History Literature / MansfieldPark

** Fanny calls out society (and by association everyone who's pressuring her to accept Henry Crawford's proposal) on the unfairness of a woman being expected to cater to the whim of ''any'' suitor that comes along and offers for her, no matter what she thinks of him or how he's treated her in the past; and stresses that a gentleman is ''not'' entitled to the affection of any woman he takes a fancy to, no matter how genuinely nice he might be. She points out that she had absolutely no clue or warning that Henry had any genuine regard for her, so she wasn't going to magically fall in love with him the moment that he declared his supposed love for her; if she had actually taken his previous (and clearly not serious) flirtations as proof that he was interested in her, she would have faced ridicule from the other women in the household and been accused of being presumptuous. In stark contrast, ''' ''his'' ''' decision to propose out of the blue is regarded by everyone as a fantastic stroke of luck for her, with no one taking her feelings or concerns into account and instead being puzzled/outraged that she won't accept his offer. It shines a spotlight on the sheer inequality that many women were forced to abide by in this era, condemning the act of any woman putting up with abuse just because her prospective partner is rich, and criticizing a society that could possibly favour said inequality. For the 1800s, her speech is pretty FairForItsDay, and you're not going to find anything closer to feminism until Creator/AnneBronte's ''Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall'' and Charlotte's ''Literature/JaneEyre'' came on the scene. [[note]]Not in respectable fiction, anyway (nothing written by Lady Wollstonecraft or Aphra Benn really goes into that genre) apart from Richardson's 'Clarissa', or some of Shakespeare's characters...[[/note]]

** Fanny calls out society (and by association everyone who's pressuring her to accept Henry Crawford's proposal) on the unfairness of a woman being expected to cater to the whim of ''any'' suitor that comes along and offers for her, no matter what she thinks of him or how he's treated her in the past, and stresses that a gentleman is ''not'' entitled to the affection of any woman he takes a fancy to, no matter how genuinely nice he might be. She points out that she had absolutely no clue or warning that Henry had any genuine regard for her, so she wasn't going to magically fall in love with him the moment that he declared his supposed love for her; if she had actually taken his previous (and clearly not serious) flirtations as proof that he was interested in her, she would have faced ridicule from the other women in the household and been accused of being presumptuous. In stark contrast, ''' ''his'' ''' decision to propose out of the blue is regarded by everyone as a fantastic stroke of luck for her, with no one taking her feelings or concerns into account and instead being puzzled/outraged that she won't accept his offer. It shines a spotlight on the sheer inequality that many women were forced to abide by in this era, condemning the act of any woman putting up with abuse just because her prospective partner is rich, and criticizing a society that could possibly favour said inequality. For the 1800s, her speech is pretty FairForItsDay, and you're not going to find anything closer to feminism until Creator/AnneBronte's ''Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall'' and Charlotte's ''Literature/JaneEyre'' came on the scene. [[note]]Not in respectable fiction, anyway (nothing written by Lady Wollstonecraft or Aphra Benn really goes into that genre) apart from Richardson's 'Clarissa', or some of Shakespeare's characters...[[/note]]

** Fanny calls out society (and by association everyone who's pressuring her to accept Henry Crawford's proposal) on the unfairness of a woman being expected to cater to the whim of ''any'' suitor that comes along and offers for her, no matter what she thinks of him or how he's treated her in the past. She points out that she had absolutely no clue or warning that Henry had any genuine regard for her, so she wasn't going to magically fall in love with him the moment that he declared his supposed love for her; if she had actually taken his previous (and clearly not serious) flirtations as proof that he was interested in her, she would have faced ridicule from the other women in the household and been accused of being presumptuous. In stark contrast, ''' ''his'' ''' decision to propose out of the blue is regarded by everyone as a fantastic stroke of luck for her, with no one taking her feelings or concerns into account and instead being puzzled/outraged that she won't accept his offer. It shines a spotlight on the sheer inequality that many women were forced to abide by in this era, condemning the act of any woman putting up with abuse just because her prospective partner is rich, and criticizing a society that could possibly favour said inequality. For the 1800s, her speech is pretty FairForItsDay, and you're not going to find anything closer to feminism until Creator/AnneBronte's ''Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall'' and Charlotte's ''Literature/JaneEyre'' came on the scene. [[note]]Not in respectable fiction, anyway (nothing written by Lady Wollstonecraft or Aphra Benn really goes into that genre) apart from Richardson's 'Clarissa', or some of Shakespeare's characters...[[/note]]