Character is set early

Prudie wrote this on a notecard, followed it with examples: Henry Crawford, the rake, improves temporarily, but cant sustain it. Aunt Norris and cousin Maria are, throughout the book, as steadfast in their meanness and their sin as Fanny and cousin Edmund are in their propriety. Only cousin Tom, after a brush with death and at the very, very end of the book, manages to amend. It was enough to give Prudie hope.