Northanger Abbey Lesson Plan

How does Austen use characters’ dialogue to reveal their secret or unconscious intentions and feelings?

For this question, students might focus in particular on Isabella in Chapter 3. For example, when she says: “A little harmless flirtation or so will occur, and one is often drawn on to give more encouragement than one wishes to stand by…What one means one day, you know, one may not mean the next”, students may note, with the backdrop of the flirtation she is engaging in with Captain Tilney, that Isabella may be revealing more than she means to about her own inconstant feelings. Students should also explore how this way of using dialogue is a strategy employed by the...