Allison Pennington ENG 301 October 6, 2014 The Art of Manipulation: The Irony of Colonel Tilney’s Manipulative Tendencies in Northanger Abbey In her classic coming-of-age novel Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen chronicles the life of Catherine Morland as she attempts to transition from the naivety and gullibility of an adolescent to the independence and maturity of a young woman. This evolution is aided largely by the time that Catherine spends apart from her own practical and simplistic parents with the fascinating and cultured Tilney family. General Tilney, the patriarch of the family, takes a special interest in Catherine as a potential wife for his son, Henry, because he believes that her wealth and class status would increase the social status …show more content…
The General’s cruelty and manipulative behavior are best emphasized in the way that he treats his children, Eleanor and Henry. On their first night at Northanger Abbey, Eleanor quickly hurries Catherine to dinner, understanding that her father will be angry if they are not on time. When the girls race downstairs, they find General Tilney pacing the room, and he immediately and harshly exclaims that dinner is served the very moment they appear. He then, seeming to recover himself, “spent the rest of his time in scolding his daughter for so foolishly hurrying her fair friend, who was absolutely out of breath from haste, when there was not the least occasion for hurry in the world” (168). General Tilney again uses his daughter to express his feelings, blaming her for hurrying Catherine instead of accepting that it was fear of him which incited her hurry, just as he had used her as the excuse for inviting Catherine to accompany them to Northanger Abbey in the first place. Although the General tries to manipulate Catherine’s feelings by hiding his own cruel and demeaning emotions and desires in the actions of his children, Catherine is nevertheless able to at least somewhat see through his veneer. Because she is too naïve to understand his actions for what they are, she formulates a …show more content…
Henry is enraged with his father because of his cruelty toward Catherine, and he and his father argue over the General’s treatment of her. Just as the General expected Eleanor to obey his wishes and banish Catherine from their house, he similarly expected Henry to accept his decision and agree not to continue pursuing a relationship with Catherine: “The General accustomed on every ordinary occasion to give the law in his family, prepared for no reluctance but of feeling, no opposing desire that should dare to clothe itself in words, could ill brook the opposition of his son, steady as the sanction of reason and the dictate of conscience could make it,” (237). However, Henry, unlike Eleanor, was not afraid to stand up to his father because he felt that his own morals and sense of justice negated his all-encompassing obedience to his father: “But, in such a cause, his anger, though it must shock, could not intimidate Henry, who was sustained in his purpose by a conviction of its justice” (237). This is the first time in the novel that any character has stood up to General Tilney and refused to let himself or herself be manipulated as a pawn in General Tilney’s selfish aims. As a result, General Tilney and Henry leave