Maria Bertram

Maria Bertram is a fictional character in Jane Austen's 1814 novel, Mansfield Park.

Character

Maria Bertram is the eldest sister and third child in a wealthy family that owns a large country estate. Her father is a baronet. She has two older brothers and one sister a year younger than herself. She grows up being treated with stern distance by her father, being ignored by her indolent mother, and being spoiled and indulged by her Aunt Norris, who covets the wealth and prestige of the Bertram family and the beauty and youth of Maria. When she is 13, her family brings a poor cousin to live with them, by the name of Fanny Price. She has little interest in Fanny and treats her with condescension, giving Fanny the toys of the least value to herself. She mocks Fanny for her lack of knowledge and reports on Fanny's apparent deficiencies to her Aunt Norris. When she grows to adulthood, her attitude towards Fanny is not improved.

Maria and Mr. Rushworth

When Maria's father, Sir Thomas Bertram, goes to Antigua to improve the profits from his plantations, Maria, being at the age to marry, becomes engaged to a young man named Mr. Rushworth at the prompting of Aunt Norris. Although Mr. Rushworth is not very intelligent or handsome, Maria agreed to his proposal of marriage because his estate of 700 acres is worth about 12,000 pounds per annum, a very large sum at the time.

Maria and Mr. Crawford

Immediately after Maria's engagement to Mr. Rushworth, a young man named Henry Crawford comes to the neighbourhood with his sister, Mary. Because Maria has no real affection for Mr. Rushworth, she does not scruple to flirt with Henry, and she also befriends Mary. Henry Crawford also favours her over her unattached younger sister Julia because her engagement makes her unavailable, although Julia, too, is attracted to Crawford and he flirts with her, too. This puts Maria and her sister in competition with one another. When Henry leaves without proposing marriage to Maria, she goes through with her marriage to Mr. Rushworth, partly out of disappointment and partly to escape her stifling home life. She goes to Brighton on her honeymoon and invites Julia, and from there the party proceeds to Mr. Rushworth's home in London.

Maria and Henry reunited

In London, Maria encounters Henry and their flirtation begins anew. It proceeds to an affair, which becomes publicly known such that the two must elope, bringing shame to her family and disgrace on her. In fear, Julia also elopes and marries Mr. Yates. Henry refuses to marry Maria, and Mr. Rushworth divorces her for adultery. She moves to "another country" (another area of England) with her Aunt Norris, who has always favoured her of all of her nieces, and they live together in disgraced retirement. When Mary refuses to condemn their actions, Edmund parts from her forever, and Henry's actions also mean that Fanny will never marry him.

Notable portrayals

• Samantha Bond portrayed the adult Maria in the 1983 British television serial (Mansfield Park (1983 TV serial))
• Elizabeth Eaton as the young Maria, and Victoria Hamilton as the teenage Maria in the 1999 film adaptation
• Tara Berwin as the younger Maria, and Michelle Ryan in the 2007 BBC television serial, aired on PBS as The Complete Jane Austen