Revealed: modern smile only 250 years old

One of the major messages of Mansfield Park is that manners do not correspond with morals. Characters who have learned meticulousVery careful and thorough. good manners use them as a mask for immoral acts, whilst Fanny, who is often admonishedTold off. for her failure to show good manners, is inscrutably moral. It puts her in particular opposition to her uncle and aunts who, despite priding themselves on their appearance of goodness for lifting her out of poverty, behave cruel and heartlessly towards her.

Do we grin too much? Until a combination of French dentistry and Parisian art in the 1780s created the toothy smile, we did not feel the need to go around beaming all the time.

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Fanny is just ten years old when she leaves her noisy but impoverished Portsmouth home to pursue a life of altogether more luxury in the vast Mansfield Park. But what should signal an ascent into a higher way of life and future promise turns out to be more of a curse, as she is shunned and overlooked by those she lives with. Where the glamorously rich Crawfords are made of artificeTrickery., poor and prim Fanny has genuine moral substance. This is a theme of the book, which treats the rich characters in some ways more harshly than any other Austen novel. Whilst those who have grown up rich are almost all disgraced by the end of the novel, their real ways revealed, Fanny's moral superiority is finally appreciated, and she achieves a marriage to Edmund which is both a love match and very financially advantageous. For this reason, critics have judged the book to show a kind of "moral meritocracyThe idea that status comes from talent or ability, not privilege or social class. Sandel argues that many voters feel "humiliated by meritocracy and this entire political project".", where moral character leads to achievement and immoral character to descent.

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Mansfield Park is a scathing critique of courtship rituals, satirising their hypocrisy, deceit and ficklenessConstantly changing your mind or feelings.. Marriage is the topic most discussed among all of the novel's characters, yet despite the constant flirtations, love affairs and gossip, a wedding seems a doomed prospect. In Mansfield Park, characters seem to share the view that marriage should be a love match, but it is also a transaction which should be a means of acquisition - either of higher social status or of greater financial stability. This leads to complications, as the two are rarely compatible with each other: Mary Crawford rejects Edmund in part because the marriage would not advance her life either socially or financially, whilst Fanny is roundly rebuked for rejecting Henry Crawford because her family think she should be grateful for the opportunity to marry up. Courtship is a different matter again. The novel is a web of flirtations, affairs, rejection and heartbreak which seem like more of a diversion than a prelude to marriage, and indeed only one marriage is secured by the end of the novel - that of Fanny, who refuses to take part in courtship altogether.

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Critics have long been drawn to the contrast between rural and urban values in Mansfield Park. In the country, the moral mores of the Crawfords appear to improve, as well as Fanny's health. Edmund claims that the city corrupts their values, and indeed many of the less palatablePleasant to taste. aspects of the plot occur in London, including wild, sickness-inducing parties and Maria's shock elopement. It appears that the capital is a place where passions can romp freely, whilst the country estates are more constrained by traditional values. The urban characters, Londoners Mary and Henry Crawford, embody this divide - sparkling, stylish and with relaxed morals, they are intent upon bringing the chaos of the city to England's countryside.

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Fanny, sent away from her family at the age of ten and made to live with the Bertrams, who roundly mistreat her, grows up timid and unassuming, but compassionate and ethical. The Bertrams, with the exception of Edmund, have all the advantages of family care, money and a stable family structure, but turn to vice as they grow older and live unhappily. Some read this as Austen's critique of the traditional family unit.

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