Who’s Who
This is a Northanger Abbey characters guide, family by family.
I read the whole Gutenberg text, and every detail here comes from it. Light spoilers: I’ll tell you what each person is like and what they do in Bath and at the abbey, but I won’t give away how the story ends. We’ll go through the Morlands, the Tilneys, the Thorpes, and the Allens. And I’ll answer three things people search: who is Captain Tilney, is Henry really a clergyman, and who is the narrator?
Catherine Morland
Our heroine is Catherine Morland, seventeen years old when she goes to Bath. Her father is a clergyman, and she is one of ten children. As a child she preferred cricket and rolling down hills to dolls, and the book says she was plain.
At fifteen she starts reading the books a heroine is supposed to read, and by seventeen she is in training for the part. She is warm, cheerful, honest and not at all vain. She is thrilled when two strangers call her pretty at her first ball, and that is the size of her vanity. She is also very easy to fool, because she assumes everyone says what they mean.
She loves gothic novels, especially The Mysteries of Udolpho. That love drives the whole plot. She sees secrets in ordinary rooms, and she has a lot to learn about people.
Henry and Eleanor Tilney
Henry Tilney is the hero. When Catherine meets him he is about four or five and twenty, tall, with a lively eye, and a clergyman from a respectable Gloucestershire family. He is funny. At their first dance he pretends to be a stiff, formal partner, and then lectures her on journals and muslin.
He also reads novels, including all of Mrs. Radcliffe, and he corrects people’s English, which is why Catherine’s use of the word nice earns a lecture. He is the one person who sees through her, and he does it kindly. He also has a house of his own, the parsonage at Woodston, where a Newfoundland puppy and a few terriers keep him company.
His sister is Eleanor Tilney, gentle and kind, and quick to befriend Catherine. Mrs. Allen tells Catherine that Miss Tilney always wears white. At the abbey, Eleanor tells Catherine she is only the mistress of the house in name, with no real power. The more you see of her, the more you will like her.
General Tilney and Captain Tilney
Their father is General Tilney. He is polite, rich, and strict about punctuality, and he is obsessed with his house. He is gracious to Catherine from the start, and invites her to stay at Northanger Abbey. When he leaves for London, the book says his children and Catherine feel the relief.
The warm welcome is the first thing to watch. Why is a rich general being so nice to a clergyman’s daughter? The book answers that, and I won’t.
Frederick, or Captain Tilney, is Henry’s elder brother. He’s a soldier, and he joins the story in Bath, where he pays a lot of attention to Isabella Thorpe. Henry calls his brother vain, and says the vanity hasn’t hurt him yet.
Mrs. Tilney, the General’s wife, died nine years before the story begins. She never appears, but she matters a lot to Catherine’s imagination.
Isabella Thorpe
Isabella is the eldest Miss Thorpe. She is four years older than Catherine, pretty, and worldly. She calls Catherine her dearest creature within days, and they bond over novels, dresses and gossip.
Isabella says a lot about her feelings, mostly in superlatives. She declares she’d live happily on fifty pounds a year with the man she loves.
Watch what she does when someone more interesting arrives. Her letters are the best part. I’ll say only that Catherine has to find out the difference between what a friend says and what a friend does.
John Thorpe and James Morland
John Thorpe is Isabella’s brother, a student at Oxford. He is loud, boastful and rude. He is a friend of Catherine’s brother, James, and he talks constantly about his horse and how much he knows. He says novels are nonsense, though he names two he likes. He also lies, to get his way, and he exaggerates everything, including other people’s money.
He decides he likes Catherine, and she can’t stand him. That mismatch drives a lot of the Bath chapters.
James Morland is Catherine’s eldest brother, also at Oxford. He is a decent, trusting young man. He meets the Thorpes through John, and he falls for Isabella. James is the person you want to protect.
The Allens and the Thorpe Parents
Mr. and Mrs. Allen are the neighbors who take Catherine to Bath. Mr. Allen owns most of the property around Fullerton. He is sensible, goes to Bath for his gout, and spends his evenings in the card room. He’s the adult who gives Catherine good advice when it counts.
Mrs. Allen is a different matter. She loves clothes, and thinks about little else. Her great wish is that they knew someone in Bath. She repeats herself, and she’s very funny. When she finally meets an old friend, it’s Mrs. Thorpe.
Mrs. Thorpe is a widow, a kind, indulgent woman who talks about her children’s talents. She has two other daughters, Anne and Maria, who copy their eldest sister.
The Morland Family
Back in Fullerton, there’s Catherine’s father, Richard Morland, a clergyman. Her mother is practical and sensible, and her advice to her daughter is to keep warm and keep accounts. She had three sons before Catherine, and six more children after.
Catherine’s younger sister, Sally, or Sarah, is sixteen, and the book makes a joke about that. There are also George and Harriet, six and four years old. They are the ones who wait at the window for every carriage.
The Narrator
The last character is the narrator. The narrator talks to the reader, calls Catherine my heroine, and keeps comparing the story to the kind of novel Catherine reads. There are jokes about how a plot is supposed to go, and the narrator even speaks to the reader about the story’s own length.
Keep the narrator in mind. In Austen’s hands, that voice is as important as anyone in the story.
Quick Answers
Three quick answers, since you asked. Who is Captain Tilney? Frederick, the General’s eldest son and Henry’s brother, a soldier who flirts with Isabella in Bath. Is Henry a clergyman? Yes. Mr. Allen is told so in the first week, and Henry has a parish at Woodston, which is his home. And who is the narrator? Not a character in the plot, but a voice who speaks to you directly.
One more. Which family is the book’s real center? The Morlands, because it’s Catherine’s story, but the Tilneys are where it all gets decided.
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