Age
We are never given explicit information about Fanny's age, but we do know she married John Dashwood almost immediately upon his coming of age and has a five-year-old son with him. This likely puts her in her mid-to-late twenties.
Family and Situation
Fanny Dashwood née Ferrars is the daughter of Mrs. Ferrars and the sister of Edward and Robert Ferrars as well as the niece of a Sir Robert, obliquely mentioned by her brother. She is married to Mr. John Dashwood, making her the sister to Elinor, Marianne and Margaret Dashwood. With John, she has a five-year-old son named Henry who they call Harry.
We know that Fanny married John Dashwood shortly after he reached his majority and that she “added to his wealth;” we are later told of ￡10,000 “which had been given with Fanny.” Some time after their marriage, Fanny and John frequently called on John’s great-uncle with their endearing infant son, ultimately leading to a rigid entailment of the Norland Park estate on little Henry’s behalf.
As the novel opens, John and Fanny Dashwood have just inherited Norland Park in Sussex. When they later travel to London, they rent a house in Harley Street, suggesting that they do not already own a London home.
Connections
Despite the fact that she has married into the Dashwood family, several lines in the novel indicate she does not get along with them. Initially, we are told that she “had never been a favorite” and we are later told that “The contempt which [Mrs. Dashwood] had, very early in their acquaintance, felt for her daughter-in-law, was very much increased by the farther knowledge of her character.”
As Mrs. Ferrars appears to make her primary home in town, it is likely that Fanny spent significant time in London society before her marriage to John Dashwood. We know she is acquainted with a Mrs. Dennison who mistakenly assumes Elinor and Marianne are staying with the John Dashwoods and invites the whole group to a musical party.
Appearance
Due to the confusion about whose hair Edward has had set into a ring, we know that Fanny has darker hair than either Elinor Dashwood or Lucy Steele.
Character
We are told that Fanny is the stronger personality in her marriage and that her tendencies towards being “narrow-minded and selfish” significantly influence John, especially as they were fairly young when they married. This traits are manifest in the abrupt and unannounced manner in which she turns up to claim Norland Park after Henry Dashwood dies. We are also told Fanny and Lady Middleton get along because “there was a kind of cold hearted selfishness on both sides, which mutually attracted them; and they sympathised with each other in an insipid propriety of demeanor, and a general want of understanding”
Fanny is very sensitive to fashion and prestige and is constantly seeking to increase her material goods and social standing. When the Dashwood women remove their possessions to Barton, we are told that “Mrs. John Dashwood saw the packages depart with a sigh: she could not help feeling it hard that as Mrs. Dashwood's income would be so trifling in comparison with their own, she should have any handsome article of furniture.” Based on the scale of “improvements” which John mentions overseeing at Norland, it is likely that she has aspirations of being hostess to a grand country house and spend significant energy and money getting Norland up to fashionable standards. In London, this trend is manifest as well; at a dinner party, we are told “The dinner was a grand one, the servants were numerous, and every thing bespoke the Mistress's inclination for show.”
There is some evidence to suggest that this desire extends to her loved ones as well, though this impulse may spring from a desire to see her connections have increased social importance. We are told that she wished to see her brother Edward in a distinguished career but that until it “could be attained, it would have quieted her ambition to see him driving a barouche.”
