The Cultural Imagination Of The City In Mansfield Park

Being one of the major novelists in Great Britain. Jane Austen is, however, often regarded as a lover of people living in the manor. Thus, critics sometimes criticize her for centering on her familiar people and surroundings and neglecting the outside world. It is true that Austen's novels are almost about the gentlemen and ladies in the manor. Nevertheless, if readers read her novels closely and critically enough, they will find that there exist urban elements in her novels. Mansfield Park, for example, embodies significant urban imagery that deserves due critical attention.Mansfield Park (1814) was written during the burgeoning Industrial Revolution. Under the pulling of the Industrial Revolution, the whole British society advanced rapidly. Naturally, London developed and expanded at speed. The rapid development of the city London brought people many conveniences, at the same time it also incurred many disadvantages to people's life. This unfavorable aspect was just unseen by the majority due to the merits of the city. When most writers were busy celebrating the prosperity of the city, Austen, however, began to reflect upon its negative aspect.In Mansfield Park, Austen draws many lines on the life in London, namely, people having been to London, the London-comers'influence to the country people, and the country people's opinion to the London and its life style, which maps the trajectory of the modern city. In the first part, the characteristics of London in Austen's Mansfield Park are introduced in detail. Exactly speaking, Partâ… introduces Austen's city culture:she notices the prosperity of the city, but also finds its negative aspect-moral decay in Chapter One, and nature of money-worship in Chapter Two, which are shown by some events in the novel, such as the matter of riding horse, the dispute of theatricals, the choosing of a profession and the problem of affection. In the third chapter, the author introduces the invading character of London, including London's influence on the countryside, and the countryside's struggle against London's influence. Through these analyses, the author hopes to explore Austen's intention to correct the corruptive aspect of the city-using the sense of the country to confine the increasingly expanded desire of the city.