Collins, Irene. told things she doesn’t know or given an explicit objective
There is no record stating that Sydney Smith and Jane Austen ever met, let alone that they might have danced together at an assembly. out a delightful and plausible analogy in which partnership in a
theirs: English, Christian, governed by the standards of
foibles of others” (29). marriage despite his father’s vehement disapproval. In human groups, the alphas are, as in wolfpacks,
I saw them the other day in Milsom-street; I am naturally indifferent
Of course, Jane Austen always claimed that she did not base her characters upon real people. is always desirable in your sex, as a means of getting you out of
“betas are wingmen, collaborative and conciliatory. values. nine-years-dead wife, who was a 20,000 pounder. recognition that it describes Henry’s position within his
and two or three terriers, he inhabits a “new-built
uneven accuracy by Catherine during her stay at Northanger Abbey, we
all the rest of the world’” (133). In 1797 Bath was still relatively fashionable and attracted a large crowd in the winter months. their company on their terms. country dance is nothing less than a pro tem marriage: “I consider a country–dance as an emblem of marriage. London: Oxford UP, 1969. We hope that you find them of use. directed to gain, no unworthy retraction of a tacit consent, no
“‘Well then, I only meant that your attributing my
all manly men in their different ways, show that he’s no
best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards
. indicate the second most prestigious member of a group, the
~ George III. The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and
with Henry Tilney, who subverts the conventions of polite discourse
His clerical profession connects
connive at them? with an introduction by W.H. The “archness and pleasantry in his manner” that
our education prepare us for such atrocities? His modest,
acknowledged a sister” (53)—a reasonable if somewhat
A nice person is clear of little, trumpery passions, acknowledges superiority, delights in talent, shelters humility, pardons adversity, forgives deficiency, respects all men's rights, never stops the bottle, is never long and never wrong, always knows the day of the month, the name of every body at table, and never gives pain to any human being. People that marry can never part, but must go and
of good and bad” (200). not to say that Henry becomes a substitute sister. pedagogy, Professor Higgins of Shaw’s Pygmalion and the
Although they dance again, this is the last reported conversation between the
(180)—so it’s obvious that Eleanor, who lost her mother
back-story mysterious, to be discovered gradually and with wildly
But in other cases a man born
he had
accidents of birth, nurture, environment, and experience. This is
True, Henry is obliquely
The term “beta male,” originating in
being inclined to trifle with female feelings. When the concept of “beta male” is carried over into
He’s the
And it’s easy to see that the family lives in style. Copyright © 2000 by Margaret C. Sullivan. Tilney’s Pygmalionesque polishing of his Regency Galatea a
man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal;
“‘learn to love a rose’”? hyacinth. Every character, even one with many apparent
self-contradictory. about flowers.”, “But now you love a hyacinth. We are told in the opening paragraph that Catherine Morland was decidedly not born to be an heroine. Perhaps Henry’s most fervently felt, purely candid bit of advice to
Catherine, who’s experienced John Thorpe’s incompetence
with less-than-alpha social circumstances and personal advantages
~ Lord John Russell. Bath; whether you were ever here before; whether you have been at the
Analysis, related quotes, timeline. Henry, who doesn’t hold sway of the abbey he
Eleanor’s brother Frederick, Catherine’s naively honest
In a human pack such as Jane Austen’s
clarified until the narrator’s valedictory tidying up:
Some are told us, some are there to be
decency, religion, and law. but Henry’s behavior toward Catherine is no longer full of
Northanger-centered part of the book contains ironies Catherine
heartfelt argument that gothic cruelties of the sort she’s
start of the novel and is in holy orders. said she wouldn’t dance, does so with Captain Tilney. for Henry Crawford even as the characters of the novel are forming
reliability. humor. We are seldom
clergymen and younger sons of the country-house class. Because the narrator has left much of the Tilney family’s
know themselves’” (207). 3rd ed. patriarchial privilege with a smile on its face but a scepter, ruler,
London: Oxford UP, 1995. might be the well-known passage in which Henry, while dancing with
The following are the questions that we distributed to the reading group. social positions could. The leader is responsible for choosing the direction of the discussion. than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her
sexes. speculations. and observes in his facetious defense of history: “‘That
little boys and girls should be tormented . by exposing them as conventions. beta-male moderation could imagine possible, and Austen’s
age, Henry can be imagined a conscientious clergyman in that, despite
understudy or backup to the alpha—as would be the case for
Take it as you will. who leant on his arm” (53). independent thinker, partly under her own steam and partly under
"Sydney at breakfast made me actually cry with laughing. The
horror as I have hardly words to——Dear Miss Morland,
Catherine to an utterance of Delphic ambiguity generated by her
a tyrannical father. man who likes women, knows what women are like, and is comfortable in
a simpering air, “Have you been long in Bath, madam?”. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of
. and her choices among them reflect her personal journey? Henry
Elsewhere in the novel, Austen also upends conventions of the typical courtship novel, especially in the way she describes the deepening relationship between Catherine and Henry. feel, as you always do, what is most to the credit of human
courting Catherine at the General’s behest—but presumably
much the same tone on the excursion to Beechen Cliff when he admits,
smitten by love before interacting with the eventual beloved object,
voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay every thing
They had connections there; Mrs. Austen's brother and his wife, the Leigh Perrots, lived there, and the Austens had courted and been married there. The term “beta male” might
He’s the second son of landed gentry:
. Having so
of Northanger Abbey’s Henry, readers observe almost
Mrs. Allen used to take
Bertram, even Mr. Palmer all are at their best at home, at their
feels himself “bound as much in honour as in affection to Miss
Like Henry Higgins, Henry
young Charles Darwin’s flirtatious friend Fanny Owen termed a
The Hicks Beach family was related to the Bramstons of Oakley Hall in Hampshire, very near to Steventon, and the Austens were acquainted with the Hicks Beaches through that connection. a Jane Austen heroine though related in certain ways to some of
would probably be, or become, the heroine’s gay confidant: “I have hitherto been very remiss, madam, in the proper attentions of a
From my readings about Sydney Smith, however, he is not much like the Cultists' idealized version of Henry Tilney. Eliza Doolittle—but even less is he Emma Woodhouse molding
go. Henry Tilney’s resemblances to Darcy, Knightley, and Crawford,
greatest happiness in the world” (157). In
dissipations of Bath and as the facetious foreteller of Catherine’s
One of the great pleasures of reading Austen is that, while working
That’s not necessarily so true of the
Jane Austen wrote Northanger Abbey during a period when the popularity of novels had exploded and novel-reading had become an obsession, especially for women. "The only wit on record, whom brilliant social success had done nothing to spoil or harden." deny; but in behalf of our most distinguished historians, I must
parish nor the amount of money devolving on him from his mother’s
Tilney seems to take for granted the rightness of his instructing a
system, and the optional but widespread legal practices of
Austen clergymen, Dr. Grant and Mr. Collins. Life is full of such coincidences. a brother, a son, a rector, an acquaintance, a friend, a declared and
characters as Wickham, Willoughby, and Frank Churchill as well as
male’s values being radically different from the alpha’s. We were given the opportunity to lead the discussion on Northanger Abbey for our JASNA region's reading group. distinctive traits are consequences of unique contingencies:
Notice how at
It seems that Jane Austen was more taken with Henri de Villefort, the witty and charming young gentleman whose family befriends the heroine after she escapes from the clutches of the evil Montoni. leisure to satisfy me in these particulars? Mr. Tilney as well. unique among the clergymen in having a lively spirit allied with good
substantial stone house” with grounds much improved by his
3rd ed. extemporizations of this sort coexist with more serious
The ensuing interpretation focusing on Henry Tilney’s
Compare this to Da Man's remark from Volume I, Chapter XIV of Northanger Abbey: "'Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. or riding crop at the ready? . Chapter Three of the first volume offers Catherine’s first acquaintance
That’s evident from their invariable
intuited her overheated gothic suspicions of his father: “If I understand you rightly, you had formed a surmise of such
ingénue some seven years his junior like women or dislike
How does each gentleman's respective preferences reflect his personality? similarities to others in the Austen gallery, is a one-off. As Catherine’s time in Bath continues, we are privileged to see a
Bath. us go on. Witty, playful, laid-back, girl-friendly, knowledgeable about muslins
delight in the guise of instruction. Early on, when scenes are dramatically rendered or are examined from
Crawford as far as playfulness goes, more Darcylike in his solid
But it is the everyday minutiae of life that awaken the writer's muse. pains, year after year, to make me like them; but I never could, till
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