- Thomas Bertram
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Thomas Bertram Full name Thomas Bertram Gender Male Age 17 at the beginning of the novel, 27 at the end Income The estate of Mansfield Park and its demesnes, which will be his patrimony Education Unknown Rank Elder son of a baronet Primary residence Mansfield Park, but he often travels and stays with friends and acquaintances Family Parents Sir Thomas Bertram and Lady Bertram Sibling(s) Edmund Bertram, Maria Bertram, and Julia Bertram Thomas Bertram is a protagonist in Jane Austen's 1814 novel, Mansfield Park. He is the elder son and heir of Sir Thomas Bertram, a baronet and wealthy landowner in Northamptonshire who also owns an estate in Antigua.
Character
Thomas Bertram, who is mainly called "Tom", is depicted as a person who is careless and extravagant. He is not kind to his cousin Fanny Price, the poor ward of his parents when she comes to live with the family. Once he had grown up, he is only interested in amusing himself and is careless and extravagant with money. As a result his father has to sell the living of the local parish to pay off his debts. This harms the prospects of his brother Edmund Bertram who was intended to become a clergyman and live off the tithes of the parish. Tom was a bit ashamed of his actions, but he continued to seek his pleasures.
Travel and return
Tom and his father had to go to Antigua to deal with problems on his estate. Tom returns before his father and finds that while he has been away two new young wealthy people, Henry and Mary Crawford have moved to the area and are living in the parsonage with their half sister, the new clergyman's wife. Mary is romantically interested in Tom at first but he does not respond to her. Tom leaves home again to spend some time with his friends, he returns full of a thwarted project to put on an amateur production of a play. He proposes that the party at Mansfield Park should also do this. His brother, Edmund and Fanny are opposed but the rest of the group are excited. Tom arranges for a theatre to be built in the billiard room in Mansfield Park. The play was almost ready for production when Sir Thomas returns unexpectedly early having had a fast voyage across the Atlantic and puts a stop to the proceedings.
Tom leaves again to take part in a horse racing meet but has a fall and is injured which combined with his drinking causes him to become very ill. His friends abandon him and Edmund has to fetch him home where he is nursed by Fanny who has to be recalled from an enforced stay with her parents in Portsmouth and his family. His illness is observed with interest by Mary Crawford who wants to marry Edmund as she hopes that he will die, leaving Edmund as the heir to the Bertram estates and title. Tom takes very little further part in the book but does recover, apparently becoming a more prudent man because of his sisters' disgrace.
Portrayal
- Giles Ashton as the young Tom and Christopher Villiers as the grown Tom in the 1983 British television drama serial Mansfield Park (1983 TV serial).
- James Purefoy in the 1999 film Mansfield Park.
- Zachary Elliott-Hatton as the young Tom and James D'Arcy as the grown Tom in the 2007 BBC production aired as The Complete Jane Austen (Mansfield Park (2007 TV drama)).
Jane Austen GeneralLife Places People Cassandra Austen • Charles Austen • Francis Austen • Eliza Hancock • Catherine Hubback • Thomas Langlois LefroyAnalysis Janeite • Jane Austen in popular culture • Styles and themes of Jane Austen • Georgian society in Jane Austen's novels • Reception history of Jane AustenWorksMajor Sense and Sensibility (1811) • Pride and Prejudice (1813) • Mansfield Park (1814) • Emma (1815) • Northanger Abbey (1817) • Persuasion (1817)Minor Juvenilia Love and Freindship • The Beautifull Cassandra • The History of EnglandCharacters Elinor Dashwood • Edward Ferrars • Marianne Dashwood • John Willoughby • Elizabeth Bennet • Fitzwilliam Darcy • Jane Bennet • Lydia Bennet • Charles Bingley • Fanny Price • Edmund Bertram • Mary Crawford • Henry Crawford • Tom Bertram • Maria Bertram • Emma Woodhouse • George Knightley • Anne Elliot • Captain Frederick Wentworth • Catherine Morland • Henry TilneyAdaptationsSense and Sensibility 1981 TV miniseries • 1995 film • 2008 TV miniseries • Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (2009 novel) • From Prada to Nada (2011 film)Pride and Prejudice 1940 film • First Impressions (1959 musical) • 1980 TV miniseries • 1995 TV miniseries • Darcy's Story • Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy (2003 film) • Mr. Darcy's Daughters (2003 novel) • An Assembly Such as This (2003 novel) • Duty and Desire (2004 novel) • These Three Remain (2005 novel) • Bride and Prejudice (2004 film) • 2005 film • Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009 parody novel) • Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (2010 parody novel)Mansfield Park Emma 1972 TV miniseries • Clueless (1995 film) • 1996 film • 1996 TV miniseries • 2009 TV miniseries • Aisha (2009 film)Northanger Abbey Persuasion This literature article about a character is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.