The first pivotal event is Catherine's attendance at Milsom-street to visit General Tilney, his son and his daughter. The event is a disappointment. Something is wrong but Catherine cannot put her finger on what.
She does decide not to blame the General:
... it had been a release to get away from him. It puzzled her to account for all this. It could not be General Tilney’s fault. That he was perfectly agreeable and good–natured, and altogether a very charming man, did not admit of a doubt, for he was tall and handsome, and Henry’s father. He could not be accountable for his children’s want of spirits, or for her want of enjoyment in his company.Good heavens, that's free indirect speech. And that has to at least tempt us to think that we are reading something that Jane Austen added while revising the book.
An aside, some critics have argued that Austen always or sometimes equates manners and moral character. Hardly, what Austen believes (not what she assumes) is that good character and manners have a relationship not unlike that of faith and acts in the Epistle from James: "But someone will say, 'You have character and I have manners.' Show me your character apart from your manners and I by my manners will show you my character."
But while you can't have character unless you also have manners, it is certainly possible to have manners without having moral character as both the General and his eldest son show us in this novel.
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