Had he done as he intended, and as he knew he ought, by going down to Everingham after his return from Portsmouth, he might have been deciding his own happy destiny. -Mansfield Park
Valid argument about Henry Crawford: I think the language around his possible reformation is equivocal enough that it might not actually be possible
Invalid argument about Henry Crawford: He is just like my ex-boyfriend and people like that can never change
Maybe valid argument about Henry Crawford, but unlikely: The paragraphs about his possible reformation are in Free Indirect Speech and therefore aren't omniscient narration (they are very much omniscient narration, but maybe we can talk, I'm very hesitant)
Invalid argument about Henry Crawford: He's a NARCISSIST and people like that can never change
99% of the discussions I have about Henry Crawford use the invalid arguments. Jane Austen wrote this character, he is not your boyfriend, he is not any real human, he is a character in a novel which directly says that he is capable of change. I guess maybe you could argue that Jane Austen didn't understand the character she wrote, but I will give you heavy side eye for that.
And this is why it's so hard to be a fan of Mansfield Park
