In Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, the character Fanny Price plays the role of observer. Unpretentious, sensitive, and circumspect, Fanny has adapted herself to her subservient situation. Fanny gets treated as inferior by those around her. The author reveals through Fanny’s character her own commentary about other people in the story, composing a scene––a snapshot––of the characters, their interaction, prejudices, and indulgences. “This is very pretty,” said Fanny, looking around her as they were thus sitting together one day: “every time I come into this shrubbery I am more struck with its growth and beauty. Three years ago, this was nothing but a rough hedgerow along the upper side of…