affections, could he have found sufficient exultation in overcoming the reluctance, in working himself into the esteem and tenderness of Fanny Price, there would have been every probability of success and felicity for him. His affection had already done something. Her influence over him had already given him some influence over her. Would he have deserved more, there can be no doubt that more would have been obtained. . . Would he have persevered, and uprightly, Fanny must have been his reward, and a reward very voluntarily bestowed. . .

-Mansfield Park, Chap. XXXXVIII

Joseph Beattie as Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park 2007

In terms of on-screen Henrys - I thought Alessandro Nivola's performance (MP 1999) was the most memorable. Joseph Beattie in the 2007 adaptation was also okay. The Henry in the 1983 adaptation, however, came across as a snivelling, rodent-like idiot, with the none of the necessary charm or charisma.

So:

Your thoughts on Henry Crawford, and Mansfield Park? Did you want Henry and Fanny to end up together, or were you on "Team Edmund"?

Which is your favourite screen adaptation of Mansfield Park? Your favourite Henry Crawford?

Do you have a favourite Austen villain?

Also, whilst preparing this post, I came across this comparison of Henry Crawford's and Fizwilliam Darcy's characters at Pemberley.com. Interesting. Darcy isn't perfect, either, but his strength of character shows up all the better when compared against Crawford's lack of resolve and self-control. Also, come to think of it, Mansfield Park could almost be seen as a subverted form of P&P. . . but that's a whole other post altogether.

Mansfield Park

Fanny's (Australian actress Frances O'Connor) first ball

I've just finished reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. This is only the second time I've read it through. I thought I'd take the time to jot down some of my thoughts, as I did with P&P a few weeks ago.

(I'm assuming that my readers are familiar with the plot and characters; if you're not, get yourself a copy of the book and read it, for goodness sake!)

Mary Crawford (Embeth Davidtz)

In MP, moreso than in almost any other Austen book, one gets a sense of the living, breathing society of Regency England. I'm not just talking about the upper-middle-class and the aristocracy. In MP, we see many instances of the Bertrams and their associates interacting with people from all levels of society, including the lower classes.

There tends to be this public perception (no doubt influenced by all the movie adaptations of Austen's work that have been made) that the characters in any given Austen novel do little more than:

a.) Sit inside and drink tea; the ladies might also do some embroidery, while the gentleman bestow gallantries on all and sundry,

b.) Spend hours and hours gracefully walking through the beautiful park grounds of various stately homes; the ladies in their bonnets, the gentlemen in top hats,

c.) Get all dressed up and go to balls, participating in complicated, well-choreographed "country dances", and, mostly importantly,

d.) Fall in and out of love; the gentlemen making, the ladies receiving, various proposals of marriage.

Of course, this is all complete rubbish. 19th century life was comprised of much more than drinking tea and going to balls, and this illustrated again and again in MP.

Henry (Allessandro Nivola) and Mary Crawford

Some examples of the Bertrams' active involvement in Regency life:

*Tom Bertram, the eldest son, the one who should be responsible and mature, is rarely at home. Instead, he is constantly spending time with various friends, drinking, partying, attending the [horse]races. . . (hey, I didn't say that all this "active involvement in Regency life" was positive!)

*Edmund is also not often at home through much of Fanny's girlhood. He is off attending school at Eton, then university at Oxford.

The indolent Lady Bertram (Lindsey Duncan) with her beloved Pug

*We are told that Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram used to go to London every year, where Sir Thomas would "attend his duty in Parliament" (chap. 2) until eventually Lady Bertram decided she couldn't be bothered with the annual trip to London, leaving her husband to go alone each year.

*Sir Thomas regularly checks his "plantations" on his estate (chap. 20). Presumably crops/trees? The "farming" aspect of having a large country estate in the 1800s? 

Julia Bertram (Justine Waddell) with Aunt Norris (Sheila Gish)

*Aunt Norris is a busybody (almost like a much nastier version of Mrs. Lynde from Anne of Green Gables) so not surprisingly she is constantly interfering and bossing people around (e.g. the housekeeper and gardener at Sotherton, chap. 10; the carpenter's son, chap. 15, etc. etc.)

Fanny's childhood home in Portsmouth

*William's involvement in the navy. And indeed, the Price family and their home provide a unique glimpse into the lives of a genuinely poor family living in the city (Portsmouth). They have enough to keep clothed and fed; but little more. 

The above are just a few examples out of many.

Henry Crawford and Fanny Price

Mansfield Park is a book that can be enjoyed on many levels, depending on how deep you want to delve into the moral and philosophical questions that are posed with brilliant subtlety. There are many passages in the book that could be seen to have a secondary meaning in them. But, on the other hand, Mansfield Park is also enjoyable simply as a wonderfully good Regency soap opera, with drama and love triangles galore.

Henry and Fanny again. . . 

I realised once again just how different MP is in tone from Austen's other books. There are hints of Jane Austen's marvellous wit here and there, but for the most part MP is much more serious than any of the three books Austen had previously penned - Northanger Abbey, S&S, and P&P.

The young Fanny (Hannah Taylor Gordon) travels from Portsmouth to her Uncle's house, Mansfield Park

Jane Austen doesn't usually use up many passages in poetic descriptions of nature -- this doesn't mean that JA didn't appreciate the natural world; I think she just preferred to focus on people, not landscapes, in her novels. Here in Mansfield Park, however, our heroine Fanny Price is a nature-loving soul, and there are several descriptive passages of a kind that we don't normally see in Austen's novels.

Henry Crawford. Henry CRAWFORD! He is the only Austen "bad boy" for whom I have any real sympathy, but in the end I always want to wring his neck. You stupid man! If only he had stood firm and resisted temptation, he could have won the heart of the woman he loved and lived happily ever after with her. Instead, he took the bait, he failed the test, and in doing so, forever shattered all his hopes of happiness.

Henry Crawford, ruined by early independence and bad domestic example, indulged in the freaks of a cold–blooded vanity a little too long. Once it had, by an opening undesigned and unmerited, led him into the way of happiness. Could he have been satisfied with the conquest of one amiable woman’s affections, could he have found sufficient exultation in overcoming the reluctance, in working himself into the esteem and tenderness of Fanny Price, there would have been every probability of success and felicity for him. His affection had already done something. Her influence over him had already given him some influence over her ... Would he have persevered, and uprightly, Fanny must have been his reward, and a reward very voluntarily bestowed, within a reasonable period from Edmund’s marrying Mary.

Had he done as he intended, and as he knew he ought, by going down to Everingham after his return from Portsmouth, he might have been deciding his own happy destiny...

...we may fairly consider a man of sense, like Henry Crawford, to be providing for himself no small portion of vexation and regret: vexation that must rise sometimes to self–reproach, and regret to wretchedness, in having so requited hospitality, so injured family peace, so forfeited his best, most estimable, and endeared acquaintance, and so lost the woman whom he had rationally as well as passionately loved.

(MP, chapter 48)

Henry, you IDIOT!

Another one of the reasons why I like Henry - he has the sense to fall in love with the right girl! Edmund has steadier principles and better morals than Henry, and yet he falls for the selfish and worldly Mary Crawford. Eventually, in the final two pages of the book, Edmund comes to his senses and realises it was Fanny he loved all along, &c., but I still get a little bit annoyed with him for falling in love with Mary instead of Fanny.

~~~~~

Now - a couple of discussions starters.

• Have you read Mansfield Park? How would you rate it against Jane Austen's other books? What did you think of Fanny Price?
• Henry Crawford - did you loathe him, or did you (like me) secretly want Henry and Fanny to get together? In literature, who are some of your favourite could-have/should-have/would-have bad boys who almost came good, but didn't?

The pictures featured in this post are from the 1999 adaptation of MP. It's not a great adaptation of the book, and in some ways it wildly diverges from Austen's plot and characters. I don't necessarily recommend the film, but the pictures are gorgeous.

Current Mood: Sleepy

Mansfield Park 1983

I hadn't previously bothered about what I considered the "old" BBC adaptations of Jane Austen's novels done pre-Pride and Prejudice 1995; however, viewing the great acting and quiet charm of Pride and Prejudice 1980 made me sit up and take note. Never again will  I dismiss a movie version of a favourite book simply because it's 'out-dated' or made on a less-than-lavish budget.

I recently finished watching the BBC's 1983 adaptation of Mansfield Park. I'm assuming that most of my readers are at least vaguely familiar with the plot of MP, but for those of you who aren't. . .

Jane Austen begins Mansfield Park by telling us the story of three sisters. 

Sister no.1 marries a Rev. Mr. Norris, a tolerably well-off clergyman.

Sister no.2 has the good fortune to captivate and marry the very wealthy Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park.

Sister no.3 marries a charming but penniless sailor by the name of Price, much to the consternation of sisters 1. and 2.

Fast-forward some twenty years: Mr. and Mrs. Norris are still childless. They live and work at Mansfield parsonage, very close by to Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram at Mansfield Park. Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram have four children: Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia. Mrs Price (Sister 3) lives in poverty. Her charming sailor turned out to be bit of a good-for-nothing, and she now has half-a-dozen young children to care for. She writes to her wealthy Sister Bertram, begging for help. The Bertrams agree to help by taking on the care of one of the Price children.

And so it came to be that ten-year-old Fanny Price, the eldest girl, was sent to live with her wealthy cousins.

Fanny is a painfully shy, extremely timid child. Her relations mistake her shyness for ill manners. They simply do not understand her, and poor Fanny doesn't receive a very warm welcome. The only one who is kind to her, the one person who takes the time to listen and understand is Fanny's cousin, Edmund.

Young Fanny and Edmund walking together in the ground of Mansfield Park

Fast-forward another nine years: the four Bertram children are now quite grown-up. Tom has grown into a very irresponsible young man. Edmund has grown to be a very responsible young man. Maria and Julia are beautiful and accomplished, ready to enter the 'marriage market' of Regency society.

Fanny is now nineteen, and as quiet and timid as ever. She and Edmund are still very good friends - indeed, her feelings for him are beginning to grow into something beyond what one would normally feel for a cousin and friend. . .

Fanny Price, played by Sylvestra le Touzel

During this most interesting time in the lives of the five young cousins, several notable events unfold:

1. Sir Thomas travels to the West Indies to see to his estate in Antigua. He takes his son, Tom, with him.

2. Maria Bertram get engaged to a Mr. Rushworth, an exceedingly rich, exceedingly stupid young man.

3. Two new arrivals come to stay in the neighbourhood - brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford, bringing with them all the sophistication and worldliness of London society.

The two Bertram girls promptly fall in love with Mr. Crawford; Maria despite her engagement to Mr. Rushworth. Meanwhile, Edmund seems to be falling for the glamorous Miss Crawford. . . Fanny is the beholder and observer of all of this. 

OK, I won't go an further - I don't want to spoil it for anyone who doesn't know the story, and I don't want to bore any who do know how the story ends.

There have been three film/TV adaptations of MP made in recent years. ITV produced a short TV movie based on MP as part of their "Jane Austen Season". It was OK for what it was, I guess. It's main flaws were a. it was too short, only 90 minutes, b. Billie Piper was entirely miscast as Fanny Price, and c. it was clearly made on a very slim budget - the whole thing was shot at just one location!

The 1999 film probably needn't even be mentioned here. Basically, the director, Patricia Rozema, took the title and the characters of the book (and the name of the author - the name of Jane Austen has become a great selling point), and twisted and changed both characters and plot to suit her own agenda. It's not a bad film, but it really isn't a proper adaptation of Mansfield Park at all.

And so we come to Mansfield Park 1983, a five hour, six-episode miniseries. Opinion seems to be divided over MP83. It seems you'll either like it, or you won't. 

Mansfield Park is not Jane Austen's most popular novel, but it is, I think, one of her best. It is a very moral book. Fanny Price is a very moral heroine. In no way could she be interpreted as a feminist (mind you, people have tried to mould her into feminist, but they couldn't so it without changing her character completely). She does not fit our ideal of a modern, independent woman. I think that all partially explains MP's lack of popularity today. If someone is going to make a film version of Mansfield Park today, they seem to feel that they have to change Fanny to make her acceptable for modern audiences. They feel they have to re-work Mansfield Park so that heroine and story fall in line with our modern sensibilities and secular worldview.

This is understandable. However, I will confess that it has been a source of some irritation to me in the past - this compulsion felt by modern film-makers to change Fanny.

All the above made me all the more appreciative of the willingness shown by the makers of MP83 to accept MP for the book that it is, and Fanny for the heroine that she is. If only film-makers today would be brave enough to do likewise. Honestly we're as bad as the Bertrams - we simply won't love and accept Fanny for who she is.

Fanny waiting. . .

The actress who played Fanny in MP83 seemed to understand Fanny's character. Her acting was perhaps less than remarkable at times, but at least her interpretation of Fanny's character was correct.

Most of the other actors were good. Jackie Smith-Wood as Mary Crawford, Bernard Hepton as Sir Thomas, Jonathan Stephens as Mr. Rushworth, and Samantha Bond as Maria Bertram were all good. Nicholas Farrell was excellent as Edmund. I do think that Blake Ritson from the more recent ITV Mansfield Park looked more like Edmund, but Farrell's acting was superior - he played the part better. (Or so I thought!)

But the actress who played Lady Bertram - ugh! She played the part as though Lady Bertram was a loony, or an alcoholic, or worse. . .I found her a bit annoying at times. Maybe she was trying to bring a bit of comic relief to this otherwise very serious production, but she only succeeded in being weird, not funny.

The other actor who I thought was seriously miscast was Robert Burbage as Henry Crawford. His acting was below par, and he wasn't nearly as charming or magnetic as Henry Crawford needs to be. This was a serious drag on the series. Crawford supplies much of the energy and momentum in Mansfield Park. Getting the right person playing the part was crucial, and here they failed.

My only other major complaint after viewing this series: the terrible, shocking, dreadful wigs! I can think of no adjective expressive enough to describe my horror of the wigs worn by those poor actors. Jackie Smith-Wood (Mary Crawford) was quite attractive, but her wig all but spoiled her appearance. The wig worn by the dude who played Mr. Yates was so bad, it was hilarious. Edmund's wig was also badly done.

Fanny riding

Other than that, I found MP83 to be a satisfying adaptation of one of my favourite books. The chemistry between the two leads was a little lacking, but performances from most of the other actors were quite good. The cinematography was  - well - hmmm. The sound engineering - ditto. But what do you expect from a low budget production made in  1983?  Really, it's not all that bad.

So, even with all my little quibbles, if I had to give this production a rating out of 10, it would be somewhere around 8. They stuck to the text of the novel, kudos to them for that. It's an earnest, faithful adaptation of a great book, and this shines through in spite of all its shortcomings.

In the end, if you've read the book, you'll appreciate this long, in-depth version of MP. If you haven't read the book - shame on you! Skip to it and read the book. Definitely read the book before you watch this or any other film or tv version of Mansfield Park.

Mary Crawford, Edmund, and Fanny eating dinner

Fun Trivia

Costume drama fans may spot a few familiar faces in MP83!

* Sylvestra le Touzel (Fanny Price), played Mrs. Allan in Andrew Davies' recent adaptation of Northanger Abbey. She also plays the part of Marianne Thornton in the movie Amazing Grace.

*Jonny Lee Miller (Charles Price, younger brother of Fanny) ended up being in two versions of Mansfield Park - he played Edmund Bertram in Mansfield Park 1999.

* Samantha Bond (Maria Bertram) played Mrs. Weston in Emma 1996 (the Kate Beckinsale one).

* Bernard Hepton (Sir Thomas Bertram) played alongside Samantha Bond in Emma 1996. He played the part of Mr. Woodhouse, Emma's father.

Click here to watch Mansfield Park 1983 online.