Thank you for taking the time to write such a well-thought out post. I love and admire Fanny, and identify quite a bit with her.

You make an excellent point that Fanny and Edmund are destined to be the moral inheritors of Mansfield Park. In addition, like a cuckoo, Fanny has also supplanted Maria as the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas.

Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted. His charitable kindness had been rearing a prime comfort for himself. His liberality had a rich repayment, and the general goodness of his intentions by her deserved it. He might have made her childhood happier; but it had been an error of judgment only which had given him the appearance of harshness, and deprived him of her early love; and now, on really knowing each other, their mutual attachment became very strong. Chap. 48