Mary Crawford first thinks that Tom Bertram, the older son and heir to the Bertram estate, might be worthy of her hand in marriage but finds herself, unaccountably, falling for the quieter and more serious Edmund. When she learns that Edmund is going to become a clergyman, she tries to forget about him, as she—an heiress who is used to the glamor of London society—has no interest in being a clergyman’s wife in some quiet country village. Meanwhile, Maria and Julia both fall under the spell of the captivating Henry Crawford. Fanny observes this dangerous situation, but worse, also has the heartache of watching Edmund fall in love with Mary.
Mr. Yates, a friend of Tom Bertram’s, comes for a visit. He has just come from another stately home where a scheme to put on a play was disrupted by the death of a relative of one of the amateur players. His enthusiasm for play-acting inspires Tom, his sisters, and the Crawfords, who decide they will entertain themselves by putting on a play.
This strikes Edmund and Fanny as disrespectful to Sir Thomas, especially considering that the play chosen, Lovers’ Vows (a real play available to read on the internet) is about a woman who is seduced and has an illegitimate child, and it contains a rather saucy soubrette. Sir Thomas would not want his virginal daughters portraying women like this. (This was at a time when professional actresses were socially at the level of courtesans.)
The others disregard Edmund’s warnings, and set about casting the parts of the play. The play has two storylines—one melodramatic and one comic. Both Maria and Julia want to play the dramatic part of Agatha, but there can only be one; Maria is chosen—she will play scenes with Henry Crawford (who is playing the part of her son, not her lover) and jealous Julia vows she will have nothing to do with the play. Mr. Yates will play the sadder but wiser Baron who regrets having seduced Agatha in his youth; plodding Mr. Rushworth is miscast as Count Cassel, an over-the-top Don Juan who boasts of his conquests; Tom Bertram will play the Butler, a comic relief character who comments on the action of the play in rhyming verse, and petite, sprightly Mary Crawford is well cast as the saucy Amelia in the comic storyline.
Edmund at first resists Mary’s urgings to take the role of her lover in the play, but he soon succumbs, to Fanny’s dismay. The rehearsals commence, and Henry and Maria are brought in to a “dangerous intimacy” which even the thick-headed Rushworth eventually notices. But the unexpected early return of Sir Thomas from Antigua puts an end to the play. Maria expects and hopes Henry Crawford will declare himself but to her anger, he leaves Mansfield and she realizes he’s been toying with her affections. She goes ahead and marries Rushworth to get out of her stifling family home and to show Henry Crawford that he has not wounded her.
Henry returns to Mansfield later that year, but Mansfield Park is very different with both Maria and Julia gone (Julia has accompanied Maria—it was then a common practice for brides to bring a female companion along on the honeymoon). Crawford decides to pass the time by “making a small hole” in Fanny Price’s heart. He tells Mary of his schemes and she only half-heartedly protests against toying with the impressionable girl’s affections. But when he starts really paying attention to Fanny, he recognizes her virtues and he falls in love with her!
To help win her love, he asks his uncle the Admiral to wrangle a promotion to lieutenant for Fanny’s brother William. Fanny is overjoyed by the news but shocked by Henry’s subsequent marriage proposal. At first, she thinks he is playing a cruel joke.
When Henry applies to Sir Thomas for his blessing, Sir Thomas is astonished to hear from Fanny that she refused the proposal. She tries to explain that Henry and she are incompatible, but she refrains from explaining just how improperly Maria and Julia behaved with Henry Crawford. Sir Thomas decides that Fanny is being foolish to turn down such an eligible young man and to punish her, he sends to her visit her family in Portsmouth, so she can see for herself what poverty is like.
Meanwhile, Edmund has become a clergyman and he dithers over whether to propose to Mary Crawford, fearing she will refuse him.
Fanny’s stay in Portsmouth is described in some of Austen’s most powerful and evocative language. Henry Crawford visits her there to continue his courtship of her. But when he leaves, instead of going to his estates and sorting out his corrupt land steward, he goes back to London, meets up with Maria (now Mrs. Rushworth) and is stung by her coldness toward him. He can’t resist the challenge to make her fall in love with him again.
He and Maria are caught in a compromising position by a family servant and they elope together. This shocking news reaches Fanny in Portsmouth, as well as word that her cousin Tom is gravely ill. Edmund comes to fetch her home to Mansfield.
Fanny learns from Edmund that he met with Mary in London to discuss Maria and Henry’s disgrace and was utterly shocked and repulsed by Mary’s sophisticated and casual attitude toward their behaviour. “No harsher name than folly given!” He realizes that Mary is not the woman he thought she was, and he rejects her, to her surprise and chagrin.
Austen wraps up the story by telling us that Fanny’s younger sister Susan comes to be Lady Bertram’s new companion in Mansfield Park, Tom recovers from his illness and becomes a more sensible young man, Rushworth divorces Maria, Maria leaves Henry Crawford, who has refused to marry her, and is banished to live out her days in a remote cottage with Aunt Norris, Mary Crawford continues her gay life in London but
