#love catherine and henry

[bethanydelleman]

I think this paragraph has a lot to do with why Henry Tilney and Catherine Morland work:

Having heard the day before in Milsom Street that their elder brother, Captain Tilney, was expected almost every hour, she was at no loss for the name of a very fashionable-looking, handsome young man, whom she had never seen before, and who now evidently belonged to their party. She looked at him with great admiration, and even supposed it possible that some people might think him handsomer than his brother, though, in her eyes, his air was more assuming, and his countenance less prepossessing. His taste and manners were beyond a doubt decidedly inferior; for, within her hearing, he not only protested against every thought of dancing himself, but even laughed openly at Henry for finding it possible... Catherine, meanwhile, undisturbed by presentiments of such an evil, or of any evil at all, except that of having but a short set to dance down, enjoyed her usual happiness with Henry Tilney, listening with sparkling eyes to everything he said; and, in finding him irresistible, becoming so herself.

Henry is a second son, and not only that, his brother is HOT. Smoking hot, and from what we hear of him later, pretty charming, though not funny charming. Catherine takes one look at him, is like, “Well, other people might think he’s handsome,” and then focuses on Henry.

How often has this happened in Henry’s life? Is the usual way of things that a girl dances with him, finds out who he is and tries to trade up for his brother, Isabella-esq? I can see that happening to a second son, a mere clergyman A LOT. But the thought doesn’t even enter Catherine’s head, she’s all about Henry. She’s loyal, she’s disinterested, she’s not a mercenary. How gratifying it must be to be her first and only choice!

Is it any wonder that he falls in love with her? I say no.

[fictionadventurer]

Of course Catherine Morland falls in love with the charming, kind Henry Tilney who's unlike any man she's ever met and who's the kind of person who she didn't think existed outside of books. But the great thing is that Henry's equally enchanted by the completely ordinary Catherine, because she's something that's totally unfamiliar to his world. They're equally mythical to each other, and in finding each other they upend their ideas of what they thought the world was, and they build a new world together, and that is peak romance.

[jamesfrain]

henry's like: 'gurl, stop.'

Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maria Doyle Kennedy as Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors — S01E03 'Wolsey, Wolsey, Wolsey'

[annabolinas]

Top, L-R: Rosalie Crutchley as Catherine Parr in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), Episode 6: Catherine Parr (written by John Prebble)

Bottom: Rosalie Crutchley as Catherine Parr in Elizabeth R (1971), Episode 1: The Lion's Cub (written by Rosemary Anne Sisson)

edited by me

[armand-dearest]

Katherine of Aragon is one of my favourite historical figures ever and I honestly feel so mad on her behalf every time I think of her fuck-ass second husband.

Imagine you marry at 15 to another child your own age of whom you can only communicate via written Latin with, and then you both get sick and he dies, your marriage unconsummated. Then you have to marry his little brother - and you have a much more legitimate lineage than he does. So you're married off to him in order to make this guy's claim to the English throne legit. Without you, his legitimacy would be disputed. He wouldn't be shit without you.

Anyway, you're married to this guy for 20 years. In that time, you give him a daughter and have about 4 miscarriages / still births. You rule England on his behalf as "Governor of the Realm and Captain General" while he's off fighting a war in France, and during which you assist in winning a war against Scotland for him (while heavily pregnant), all the while pioneering women's educational rights and trying to help the poor.

And how does this fuck-ass man repay your grace, decorum, determination and spirit? By serially cheating on you and throwing a middle finger to your sacred faith to anull your marriage, and cause the entire country to split from your religion, all so he could shack up with a woman he only spent THREE YEARS married to before he killed her anyway. In doing so, he also essentially questions your virtue, sister-zones you, and implies you lied about not consummating the marriage with your first husband / his older brother. Basically, slandering you to hell and back. During all this, he prevents you from seeing or even writing letters to your own daughter. I'd be raging. And she did rage - but with so much fucking grace she was considered a martyr by many at the time.

Thomas Cromwell, who very much did not like Katherine, even had this to say for her: "If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History."

[thoumpingground]

Okay, obviously I get why Emma gets to be the resident Disaster Matchmaker TM, but really John Thorpe gives her several runs for her money. He beats her in numbers of matches, execution, and production value accidentaly. Emma only managed to get Harriet's heart broken - twice. Thorpe's got it down to the details: he got Cathy the guy and a swoon worthy proposal. Cause if left to his own devices, Henry would have put together something sweet and heartfelt but simple, and Cathy would have been very happy of course, but she clearly doesn't mind a little bit of ✨romance✨. Thanks to Thorpe, she gets to brag forever that her husband loved her so much he bore being disowned and rode 70 miles on a horse to propose against his father's will.

Thorpe might be shooting in the dark, and aiming for the complete opposite goal, but d-mn it, he gets results, and I think he deserves to be the Austen Extended Universe Hipercompetent Matchmaking Menace TM. Not the least because, unlike Emma and every other Austen romantic rival, he has nothing else going for him.

[cloudnuggett]

all the queens: oh my life was so sad, i had it the worst :(

anna of cleaves: yeah well sucks to be you, im fucking thriving bitches

[averlym]

Honestly any Araleyn stuff would be amazing :)

gonna flirt with a girl (or three) to make him jel-

[bethanydelleman]

"the General's unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather con- ducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment"

I was thinking about this quote. Did Jane Austen mean by "adding strength to their attachment" that Catherine and Henry's attachment was not a strong one before the Colonel's interference ?

Colonel seemed more involved in Henry's "courtship" of Cathy than Henry himself. And her feelings for him seemed more like infatuation or teenager crush than a real steady love. Add to that that line about Henry being interested in Catherine because she liked him. And the proposal seemed to me more due to him feeling guilty for leading her on and making fall in love with him and taking responsibility for his father's obvious hints about a wedding. You know the " honor bound " thing. I mean he did mean it and he liked Catherine well enough.

Do you think that Austen meant that their relationship became strong after the Colonel delayed their marriage ?

To understand the last paragraph of Northanger Abbey, you have to remember that this is a satire and Jane Austen is being a bit more blunt than usual in this last bit. I will highlight the jokes:

Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and everybody smiled; and, as this took place within a twelvemonth from the first day of their meeting, it will not appear, after all the dreadful delays occasioned by the General’s cruelty, that they were essentially hurt by it. To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well; and professing myself moreover convinced that the General’s unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment, I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

Green: Austen jokes about this delay earlier, "The anxiety, which in this state of their attachment must be the portion of Henry and Catherine, and of all who loved either, as to its final event, can hardly extend, I fear, to the bosom of my readers, who will see in the tell-tale compression of the pages before them, that we are all hastening together to perfect felicity." So the joke is that we, as readers, know it will end happily and we know it will end happily soon, because there aren't that many pages left.

Blue: It is extremely common in fiction for the protagonists to be brought closer together by interference instead of being torn apart by it, so General Tilney, in opposing marriage, strengthens the probability of it happening. He plays his stock character part very well in this story. It's a meta joke because it is so inevitable in this sort of narrative that it makes his actions silly.

Purple: Novels in this era were supposed to have a moral, but Austen jokes that her moral may be interpreted as "disobey your parents" or "be a tyrant to your children" to come to the happy conclusion. Obviously, that's not the real moral of her story, but what a cursory reading may lead someone to think.

To understand Henry and Catherine's love story, you need to know that at the time, men were supposed to have feelings first and women second, developing them as gratitude for the man liking them. So the "proper" order is:

Man has feelings

Man expresses feelings

Woman develops feelings in gratitude

Now this is extremely silly, since it's not like a girl won't develop a crush on her own. Austen is mocking this particular order of events. She's not saying that Henry Tilney doesn't love Catherine, he does, she's saying that the love happened in a wrong and scandalous order.

She was assured of his affection; and that heart in return was solicited, which, perhaps, they pretty equally knew was already entirely his own; for, though Henry was now sincerely attached to her, though he felt and delighted in all the excellencies of her character and truly loved her society, I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new circumstance in romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory of an heroine’s dignity; but if it be as new in common life, the credit of a wild imagination will at least be all my own.

That is why it's harmful to Catherine's dignity, because she DARED to have a crush. And obviously, Austen knows this happens all the time, which is why she jokes about it.

I hope that answered everything.

[fictionadventurer]

Potential elements of a coming-of-age arc:

Identity: Learning who you are outside of the family structure

Responsibility: Taking care of other people instead of being taken care of; making your own choices and taking the consequences upon yourself

Values: Deciding which values you will live your life by--holding onto the values of childhood or taking up new values--and using these to inform your adult decisions

Wisdom: Overcoming a childish misconception of reality and coming to a more realistic understanding of how the world works, so you can use this new knowledge to inform your decisions

[vintageseawitch]

i feel like Lizzie & Mr Tilney would crack each other up with their mutual witticisms & make Catherine blush but find some amusement meanwhile Darcy would have to move heaven & earth not to groan out loud & roll his eyes every five minutes

[annabolinas]

From left to right: Anne Stallybrass as Jane Seymour, Keith Michell as Henry VIII, Dorothy Tutin as Anne Boleyn, and Annette Crosbie as Catherine of Aragon in a promo picture for The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970)

Edited by me

[leoleolovesdc]

Ok, but js imagine it:

Anne walks over to Catherine, it’s been just a few months since they’ve “reincarnated” and met up again in this new life. She looks proud, like she’s just accomplished the most rewarding thing in the world.

“Guess what?” Anne asks Catherine in a mischievous manner. “I’m not in love with you anymore”, she says before Catalina has any time to actually guess anything.

Anne smiles, this proud look on her face and yet a almost goofily sarcastic approach that is so utterly herself Catherine finds it overbearing to look at.

Anne expectantly looks at Catalina, like a pup who just did what it’s told to waiting for a reward.

Catalina looks confused for a second, she seems almost condescending in this one moment, but quickly a storm of emotions flash through her face; acknowledgement (she’s finally got it) mixed with hurt and confusion. It’s not a good look on her.

Catherine tries looking Anne into her eyes, but finds it impossible to actually sustain. She discretely looks away, trying to maintain her composure despite the conflict that she’s just experienced. “I didn’t know you ever were”, she answers sternly before walking away.

[une-sanz-pluis]

Honestly, the more I read about Catherine de Valois, the more I feel like she serves a fetish object for both her detractors and those who celebrate her as a romantic heroine or the mother of the Tudor dynasty. She's nearly always in the role of trophy: victory trophy, trophy wife, trophy fuck, trophy ancestor

[autumnrose11]

I LOVE this passage from Northanger Abbey. It’s one of the funniest parts of the book!

“And now, Henry," said Miss Tilney, "that you have made us understand each other, you may as well make Miss Morland understand yourself—unless you mean to have her think you intolerably rude to your sister, and a great brute in your opinion of women in general. Miss Morland is not used to your odd ways." "I shall be most happy to make her better acquainted with them." "No doubt; but that is no explanation of the present." "What am I to do?" "You know what you ought to do. Clear your character handsomely before her. Tell her that you think very highly of the understanding of women." "Miss Morland, I think very highly of the understanding of all the women in the world—especially of those—whoever they may be—with whom I happen to be in company." "That is not enough. Be more serious." "Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half.”

The not-quite-so-subtle-but-still-charming flirting..... “I shall be most happy to make her better acquainted with them....” , “... especially of those - whoever they may be - with whom I happen to be in company.” AGHHH! I adore his facetious, flippant sense of humour, the way his love for Catherine is veiled in these great quips!

And the exaggerated amendments and apology to his sister killed me. “No one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do.”

AND

“Nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half.” I tell you, this last bit had me giggling for a good five minutes 😂😂😂😂