Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Is general Tilney the antagonist of the novel Northanger Abbey?

In Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, General Tilney is a property developer. A wealthy man, he is overly concerned with social rank and money. Tilney is a widower and has three children: Captain Frederick Tilney, Henry Tilney, and Eleanor Tilney. He is a very strict and disciplined father:

Her tranquility was not improved by the General's impatience for the appearance of his eldest son, nor by the displeasure, he expressed at his laziness when Captain Tilney, at last, came down. She was quite pained by the severity of his father's reproof, which seemed disproportionate to the offense.

General Tilney also would not want his children to marry someone poor or beneath their rank. Of all the characters in the novel, he comes the closest to being an antagonist when Catherine Morland starts to believe that he has murdered his wife. However, Mrs. Tilney was not killed but died of a sudden illness. General Tilney is not a typical storybook villain, and his only real crimes are those of pride and snobbery.

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