General Tilney and Tyranny: Northanger Abbey
Shinobu Minma, Tamagawa University
Volume 8, no. 4, July 1996
©McMaster University, 2015. All articles published on the Eighteenth-Century Fiction website are protected by copyright held by Eighteenth-Century Fiction, a journal published by the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University.
ABSTRACT
Northanger Abbey falls short of Catherine Morland’s expectations from the first. At the entrance to its grounds, the lodges present “a modern appearance” (p. 161); the furniture of the drawing room is “in all the profusion and elegance of modern taste” (p. 162). Indeed, Northanger Abbey turns out to be far from what Catherine’s eager imagination has pictured to herself, and the contrast between her expectation of “a fine old place” (p. 157) and the glaring newness which everywhere meets her eye heightens the comical effect of the Abbey scenes in the novel. This contrast, however, serves not merely to expose the naivety of a girl addicted to novels; it also highlights the peculiar inclinations of General Tilney, the owner of Northanger, who has transformed an ancient abbey into a place for exhibiting modern products and inventions. The General’s love of improvement and novelty is indeed almost as obsessive as Catherine’s yearning for ruins and antiquities. Catherine’s naivety is also revealed through her fantastic adventures; fancifully identifying the General with such fictional villains as Montoni, she looks for evidence of imaginary guilt. This confusion of fiction and reality, while testifying to her simplicity, is an illuminating comment on the character of the General as an avaricious despot. General Tilney deserves our close attention in his own right; he by no means functions merely as a subject of Catherine’s study.
Other ECF articles on the topic of “Austen” include:
Why the Show Must Not Go On: ‘Real Character’ and the Absence of Theatrical Performances in Mansfield Park
by KATHLEEN E. URDA (ECF 26.2, Winter 2013-14)
Jane Austen’s “Excellent Walker”: Pride, Prejudice, and Pedestrianism
by OLIVIA MURPHY (ECF 26.1, Fall 2013)
Adolescence in Sense and Sensibility
by SHAWN LISA MAURER (ECF 25.4, Summer 2013)
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