...still doesn't do it for me. :-( Even if you feel that Frederick Tilney handed Isabella exactly what she deserved, he was also punishing an innocent bystander, James Morland, who *didn't* deserve it. Second, who appointed Captain Tilney as judge and jury? When you start playing at love with someone, you can't always control the results! Also, even though I don't like Isabella, it always tugs at my mind that in JA's era, the price a woman had to pay for a (would-be) marriage gone wrong was so much more higher than for a man. IMO, Tilney really might have been playing with fire.