Mansfield Park
Edmund Bertram
The hero
Fanny's kind cousin and best friend, who plans to be a clergyman. He is upright and earnest, and for a long time he cannot see what is in front of him.
Edmund Bertram is the second Bertram son, and the first person at Mansfield to be kind to Fanny. At sixteen he finds her crying on the attic stairs, gives her paper and pays the postage so she can write to William. He stays her champion and her teacher for years.
Edmund is conscientious, loyal and sincere, and he plans to be a clergyman because he believes the church has a real power for good. His great weakness is that he cannot see past Mary Crawford's charm, and he excuses her faults for far too long. He takes the church seriously, and he tells Mary that a clergyman's duty is to guard the conscience of his flock.
“A clergyman's duty is to guard the moral conscience of his flock, Mary. There is no higher calling.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Edmund is charmed by Mary Crawford, forgets to keep Fanny's mare for her, and reluctantly takes a part in Lovers' Vows to keep a stranger out of the house. He argues with Mary about her contempt for the clergy, and it troubles him deeply.
When he urges Fanny to give Henry hope, she holds to her conscience and he respects it. After the scandal, he visits Mary in London and finds that she regards it as a piece of bad luck and has no moral horror of what was done. He leaves her for good. Slowly he sees Fanny as the one he loves, and he proposes in the Mansfield gardens.
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