In “Mansfield Park,” the heroine Fanny Price eventually marries her cousin, Edmund Bertram. Edmund is the second son of Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram and the one member of the Bertram family who consistently treats Fanny with kindness and respect.
Fanny arrives at Mansfield Park as a poor ten-year-old relative and grows up within the Bertram household. Edmund supports her during years of condescension from others, although he initially regards her mainly as a younger sister or close friend. He becomes attached to Mary Crawford, whose values and reactions eventually reveal a serious moral incompatibility.
After Mary’s response to the scandal involving her brother Henry Crawford and Maria Bertram, Edmund breaks with her. He finally recognises his love for Fanny, and they marry at the end of the novel. They settle at the parsonage at Thornton Lacey, where Edmund serves as a clergyman. Edmund’s brother Tom, Maria, and Henry Crawford are all important to the plot, but none is Fanny’s eventual husband.