This thesis contextualises Austen’s novel within the issues of political economy
contemporary to its publication, especially those associated with an emerging credit
economy. It argues that the problem of determining the value of character is a central one
and the source of much of the novel’s irony: the novel sets the narrator’s model of value
against the models through which the various other characters understand value. Through
language that represents character as the currency and as a commodity in a credit
economy, Mansfield Park engages with the problems of value raised by an economy in
flux. Austen uses this slipperiness of language to represent social interactions as a series
of intricate economic transactions, revealing the irony of social exchanges and the
expectations they engender, both within and without the context of courtship. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/3522 |
| Date | 29 August 2011 |
| Creators | Sharren, Kandice |
| Contributors | Miles, Robert |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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