Title: "Employment is One Thing": The Narrative of Pineapple Economy and Ethics of Profession in Northanger Abbey

Abstract: Jane Austen employs various narrative devices to highlight the social status and wealth of characters in Northanger Abbey. By setting up a novel narrative of pineapple economy, Austen represents the use of privilege and wealth and the ethics of the professions of the leisure class with General Tilney at its center, thus making a critique of their backward beliefs, inefficient ways, and impractical notions. In the narrative of placing prosperity and hope on the generation to come, Austen partly confirms General Tilney's efforts and maintains expectation for the privileged to take duty and responsibility seriously in the future.

Keywords: Northanger Abbey, narrative of economy, ethics of profession, leisure class, Jane Austen

Author: Xin Zhang, Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China.