Northanger Abbey: Volume 1, Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

The next morning it looks like it will rain, and Catherine anxiously monitors the weather, appealing to Mr. Allen and Mrs. Allen for their opinion on whether it will rain, if it will stop raining, and if the Tilneys are likely to keep their date to go on a walk despite the rain. It stops raining and Catherine is wondering whether the Tilneys will still come for their walk, when Isabella, John, and James arrive in two carriages. Catherine declares that she cannot go on a ride with them, but must wait to see if the Tilneys will come. John, however, rushes in telling her to get ready quickly, but she says she cannot go, because she is expecting the Tilneys.

John objects that she should come anyway, and then Isabella comes in to encourage her. Isabella says that she and James had the idea at the exact same moment that morning and would have gone earlier if it had not been for the rain, but that they will be able to go to Clifton and on to Kingsweston. James says he doubts they will have time for that much, but John says they will be able to do even more, going also to Blaize Castle. Catherine asks if Blaize Castle is an old building and like the castles one reads about in books, and John assures her it is. Catherine says she would like to go, but repeats that she cannot because she expects the Tilneys.

John then says that he saw the Tilneys driving in a carriage out of town, so they could not be coming to see Catherine. Catherine says the Tilneys must have decided it was too muddy from the rain, but perhaps they will come back once it becomes drier. John says he heard Tilney telling a man that they were going out of town. Catherine appeals to Mrs. Allen, who says she may go riding with the Thorpes and her brother.

In the carriage, Catherine looks forward to seeing an old building like the one in Udolpho, but feels hurt that the Tilneys gave up so easily on taking a walk with her. John sees a girl look at Catherine as they ride by and asks Catherine who it is; Catherine turns and sees Eleanor and Henry Tilney walking down the street. Catherine shouts for John to stop the carriage so that she can go back to the Tilneys, but John only makes his horse run faster, despite her protestations and anger that he had lied to her about having seen them leave town. John says the man he saw looked just like Tilney and does not stop. Eventually, Catherine is forced to accept that she cannot escape the moving carriage.

Catherine is still angry, however, and does not to talk with John during their drive. She feels she would much rather not have disappointed the Tilneys no matter how thrilling the castle is. Still she looks forward to seeing this old building. After about an hour, James pulls up and says that they must go back: they have only driven seven miles and it is too late to continue. John is angry, but they turn back. He says that James ought to keep a better horse and gig, because his slow horse held them up. Catherine responds that certainly James should not keep a horse and gig, because he cannot afford it. John replies that it is James’s fault if, despite having so much money, he cannot afford a gig. Catherine does not try to understand what John means, and instead stops talking to him.

When Catherine returns to the Allens’, she learns from the footman that the Tilneys called for her, and when they were told she had left with the Thorpes, asked if she had left a note. Catherine is filled with regret. That evening Isabella seems undisturbed by the fact that they did not make it to their destination. Catherine feels that Isabella is not very concerned with Catherine’s unhappiness. Isabella, however, blames the Tilneys for having let the bad weather make them late and says she and John would never have kept Catherine waiting in that way.