Wallace’s analysis of Northanger Abbey focuses on the reader’s relationships with the narrator and the author. To highlight this relationship, Wallace chooses to concentrate on the character of Henry Tilney. More specifically, Wallace shows how Henry Tilney’s satire relies on reductive generalizations of other characters, particularly female ones. Wallace then connects this trait of Henry’s to Austen’s tendency to reductively generalize her readers and manipulate her reader into becoming an active participant in the story. However, Wallace muddies her analysis with her propensity to similarly reductively and harshly judge Austen’s readers who read the text differently than she did. Additionally, Wallace confuses her analytical credibility by
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For example, Wallace calls attention to Henry and Catherine’s first conversation, where he parodies ladies’ journals. While reviewing his “reductive and inaccurate description” of these journals, Wallace finds a “generalization quite at odds” with the reality of eighteenth-century ladies’ journals, which included works by such influential writers as Fanny Burney and Hester Thrale (Wallace 265). Consequently, by employing reductive language to characterize ladies’ journals, Henry transitively reduces and generalizes the women who write for them. Through analyzing Henry’s language, Wallace reveals how Henry’s satire only leads him to arrive at trite conclusions, like that women and men are comparably skilled in matters involving taste (Austen 27). Another example of Henry reductively analyzing a situation involving women is when he explains Isabella’s behavior towards Captain Tilney to Catherine. In this passage, Henry judges that neglecting to share his true opinion with Catherine will ease her anxiety and that she should not to fully understand a situation that involves both her closest friend and her brother. According to Wallace, Henry is completely aware of the repercussions of what he shares with Catherine, obliging, “but not with the truth or even what he believes to be true” (Wallace 267). Wallace contends that Henry acts like a “paternal or parental …show more content…
More specifically, Wallace employs harsh language to judge Austen’s readers who read the text differently than she did. For example, when Austen introduces Henry as a character, Wallace contends that “even the most obtuse reader is prepared to encounter a hero who will collaborate with the narrator” (Wallace 262). The phrasing Wallace chooses to describe not Henry, but the “atypical” reader, feels like a breach of Wallace’s authority, a harsh judgment of character placed upon the reader. Furthermore, Wallace harshly judges Austen’s readers again when she remarks after analyzing Henry’s explanation of Isabella’s behavior that “only a reader as enthralled as Catherine will fail to question Tilney’s earlier rhetoric of comfort” (Wallace 268). Once again, Wallace employs harsh, critical words to characterize the reader whose experience deviates from Wallace’s own. Clearly, Wallace assumes the reader will regard the text in the exact manner she did, which skews her ability to truly convey the reader’s relation to the text, because she limits her perception on this matter by broadly generalizing the experience of Austen’s
For example, Wallace calls attention to Henry and Catherine’s first conversation, where he parodies ladies’ journals. While reviewing his “reductive and inaccurate description” of these journals, Wallace finds a “generalization quite at odds” with the reality of eighteenth-century ladies’ journals, which included works by such influential writers as Fanny Burney and Hester Thrale (Wallace 265). Consequently, by employing reductive language to characterize ladies’ journals, Henry transitively reduces and generalizes the women who write for them. Through analyzing Henry’s language, Wallace reveals how Henry’s satire only leads him to arrive at trite conclusions, like that women and men are comparably skilled in matters involving taste (Austen 27). Another example of Henry reductively analyzing a situation involving women is when he explains Isabella’s behavior towards Captain Tilney to Catherine. In this passage, Henry judges that neglecting to share his true opinion with Catherine will ease her anxiety and that she should not to fully understand a situation that involves both her closest friend and her brother. According to Wallace, Henry is completely aware of the repercussions of what he shares with Catherine, obliging, “but not with the truth or even what he believes to be true” (Wallace 267). Wallace contends that Henry acts like a “paternal or parental …show more content…
More specifically, Wallace employs harsh language to judge Austen’s readers who read the text differently than she did. For example, when Austen introduces Henry as a character, Wallace contends that “even the most obtuse reader is prepared to encounter a hero who will collaborate with the narrator” (Wallace 262). The phrasing Wallace chooses to describe not Henry, but the “atypical” reader, feels like a breach of Wallace’s authority, a harsh judgment of character placed upon the reader. Furthermore, Wallace harshly judges Austen’s readers again when she remarks after analyzing Henry’s explanation of Isabella’s behavior that “only a reader as enthralled as Catherine will fail to question Tilney’s earlier rhetoric of comfort” (Wallace 268). Once again, Wallace employs harsh, critical words to characterize the reader whose experience deviates from Wallace’s own. Clearly, Wallace assumes the reader will regard the text in the exact manner she did, which skews her ability to truly convey the reader’s relation to the text, because she limits her perception on this matter by broadly generalizing the experience of Austen’s