Examination, Exertion, and Exemplification: Wives of Anglican Clergymen in Jane Austen’S Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Arkp

University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Spring 5-15-2015 Examination, Exertion, and Exemplification: Wives of Anglican Clergymen in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield arkP Lauren K. Sauzer Dunn University of New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Sauzer Dunn, Lauren K., "Examination, Exertion, and Exemplification: Wives of Anglican Clergymen in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield ark"P (2015). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2025. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2025 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Examination, Exertion, and Exemplification: Wives of Anglican Clergymen in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature By Lauren Sauzer Dunn B.A. Louisiana State University, 2006 M.Ed. Louisiana State University, 2007 May 2015 Acknowledgment Special thanks to my director, Dr. Barbara Laning Fitzpatrick, and the other members of my committee, Dr. Les White and Dr. Bob Shenk. Thanks also to my family and friends for their support. ii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Self-Examination: Northanger Abbey ............................................................................................. 9 Examination and Exertion: Sense and Sensibility ......................................................................... 13 Examination, Exertion, and Exemplification: Mansfield Park ..................................................... 23 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 44 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 47 Vita ................................................................................................................................................ 50 iii Abstract Jane Austen’s Anglicanism shaped her works, especially her novels Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. Austen is didactic regarding the future of the clergy of the Church of England through the clergymen in these novels (Henry Tilney, Edward Ferrars, and Edmund Bertram, respectively), but her didacticism is clearest through these characters’ wives, Catherine Morland, Elinor Dashwood, and Fanny Price. Mansfield Park and the marriage of Edmund and Fanny are the most explicit exploration of Austen’s view of what was necessary for the future of the Church as it continued changing in the nineteenth century. Keywords: Austen; Anglican; clergy iv Introduction “Give us grace to endeavour after a truly Christian Spirit to seek to attain that temper of Forbearance and Patience, of which our Blessed Saviour has set us the highest Example and which, while it prepares us for the spiritual happiness of the life to come, will secure us the best enjoyment of what this World can give. Incline us Oh God! to think humbly of ourselves, to be severe only in the examination of our own conduct, to consider our fellow-creatures with kindness, and to judge of all they say and do with that charity which we would desire from them ourselves.” —Jane Austen’s third written prayer (Minor Works 456) Jane Austen’s prayers make it clear that she was a devout, thoughtful Christian, carefully considering her own actions and relying on the grace of God to behave in a more Christ-like manner. Her prayers echo the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, not surprisingly, given her experience as the daughter of an Anglican clergyman. The Anglican Church experienced significant changes during Austen’s time, many of which were related to the role of the clergy. In her novels, Austen’s observations about religion reveal her convictions of how Christians should think and behave, but not nearly as explicitly as her prayers do. Through these same observations, Austen also urges readers to consider how the wives of Anglican clergy and how Anglican clergymen themselves should behave. Austen based these opinions on her own experience as an Anglican at the turn of the nineteenth century. Even though the opinions are clear, the manner in which Austen includes them in the texts is subtle rather than overt. Careful readers will see that Austen believed that the Anglican clergy ideally should act as moral compasses for their congregations, behaving in an exemplary manner that was polite, humble, 1 and guided by consideration of others before themselves. Austen begins revealing these aspects in Northanger Abbey’s Henry Tilney, who, though not an overtly religious clergyman, guides Catherine Morland toward the behavior appropriate of an Anglican of her time. While Henry Tilney shows Austen’s early opinions related to the clergy, the role of the clergy is more important in Sense and Sensibility and finally most imperative in Mansfield Park, reflecting the growing importance of religion in Austen’s own life. Jane Austen’s belief that there should be high standards for clergymen and their wives is made evident in Sense and Sensibility’s Edward Ferrars and Elinor Dashwood and in Mansfield Park’s Edmund Bertram and Fanny Price; however, when compared to the quietly religious Edward and Elinor, openly pious Edmund and Fanny show Austen’s intent to make Mansfield Park a more thorough exploration of her beliefs as religion had become more important to her as she grew older as well as the most didactic of her novels, one that teaches readers what characteristics the future clergy of the Church of England needed to possess. The Church of England, established as such in the sixteenth century, was Protestant and episcopal and considered itself the “median way” between other Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church. The theology of the Anglican Church closely resembled that of other non-Calvinist Protestants, rejecting predestination and emphasizing grace, but its ecclesiastical structure was similar to that of Roman Catholicism. Salvation was “a combination of true faith and good works, free will and divine grace” (Kelly 149). In Austen’s time, groups who disagreed with various theological teachings of the church were known as Dissenters or Nonconformists and were not permitted the same civil rights as regular Anglicans. But many Anglicans disagreed about the role of the clergy in theology, resulting in the Church splitting into High Church, those calling for absolute alliance to the government and church doctrine, and Low 2 Church or Latitudinarians, those advocating that the national church allow for theological differences within itself. Latitudinarians became closely tied to the Whigs, who advocated a collaboration between the monarchy and landed gentry. When the Whigs came to dominate politics, they “brought the established church into the patronage system” that directed the country’s socioeconomic life. Gary Kelly explains that because of this connection between church and state, “the Church of England became increasingly secularized and integrated into the civil order and culture which were dominated by the upper and upper middle classes” (149). This increasing secularization had an effect on Austen’s family and on her writing. Expectations of Anglican clergy changed tremendously during the eighteenth century. Austen’s own family reflects these changes. Her father, George Austen, “an exemplary clergyman in the late eighteenth century,” was ordained when he was twenty-nine and was an absentee. After he came into residence at Steventon, he practiced ecclesiastical pluralism, also serving the adjoining parish of Deane, and let the rectory there until his son James could become curate (MacDonagh 3). While James was described as “a particularly strict and earnest priest,” he, too, was an absentee and a pluralist during different stages of his career. Austen’s nephew Henry, who was ordained only after failed stints in the Oxfordshire militia and in banking, became “a stern and fiery Evangelical” (MacDonagh 3). Austen had clergymen in her extended family as well, including puritans and Evangelicals, all reflecting the variations within the Broad Church1 of Austen’s time. While it is easy to examine the history of the church and the members of Austen’s family who

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