Sanditon

Mr. Thomas Parker is a kindhearted man who is obsessed with making Sanditon the next great beach resort. He acts as a mentor and advisor to Charlotte, especially since her parents have entrusted her to his care while she stays with the Parkers. However, Mr. Parker disappoints Charlotte: She has trusted him to give her insight into the residents of Sanditon, but because of his financial entanglements with the town, he is unable to be honest with her.

Mr. Parker is wealthier than the Heywood family and exhibits the general arrogance of the upper class on his first meeting with Mr. Heywood. After the Parkers are in their carriage accident, Mr. Heywood offers to help with the carriage and examine Mr. Parker’s ankle. However, Mr. Parker insists on seeing a surgeon, even after Mr. Heywood tells him that there is no surgeon in the village. Mr. Parker attempts to prove he is right by showing Mr. Heywood an article from the Kentish Gazette, while Mr. Heywood politely explains that there are two towns named Willingden and that Mr. Parker has confused them. This interaction between the two characters reveals the comical arrogance of Mr. Parker, who assumes he knows more than Mr. Heywood about the town he lives in just because he has read an article in a newspaper. In his two weeks with the Heywoods, Mr. Parker reveals himself to be a well-meaning but longwinded man who will take any opportunity to talk about Sanditon. He is concerned with progress and expansion and is “of a sanguine turn of mind, with more imagination than judgment” (69-70). Although he is an exuberant and eloquent character, he remains static throughout the narrative. The only shift in his judgment or character occurs when he withdraws his request for his wife to ask Lady Denham for money. His withdrawal forces Diana to retract her own awkward demands, “which [is] his object, as he [feels] all their impropriety and all the certainty of their ill effect upon his own better claim” (110). This statement reveals how Mr. Parker is not that different from the other, more obviously selfish characters: He believes his ambitions are more important than everyone else’s, and he schemes to ensure that his wishes take precedence.

Although the unfinished narrative makes it difficult to place characters in their narrative roles, Lady Denham emerges as a clear antagonist. Though she appears kind when Charlotte first meets her, her true nature is selfish and controlling. Austen describes Lady Denham as someone “who [knows] the value of money” and whose “love of money is carried greatly too far” (72). She is a stout woman “with a shrewd eye, and self-satisfied air—but not an unagreeable countenance” (84). She is personable and polite, and her social polish prevents others from noticing her manipulation and stinginess. Initially, Lady Denham attracts Charlotte because of her “readiness to be acquainted with Charlotte herself” (84). However, Austen reveals that Lady Denham knows people find her charming and uses this to her advantage.

Lady Denham’s lack of empathy is a counterweight to her nephew’s romantic temperament. Far from being swept away by novelistic fantasies, she prides herself on being a cold-hearted realist, and her only real, abiding concern is for the maintenance of her own wealth and prestige. In this way, she reflects Charlotte’s character as in a fun-house mirror, showing what can happen when one values pragmatic, material concerns above matters of the heart. Rather than being unaware of Edward and Esther’s predicament, she tells Charlotte that she does not want to help them because she is “not the woman to help any body blindfold” (90). Lady Denham’s philanthropy is performative, motivated by a desire to look good rather than to do good. Like Diana Parker, she delights in praise. When Charlotte and Lady Denham are talking together, Lady Denham tells her how she chose to give Edward Sir Denham’s gold watch even though it was not left to him in the will. The awkwardness of the situation forces Charlotte to praise Lady Denham, even though her story—and the way she chooses to tell it—reveals pettiness rather than generosity.

Lady Denham’s manipulative and controlling nature is clear in how other characters respond to her. The love affair between Edward and Clara registers as a protest against Lady Denham’s power over their lives. Since Clara is a poor girl whose only advantage is that she might inherit money from Lady Denham, she is the last person Lady Denham would want Edward to be involved with. Their relationship reveals how Lady Denham’s reach has pervaded every aspect of their life, and their survival revolves around her so greatly that they must keep their love for each other a secret from the world.