Jane Austen "Mansfield Park"

Austen provides a damning satire of the upper classes in Regency England.  The story portrays the struggle and eventual overcoming of the much maligned 'poor cousin' who must accept charity from the family due to her family's hopeless circumstances.  Was Jane Austen writing to liberate through her novels?  Certainly, the content of her novels is critical of society, and the place and treatment of women.  It lays bare their vulnerability due to the social dominance of men and the masculine-defined fabric of that society.  She is able to speak truths more freely using 'the novel' than the placard.