Revealing The Symbols in My "Black Sheep" Novel Mansfield Park

In my novel Mansfield Park, I included many symbols. Some examples were even symbols from my life. The three I am going to talk about were my greatest examples throughout the novel.

The first is revealed when the characters go to Sotherton and divide into groups. There is a symbol right there. The groups are a symbol and example of foreshadowing of how the characters will later have relationships with one another. Maria was in a group with Mr. Rushworth, her fiancé, and Henry Crawford, whom she loved. They went into the wilderness and came upon a locked gate. This gate was also a symbol. To Maria it is a symbol of marriage. This makes Maria suddenly have a feeling of restraint, and while her fiancé is going back to get the key she allows Henry to help her around the gate and lead her off into the distance to a hill. This action is foreshadowing of Henry later leading Maria into adultery.

The second symbol is much easier to understand, and much simpler to recognize in my book. The characters get a chance to have theatricals. In them, they play characters that are symbolic to the roles they would like to play in their own life. I did this as a reason to let the readers know what the characters were thinking, and also to let the readers in on the characters’ feelings. This would better help my readers to understand the characters as a whole.

The third symbol in the novel was actually a symbol having to relate to my own life. In my novel Mansfield Park, Fanny’s brother, William, sends her an amber cross. In my own life, my brother Charles sent me and my sister topaz crosses. There is another symbol relating to the crosses inside the novel though. Fanny needed a chain to go along with her cross to wear it to the ball. Mary gives Fanny a chain, but it turns out to actually be a present from Henry, her unwelcomed suitor. While this trick is going on, Edmund, the secretive love of Fanny’s life, buys her a simple gold chain. When Fanny tries the chains out, Edmund fits perfectly, but Henry’s does not. This symbol is clearly that Edmund will be perfect for Fanny, but Henry will not.

(I simply wanted to include the picture, for I feel it has all the elegance of my time period, yet it is different, it goes against regular customs, and could be considered a "black sheep" tea party like my "black sheep" book.)