Austen’s ‘beta male’ is the hero we need right now.
But I’m here to tell you, cinematic lake diving aside, you’re wrong.
Mr. Darcy isn’t Austen’s best hero.
Credit: Masterpiece Theatre/PBS
One of her lesser-known gentlemen is: Mr. Henry Tilneythe bookish, amiable clergyman ofNorthanger Abbey.
It will not do.
My feelings will not be repressed.
You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."
When we (and the heroine Catherine Morland) first meet Tilney, he is immediately appealing.
Tilney is a proto-feminist.
She is embarrassed all the same, but not through any deliberate shaming or outrage of his.
He handles the situation with his characteristic even-keeled affability and mild bemusement.
Mr. Darcy is a classic alpha male and has provided the blueprint for many a romantic hero since.
Tilney suffers no such lack of backbone or emotional puerility.
Here there is no grand romantic proclamation, at least not one we’re privy to as readers.
We will stand for this no longer."
Mr. Darcy can keep his “negging” tactics to himself, thank you very much.
Austen created this man in Henry Tilney 200 years ago.
