(This conversation will contain spoilers for the current chapters and possibly for future chapters.)

S: Oh my! I feel almost as shocked as Fanny at Mr. Crawford’s proposal! If we hadn’t been convinced of his attachment to her in the previous chapter I would think the same as Fanny, that his proposal is absurd and he and his sister are only trying to make a fool of her. 

It is happy news, however, that William is now a lieutenant!

R: Poor Fanny! I feel like I’ve said that a lot, but the circumstances just seem to keep getting worse. Or at least, piling on her too rapidly for her to handle each one. We see her joy at William’s promotion, then almost immediately she goes into a kind of horror as she realises that Henry Crawford is proposing to her. Add to that a note from Mary Crawford that blatantly gives her blessing on the union and poor Fanny is completely discombobulated. 

S: There are so many emotions we encounter in Chapter 32! I completely understand both Fanny’s and Sir Thomas’s reactions, although his words are rather biting. I think, though, they were said in anger, as we see later in the chapter that he is trying to make up for them. He reminds himself that Fanny’s disposition is innocent and frail (at least he believes it to be) and that perhaps it’s the excitement and fear of the future that made her refuse Mr. Crawford. Obviously, words cannot be taken back and Fanny’s integrity with not slandering her cousins is not made known to Sir Thomas, but still he truly does care for her, as is evident by his trying to shut down Mrs. Norris’s berating of her. From his point of view, Fanny really is being selfish. Again, she’s caught between a rock and a hard place.

R: This chapter starts out well, with Sir Thomas realising that Fanny never has a fire in her little room upstairs and deciding to rectify the situation, but quickly takes a turn when he reveals that Mr. Crawford is downstairs waiting to speak to Fanny. He’s shocked that she intends to refuse him. I’m not sure it would have been slander to reveal to Sir Thomas how his daughters had acted over Mr. Crawford, but it was very loyal of her not to do so. I think she would have been perfectly justified. With one daughter married and out of the house, it wouldn’t have signified much, and when Julia returns, enough time likely would have passed that Sir Thomas wouldn’t have done much about it.

S: It is frustrating, though, that he has so little faith in his niece and much more in a man he has barely known. An interesting commentary on personalities, I think. The fact that Mr. Crawford lied to him, perhaps believing her refusals to be in jest considering how narcissistic he is, is frustrating.

R: I know! He seems to understand Fanny’s character so well. How can he not trust that she might have a good reason for not wanting to marry Mr. Crawford? Even if she can’t articulate it to him?

S: My favourite part in this chapter is when Mrs. Norris insists that she is the one Sir Thomas wants to speak to, when it is really Fanny, and their butler, Baddeley, insists that, indeed, it is not Mrs. Norris, but Fanny.

R: Mrs. Norris is so ridiculous! I do love the butler’s response. He knows what’s going on, certainly.

S: Oh my goodness! Chapter 33 makes me laugh so much! I rolled my eyes at Mr. Crawford’s narcissism, chuckled at Fanny’s confusion and anger, felt happy about how Sir Thomas assured her that he only wanted her well-being, was delighted that Mrs. Norris’s character was finally announced to the reader (even though we pretty much already understood what it was), and shook my head at Lady Bertram’s silliness. I am curious to see how Edmund takes this news!

R: I’m glad that Sir Thomas tempers himself in how he speaks to Fanny in this chapter. Despite Mr. Crawford’s continuing hopes, he seems to see that Fanny is serious in her refusal, though he hopes that Mr. Crawford’s continued persistence will overcome her objections. 

S: Part of me was surprised at Edmund’s willingness to entertain the idea of Mr. Crawford pursuing Fanny, and the other part of me was not. Edmund himself is so taken with Miss Crawford that it makes sense he should want Fanny to be married as well. It is interesting how well he knows Fanny and yet how much he is projecting onto her. 

R: I was really surprised by Edmund’s immediate acceptance of Mr. Crawford’s suit of Fanny. I would have thought he’d have a better understanding of Henry Crawford’s character and see that he is not a good match for Fanny. I am glad that Edmund has the sense not to immediately speak of it to Fanny, just gives her support.

S: I loved Mr. Crawford’s and Edmund’s discussion on Shakespeare and on reading aloud. 

R: I thought that was interesting, as well as how Mr. Crawford’s excellent reading affected Fanny. It makes me wonder if she could come to care for him at some point, though I would hope that she wouldn’t let one good thing overcome the bad. Mr. Crawford doesn’t seem to have the same distaste for the clergy as his sister does, based on his conversation with Edmund. 

S: I pity Mr. Crawford, and am glad to see finally that Fanny’s affections for him will not come easily or by anything he thinks is important. He is a bit foolish in how he addresses her, and is still very full of self-importance, but it does appear that he wants to know what Fanny thinks, which is good.

R: That did show Henry Crawford in a better light than anything up to this point, despite his self-importance; and he also seems to have an understanding of how his previous behaviour has affected Fanny’s opinion of him.

S: Edmund’s and Fanny’s walk and discussion are very interesting. I could tell the moment he began speaking of Miss Crawford, though Miss Austen did let us know through Fanny’s perspective, and it seems to me that he sounds a bit like Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice. What Mr. Collins learnt by rote memorisation about women, Edmund seems to have learnt by intuition. 

As frustrated as I am that he is back onto the idea that Miss Crawford will love him and that he pushes Fanny to speak, in a way I am glad that he does because Fanny is finally able to tell him how she really feels about Mr. Crawford’s character. Still, Edmund continues to press and desire that Fanny return Mr. Crawford’s affection and that makes her second guess herself, which does irritate me. It is good to have other’s opinions sometimes, to see things from another perspective, but it also seems that Fanny is still not actually being listened to: ‘She feared she had been doing wrong: saying too much, overacting the caution which she had been fancying necessary; in guarding against one evil, laying herself open to another…’.

R: This conversation is wonderful and frustrating by turns. I love that Edmund is understanding of Fanny’s feelings and doesn’t press her too much, though I still think it’s more than it should be. I’m also frustrated with him for giving everyone a bye for their behaviour during the play, and for discounting Fanny’s perspective on Henry Crawford’s behaviour with Edmund’s sisters. As their brother, he should have been more concerned that they weren’t behaving appropriately and safeguarding their virtue. Actually, as the eldest, that should have been Tom, but Edmund is definitely the more mature and well-behaved.

S: I don’t know how to feel right now; just like Fanny, my feelings are conflicted about what I think should happen.