] ] But JA reports that “…this address seemed to satisfy all the fondest wishes of the mother’s heart, for she received him with the most delighted and exulting affection.”

] I have three brothers - the two older ones used to regularly smack us in the head or punch us in the shoulder or back whenever they walked by. I occassionally still find myself ducking when one of them walks behind me. It was part of the playfulness in a large family

I don't think this is the case here at all, and I think Jane Austen's above comment is meant to be sarcastic. Thorpe has a doting mother who allows him to act this way. He's a spoiled child.