By The High PriestessIn Northanger Abbey, Henry Tilney drives a curricle; John Thorpe drives a gig. Could there be any significance to those gentlemen's respective vehicles? Perhaps!
John Thorpe is a parody of a Gothic villain who might force a young lady into a "traveling-chaise and four, which will drive off with incredible speed," and indeed he gets her into the vehicle by nefarious means (lying to her) and drives her away "with incredible speed" from an assignation with the hero. But of course, Thorpe is merely a buffoon, a character whom we are meant to laugh at, although he would be surprised to hear it. He is a fairly self-satisfied chap; he constantly boasts about his gig, his horse, his hunting and riding skill, the wealth and importance of his friends. Even his description of his humble equipage is boastful: "Curricle-hung, you see; seat, trunk, sword-case, splashing-board, lamps, silver moulding, all you see complete; the iron-work as good as new, or better." But even Thorpe even seems to think that his equipage suffers in the comparison to a curricle, and even slyly tries to make his gig seem better: he calls it "curricle-hung." Why would he do this? Was a curricle really better than a gig?
One suspects that Catherine would have approved of an ox-cart had Henry Tilney been driving it, but I don't think that it was accidental that Jane Austen dwelt so long on the superior speed of the curricle, an attribute that John Thorpe claimed for his vehicle yet one that Henry seemed disinclined to dwell upon: "But the merit of the curricle did not all belong to the horses; Henry drove so well - so quietly - without making any disturbance, without parading to her, or swearing at them: so different from the only gentleman-coachman whom it was in her power to compare him with!" Henry is young, unmarried (for now), and comfortably well-off; thus he can afford not only the curricle, but the stabling and feeding of the two horses required to pull it. However, he does not boast upon these things as John Thorpe boasts of his own, lesser equipage; yet another example of the true superiority of Da Man! Copyright © 2000 by Margaret C. Sullivan. All Rights Reserved. |