The Timeline of the Affair and Elopement in Mansfield Park

Edmund Blair Leighton, Where There’s a Will

The affair between Maria Rushworth (Bertram) and Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park is perhaps the most shocking event in Austen’s novels, rivaling Lydia’s elopment with Wickham. But how did it happen? Because it is presented in flashbacks and at several points during the final chapters, the timeline of Henry Crawford and Maria’s affair in Mansfield Park can be confusing. Here is a point by point layout (quotes in italics):

1. Henry visits Fanny in Portsmouth. She does not give him encouragement. He offers to take her home, she says no. He’s disappointed. Instead of going to Everingham, as he knows that he should, (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) he goes to the Fraser’s party.
2. He saw Mrs. Rushworth, was received by her with a coldnes” and he wants to have her back as she was whose smiles had been so wholly at his command. So he flirts with Maria and he re-awakens her love for him: Curiosity and vanity were both engaged, and the temptation of immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to make any sacrifice to right
3. Maria follows Henry to Richmond/Twickenham, Mrs. R. has been spending the Easter with the Aylmers at Twickenham… with a family whom she had just grown intimate with this is important because it indicates that Maria is now pursuing Henry and the Aylmers facilitate the affair: discretion to suit
4. The affair has happened, it’s still a secret and Henry is done, he would have been glad to see Mrs. Rushworth no more. He also believes he has done nothing wrong, without the smallest inconstancy of mind towards her cousin. So crucially, again, Maria is driving the narrative: he had put himself in the power of feelings on her side more strong than he had supposed. She loved him; there was no withdrawing attentions avowedly dear to her She will not let him run away this time, like he did after the play at Mansfield.
5. Henry asks his sister to offer Fanny a ride home again. This is where Mary writes, “Be assured he cares for nobody but you.” Fanny writes back a refusal. Mary is clearly aware that something has happened but doesn’t seem to mind pushing Fanny towards Henry.
6. Maria has followed Henry back to London and she is acting in a way that makes everyone suspect the affair, which is surprising to Henry: Secrecy could not have been more desirable for Mrs. Rushworth’s credit than he felt it for his own. This is where we get the letter from Mr. Harding requesting Sir Thomas using his influence with his daughter to put an end to the intimacy which was already exposing her to unpleasant remarks, and evidently making Mr. Rushworth uneasy
7. Henry he prepares for a journey, probably to escape Maria, perhaps to visit Fanny again, Mr. Crawford, who had quitted his uncle’s house, as for a journey.
8. Somehow Maria convinces him to elope. Henry gives up All that followed was the result of her imprudence; and he went off with her at last, because he could not help it, regretting Fanny even at the moment Henry wants Fanny but Maria has gone so far that the affair is basically exposed. We can assume that after the second offer of a ride to Fanny, Henry has kind of given up. Maria and Henry elope.
9. Here Mr. Harding sends an express. A servant in the Rushworth house is going to tell everyone that Maria eloped and they are trying to hush her up. The maidservant of Mrs. Rushworth, senior, threatened alarmingly. This ends up not mattering because Maria does not come home. This would have mattered if Sir Thomas had found Maria quickly. (It’s unclear if the servant has seen affair or just knows that Maria left with a Regency suitcase)

So Henry experiences a double reversal of his tricks (1) he tries to trifle with Fanny and falls in love and (2) he tries to trifle with Maria and creates such strong love that it traps him. The hunter becomes the prey. It’s great.

It is interesting that Henry actually believes in his heart that even though he’s had an affair with Fanny’s own cousin, it doesn’t invalidate his love for Fanny. Mary, his sister, may not know the extent of the affair, but she also doesn’t think it’s a big deal. I think this really shows how there was a separation for the fashionable between love and sexual acts.

Also interesting, Henry doesn’t seem to really think he makes girls fall in genuine love or that love lasts very long. Tragically, the Crawford siblings don’t really seem to think love is a real thing, but more of something you can make and then goes away. Henry says of Maria’s love: “for I am not such a coxcomb as to suppose her feelings more lasting than other women’s, though I was the object of them.” (emphasis author’s)

Obligatory note: It is likely that Fanny’s consistent refusal of Henry played a part in his decision making, but that doesn’t make anything her fault. She was doing the right thing. Something can be a contributing factor in a series of events without spreading blame. The fact that Henry thinks Fanny will come around quickly is his own darn fault. Fanny did nothing wrong here.

Second Obligatory Note: for some reason when I lay this out, some people say I’m implying the affair was nonconsensual on Henry’s side. I am not saying that, I’m sure Henry happily slept with Maria. I just don’t think he initiated the affair (he did initiate flirting) and he certainly wanted it to end after he left Richmond.

Additional note: the letter from Mary to Fanny, when Mary writes that Henry just came in, I always imagine him like, zipping up his pants. I know it’s anachronistic and it doesn’t fit the timeline but I don’t care. That’s the imagine in my head.

G. Maile The Elopement

*This portrait depicts a woman eloping. I used it for the cover of my Mansfield Park variation Unfairly Caught because the girl looks exactly like Fanny Price to me

More:

What’s Wrong with Putting on a Play in Mansfield Park?

Jane Austen’s Brave Refusal to Reform the Rake

Jane Austen Graphed

How Jane Austen Uses Names