Lapdogs and Moral Shepherd’s Dogs: Canine and Paid Female Companions in Nineteenth-Century English Literature

Abstract

(from the chapter) As Jodi Wyett writes, "The idea that dogs were reflections of their owners was common in the eighteenth century" (Wyett, 2000). This tendency to equate pets with their owners has dominated literary scholarship on fictional lapdogs and owners as well. For example, Ayres-Ricker argues that "dogs are often projections of their masters. [...] the reader is able to learn more about the characters and their actions because of the narrator's extension of character to the dogs" (Ayers-Ricker, 1991). However, my concern here is not with the resemblance between owner and lapdog in Austen's novel, but with the narrative alignment of the two companionate figures in Mansfield Park and what this reveals about contemporary tensions surrounding domestic hierarchies and intra- and interspecies relationships. Austen's novel addresses the parallelism, dynamic interplay, and confusion that can arise in relationships among humans as a result of relationships with animals. Mansfield Park depicts a triangulated relationship between Lady Bertram, her lapdog Pug, and her niece Fanny Price, who becomes, over the course of the novel, a companion to her aunt by fulfilling all the duties that prescribed that role in the time period. The complex position of Pug in the household, and Lady Bertram's privileging of her lapdog's service and well-being over that of her niece/companion, serve as both exemplar and indictment. Although the companion figures in Mansfield Park are "trained" to perform their respective, corresponding roles within the text, ultimately the novel seeks to train their mistress, Lady Bertram, and readers themselves, in the proper valuation of individuals, both canine and human, in the domestic space. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)