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At 10, Fanny Price, a poor relation, goes to live at Mansfield Park, the estate of her aunt's husband, Sir Thomas. Clever, studious, and a writer with an ironic imagination and fine moral ... See full summary »
Fanny Price: Run mad as often as you choose but do not faint.
Fanny Price: Life seems nothing more than a quick succession of busy nothings.
Edmund Bertram: Fanny, you really must begin to harden yourself to the idea of... being worth looking at.
Edmund Bertram: There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.
Edmund Bertram: Surely you and I are beyond speaking when words are clearly not enough.
Edmund Bertram: Fanny, I've loved you my whole life. Fanny Price: I know, Edmund. Edmund Bertram: No... I've loved you as a man loves a woman. As a hero loves a heroine. As I have never loved anyone.
Henry Crawford: And what is your opinion, Miss Price? Fanny Price: I am sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Crawford, but I'm afraid I do not have a ready opinion. Henry Crawford: I suspect you are almost entirely composed of ready opinions not yet shared.
Fanny Price: It could have turned out differently, I suppose. [All the characters pause and look thoughtful] Fanny Price: But it didn't.
Fanny Price: I have no talent for certainty.
Fanny Price: [referring to Henry Crawford] I do not trust him, sir. Sir Thomas Bertram: What do you distrust? Fanny Price: His nature, sir. Like many charming people, he conceals an almost absolute dependence on the appreciation of others. Sir Thomas Bertram: And what is the terrible ill in that? Fanny Price: His sole interest is in being loved, sir, not in loving.
Henry Crawford: What? A compliment? Heavens rejoice, she complimented me! Fanny Price: I complimented your dancing, Mr. Crawford, keep your wig on.
Mary Crawford: But what I am keen to know is which gentleman among you am I to have the pleasure of making love to?
Susan Price: So, this Henry Crawford, what's he like? Fanny Price: A rake. I think. Susan Price: Oh, yes, please. Fanny Price: They amuse more in literature than they do in life. Susan Price: Yes, but they amuse.
Henry Crawford: Fanny, you have created sensations which my heart has never known before. Fanny Price: Please. Henry Crawford: There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved. Fanny Price: Mr. Crawford, do not speak nonsense. Henry Crawford: Nonsense? Fanny Price: You are such a fine speaker that I'm afraid you may actually end in convincing yourself. Henry Crawford: Fanny. You are killing me. Fanny Price: No man dies of love but on the stage.
Lady Bertram: [to Fanny Price] And I'll tell you one thing, which is more than I did for Maria. The next time my pug has a litter, you shall have a puppy.
Edmund Bertram: Oh, don't be an imbecile. Fanny Price: Oh, but imbecility in women is a great enhancement to their personal charms. Edmund Bertram: Fanny, you're being irrational. Fanny Price: Yet another adornment. I must be ravishing.
Mary Crawford: Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope for a cure.
Mary Crawford: We all need an audience, wouldn't you say, Fanny? Fanny Price: To be truthful, I live in dread of audiences.
Edmund Bertram: Your entire person is entirely agreeable. Fanny Price: Yes, well, tonight I agree with everyone.
Maria Elizabeth Bertram: Father, I wish to speak to you about Rushworth. Sir Thomas Bertram: Maria, yes. Now, you know how eagerly disposed I was to like your Mr. Rushworth... Maria Elizabeth Bertram: ...but you think him an inferior young man, as ignorant in business as in books, with opinions in general unfixed, and without seeming much aware of it himself. Sir Thomas Bertram: Well...
Young Susan: Think up lots of stories for me and eat hundreds of tarts.
Fanny Price: Beware of fainting fits. Beware of swoons.
Fanny Price: And a woman's poverty is a slavery even more harsh than a man's. Henry Crawford: Mm, arguable. But it need not be your lot. You can live out your days in comfort... with me. Fanny Price: I know. Henry Crawford: You do? Fanny Price: Yes. Henry Crawford: Is that a yes? Fanny Price: Yes. Henry Crawford: Is that the yes I have heard a hundred times in my heart but never from you? Oh, Fanny Price... You will learn to love me. Say it again. Fanny Price: Yes.
Fanny Price: Maria was married on Saturday. In all important preparations of mind she was complete, being prepared for matrimony by a hatred of home, by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The bride was elegantly dressed and the two bridesmaids were duly inferior. Her mother stood with salts, expecting to be agitated, and her aunt tried to cry. Marriage is indeed a maneuvering business.
Fanny Price: To be at home again, to be loved by my family, to feel affection without fear or restraint and to feel myself the equal of those that surround me.
Mary Crawford: We seemed very happy to see each other, and I think we actually were a little bit.
Edmund Bertram: Your keen adaptability to my brother's possible demise sends a chill through my heart. A chill. Happily planning parties with his money. You shush my father like a dog at your table, and then you attack Fanny for following her own, infallible guide concerning matters of the heart. All of this leads me to believe that the person I've been so apt to dwell on for many months has been a figure of my own imagination, not you, Miss Crawford. I do not know you, and I'm sorry to say, I have no wish to.
Sir Thomas Bertram: Tom! You will do as I say! Tom Bertram: What, and do as you do? Even I have principles, sir.
Fanny Price: Well, Lady Bertram is always suffering near-fatal fatigue. Susan Price: From what? Fanny Price: Usually from embroidering something of little use and no beauty... not to mention a healthy dose of opium every day. Susan Price: Your tongue is sharper than a guillotine, Fanny. Fanny Price: The effect of education, I suppose.
Edmund Bertram: And has your heart changed towards him? Fanny Price: Yes. Many times.
Mary Crawford: This is 1806 for Heaven's sake!
Young Fanny: Excuse me? Mrs. Norris: Yes? Young Fanny: How long am I expected to remain here? Mrs. Norris: That depends, doesn't it? But if all goes well... Forever.
Henry Crawford: You dance like an angel, Miss Price. Fanny Price: One does not dance like an angel alone, Mr. Crawford.
Edmund Bertram: Is there anything to be done? Dr. Winthrop: Wait. Edmund Bertram: Wait? Dr. Winthrop: Yes. Time can do almost anything.
[to Edmund Bertram as she is leaving to return home] Fanny Price: I hope... I hope you know how much... how much I shall... write to you...
Edmund Bertram: She does not think evil, but she speaks it. It grieves me to the soul. Fanny Price: The effect of education, perhaps. Edmund Bertram: [scoffs] Perhaps I can uneducate her.
Mary Crawford: Gentlemen, please. Fanny Price is as fearful of praise and notice as other women are of neglect.
Fanny Price: I often wonder that history should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.
Maria Elizabeth Bertram: [to Henry Crawford] Would that the sigh were for me...
Tom Bertram: Do you know it's 5 o'clock in the morning? Carriage Driver: Mrs Norris arranged for this girl to be brought here. It's her niece, or something. Tom Bertram: Mrs Norris lives in the parsonage over there. Carriage Driver: I was told most definitely to drop her at the front entrance of Mansfield Park. Tom Bertram: Then drop her.