page_title: Henry Crawford
section_title: Henry as actor
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Crawford / Henry as actor
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Mansfield Park, ch 25&#160;: Henry Crawford vient visiter Thornton Lacey, la future paroisse d'Edmund Bertram
context_page_description: Henry Crawford is one of the main characters in Jane Austen's 1814 novel, Mansfield Park. Austen challenges her readers by creating as her most attractive male character, a man whose main objective in life is to cause hurt to women. He is depicted as a man who, though not conventionally handsome, has great charisma. He is lively, witty and charming, a great asset at dinner parties, and admired by nearly all. Henry and his sister bring a fresh energy to the rather dour and oppressive atmosphere of Mansfield Park. At Sotherton his potential for disruption begins to emerge.
context_section_description: Henry, the life and soul of any party or society event, constantly acts; he has many personas but no depth, consistency or identity. He is immature, unable to commit.  
  
  At Sotherton, Henry acts out the part of landscape improver. He is full of his own ideas for improvements to the landscape. He is described as the first to go forward to examine the 'capabilities' of the walled garden, hinting at ironic comparison with the celebrated improver, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.  He reprises the role later for Edmund's intended living at Thornton Lacey, though he lacks the consistency to manage effectively his own estate in Norfolk. Henry lives for the present moment, only interested in playing the role of improver. 
  At the first suggestion of a theatrical performance at Mansfield Park, Henry, for whom theatre was a new experience, declared he could undertake 'any character that ever was written, from Shylock or Richard III down to the singing hero of a farce in his scarlet coat and cocked hat. I feel as if I could be anything or everything.'
  During rehearsals, Fanny considers Henry the best actor of them all.  However, she observes the ongoing flirtation between Henry and the about-to-be-married Maria and declares, "Maria acted well, too well." Maria enjoys seeing the jealous discomfort on her sister Julia's face.
  Henry's need to live by imitation is expressed when he considers a career in the Church of England during a conversation with Edmund,  and in the Royal Navy after listening to exciting tales of the sea  from William Price. Henry is a man who constantly reinvents himself.
  When Henry unexpectedly falls in love with Fanny, he acts out the part of devoted lover, fully inhabiting the role. Even the hopeful Sir Thomas recognises that the admirable Henry is unlikely to sustain such a role unless Fanny responds quickly.
  In chapter 34, when Henry reads Shakespeare's Henry VIII aloud to Fanny, Edmund and Lady Bertram, he impersonates one character after another with great effect, even impressing the reluctant Fanny with his skill. Fanny, a lover of Shakespeare, describes his reading as ‘truly dramatic’. She is awakened by Henry to the pleasures of ‘good hardened real acting’. Thomas Edwards says that even when Henry, during this discussion, tries to please Fanny by renouncing acting, he is still performing. He measures his every word and carefully watches the reaction on her face.
  During this conversation, Austen also slips in a discussion on sermon delivery. Henry shows that he has the taste to recognise that the 'redundancies and repetitions' of the liturgy require good reading (in itself a telling criticism, comments Isabel Brodrick). He offers the general (and possibly valid) criticism that a 'sermon well-delivered is more uncommon even than prayers well read'. As Henry continues, his shallowness and self-aggrandisement becomes apparent: "I never listened to a distinguished preacher in my life without a sort of envy. But then, I must have a London audience. I could not preach but to the educated, to those who were capable of estimating my composition." He concludes flippantly, expressing the philosophy of many a lazy clergyman, maintaining that he should not like to preach often, but "now and then, perhaps, once or twice in the spring". Although Edmund laughs, it is clear that he does not share Henry's flippant, self-centred attitude. Henry has made it clear that his interest is in the performance and not the message. Later in the novel, when Henry suggests destroying the grounds of Thornton Lacy to create something new, Edmund rejects his plans, insisting that although the estate needs some improvements, he wishes to preserve the substance of what has been created over the centuries.
caption: Henry Crawford visits Thornton Lacey, Edmund Bertram's future living.
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