SOURCE: “Closure in Mansfield Park and the Sanctity of the Family,” in Philological Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 2, Spring, 1986, pp. 211-29.

In the following essay, Kaufmann sees Mansfield Park as primarily concerned with the responsibilities of family, rather than the contractual obligations of marriage.

Mansfield Park is, above all, a novel not about the sanctity of marriage, but the sanctity of the family. In many ways it sets the two in opposition to each other. Familial relationships cross the generations, and, by emphasizing filial duty, may be defined as hierarchical; marriage, on the other hand, creates a relationship whose obligations remain rooted in the same generation, and thus may be defined as contractual. Responsibility is unevenly distributed in hierarchical relations: the younger generation (or, in some cases, younger syblings) owes the older generation, specifically the parents (and sometimes the elder brother), obedience and respect, while the older generation protects, and...