General Tilney: father

This week, I have been writing about the abbey in Northanger Abbey in honor of Friday the 13th, (in August... oh, horrid day!) and Fathers Day (August 9 in Brazil). I have discovered one facet about General Tilney that I hadn't noticed before.

In chapter 22 , General Tilney praises Woodston, Henry's property, to Catherine, who he thinks is an heiress and therefore a very good match for his younger son. Excited to share his idea he describes how he would have educated his sons:

[...] Perhaps it may seem odd, that with only two younger children, I should think any profession necessary for him; and certainly there are moments when we could all wish him disengaged from every tie of business. But though I may not exactly make converts of you young ladies, I am sure your father, Miss Morland, would agree with me in thinking it expedient to give every young man some employment. The money is nothing, it is not an object, but employment is the thing. Even Frederick, my eldest son, you see, who will perhaps inherit as considerable a landed property as any private man in the county, has his profession."

General Tilney was a stern, almost tyrannical, father, but he was right in this particular subject. Well, that is my opinion. What do you think?


Robert Hardy as General Tilney in Northanger Abbey, 1987
He portrayed Sir John Middleton in Sense and Sensibility, 1995


Posted by Raquel Sallaberry, Jane Austen em Português

Jane Austen Character Throwdown

Old age and fearfulness do not a bad daddy make, as a resounding 85% of you have voted. Mr. Woodhouse, while weak and child-like, can hold no candle to Sir Thomas Bertram, for whom so few of you showed respect as a father. We will reserve Sir Thomas' next bout for another worthier opponent while we trot out two new worst father candidates for this week's Jane Austen Character Throwdown. Remember, the idea is to vote for the father who best fits the worst category, not for your favorite or least favorite character.

Worst Father

General Tilney of Northanger Abbey:
Harsh, ruthless, opportunistic, and lacking any of the softer skills that might have drawn him closer to his motherless children, this ambitious father will let nothing stand in the way of his goals. He rather lacks social graces as well, bragging about his possessions to Catherine Morland, a mere chit of a girl, and then turning her - his guest - out of the house without a chaperone or money simply because John Thorpe was wrong about the size of her fortune. Any time this father is near his children, they feel constrained to remain silent, and they tip toe around him for fear of drawing his ire. Despite his despotic demeanor, his two younger children made sensible choices in choosing a mate. For his oldest son, one suspects, there is very little hope of building good character.

Mr. Bennett of Longbourn:
What? You ask yourself. Why is this hugely popular character, known for his wit and sardonic comments, included in this category? Entertaining he may be, but he has also retreated from his responsibilities towards his three youngest daughters, openly preferring the eldest two. No wonder Lydia made such a poor choice for a husband, for had he required her to act with restraint and prudence, she would not have had the poor sense to run away with Wickham. He also belittles, or should I more accurately say, makes fun of his wife in front of his children, using his rapier wit and sarcasting remarks as weapons. The more I read Pride and Prejudice, the more I realize that Mr. Bennet chose to abrogate almost all his parental responsibilities despite the knowledge that his wife is too silly to be capable of sensible parenting.

pollcode.com free polls

Worst Father

General Tilney Mr. Bennet

Posted by Vic, Jane Austen's World

Northanger Abbey's General Tilney: A Real or Imagined Tyrant?

The PBS presentation of Northanger Abbey airs this Sunday, and I am looking forward to Liam Cunningham’s performance as that dastardly despot, General Tilney, who can be included as one of Jane Austen’s Bad Daddy’s.

Opinions of this potentate vary so greatly that accounts of him “puzzle me exceedingly”. When the novel was first published with Persuasion, an anonymous review of both novels appeared in the magazine the British Critic in March of 1818. I understand that during the early 1800’s it was common for reviews to be published anonymously. Really? That seems so impersonal and sheepish. What’s the point of a review if you can’t point a finger at the critic?

“Northanger Abbey is one of the best of Miss Austen’s productions, and will every way repay the time and trouble of perusing it. Some of the incidents in it are rather improbable, and the character of General Tilney seems to have been drawn from imagination, for it is not a very probable character, and is not portrayed with our authoress’s usual taste and judgment.”

This reviewer may not have understood that Northanger Abbey is a parody on Gothic novels, and General Tilney was an archetype of a villain. The ironic twist is that it is believed that the character of General Tilney was fashioned after a real person in Jane Austen’s family, a General Edward Mathew (1728-1805), who was the father-in-law of her elder brother James Austen.

General Mathew had served bravely in the Army with the Coldstream Guards in Europe, through the American War of Independence, and as the Governor of Grenada his last ten years in service. He retired to the county and lived in the old Manor House of Laverstoke, near Steventon where the Austen family resided. ‘The General was in his own house and family a despot whose will no-one could venture to dispute, and although autocratic and hot tempered was kind hearted and very generous.’ General Mathew could certainly have inspired Jane Austen’s characterization of General Tilney, who resembles an autocratic despot quite neatly.

More current views of General Tilney appear in the book Jane Austen and the Fiction of her Time, by Mary Waldron.

“General Tilney is immediately recognizable to the modern reader as he must have been at the turn of the nineteenth century as the archetypical domestic tyrant…grasping, irascible, overbearing, insincere and despotic.”

Whatever early or modern critics think of this character, General Tilney is one of the highlights of the novel, and fuels our heroine Catherine Morland’s Gothic fantasies into fervor.

Be sure to catch the premiere of Northanger Abbey, starring Felicity Jones and J.J. Field, airing on PBS, January 20th, at 9:00 pm, to see if General Tilney is as horrid as we hope!

Posted by Laurel Ann