John Thorpe and Isabella both assume that Catherine and James stand to inherit a lot of money from the Allens, who (in that scenario) might even be persuaded to settle money on them as a dowry or wedding present. James probably assumed that Tilney would marry her, as it would be the honourable thing to do, but neither he nor Isabella seems to have realised that Tilney is not exactly an honourable man. I think Isabella is not as adept at intrigue and social climbing as she thinks she is - perhaps she assumed a proposal from Captain Tilney was imminent (and it wasn't), or perhaps she was indiscreet and James found out what was going on, meaning that she had to break off the engagement without being certain of Tilney. Tilney was by all accounts a good person, why did she marry him?) As a side note, I think it's really interesting that Catherine fundamentally isn't wrong about General Tilney - she knows something's up and is just wrong about what, and how that gives her opportunity for reflection. Why is it that he casts such a somber mood over everyone? (And if he's such a dick, but Mrs.

What's up with General Tilney? Even though he didn't murder his wife, we're told repeatedly that his kids and Catherine have less fun when he's around, but up until he kicks Catherine out of the house, he seems strict but otherwise normal.

On a related note, why did Isabella want to get James in the first place? Other than money, I can't think of anything Catherine has that John would want or any qualities that would make him actually attracted to her.

Why did John Thorpe want to marry Catherine? (Or I guess another possibility is that he just wanted to flirt with her, but his comments to her when they're alone after Isabella and James' engagement really strongly suggest marriage.) Does he think that she has more money than she does? If so, it's suggestive that Isabella was under the same impression about James, so maybe that impression came from James bragging at Oxford, but that seems unlikely given that John says James doesn't have a gig and makes other comments about how James doesn't spend as much money as he does.Why would Isabella leave James for something less than another engagement, or did Captain Tilney find some way to break things off? Plus James said in his letter that Isabella was engaged to Captain Tilney. Henry had this same prediction about her.

What happened between Captain Tilney and Isabella Thorpe? It really doesn't make sense to me that Isabella, being the ruthless social climber she is, would abandon James before getting engaged to a richer man.Anyway, I submit the following questions for discussion: I don't usually get confused like this about Austen novels, so part of me is kind of wondering whether Austen didn't have time to clarify these points before she died, since it was published posthumously. Hi guys, I just reread Northanger Abbey, and remembered all of the things that confused me about it.

Tilney northanger abbey