The Novel "Northanger Abbey"

The novel “Northanger Abbey” is one of the earlier works of Jane Austen, which was published only after her death. “Northanger Abbey” is considered to be a satire on the Gothic novels of that time, which were of a high popularity in 18-19th centuries in England. Particularly it’s considered to be a satire on the Gothic style novels as written by Anne Radcliffe, that describe mysterious castles, scary nights, nightmares, ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. As Coral Ann Howells marks “…There is great deal of common ground between Austen and Radcliffe in general, and in Northanger Abbey Austen investigates the very area of the irrational that the Gothic novelists always claimed as their own, and employs Radcliffian techniques for registering emotion. Austen has demonstrated the truth of the Gothic novelists’ perceptions into the psychology of feeling and the dimensions of human irrationality.” (p.129 Love, Mystery and Misery)

By the words of Jane Austen the novel was a “...work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of the human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language”.

(Many of the references Austen made in Northanger Abbey were meant to be satirical towards the gothic writing style prevalent in her time. Certain elements of wordplay in her characters’ dialogue will also sound dated to a modern reader. For example, Catherine describes a popular gothic novel as being “Horrible”, which can be taken as “Awful” or that the book was scary, which is a way the word was used in the author’s time.)

The satire is vividly seen on the example of the 17 year old girl Catherine Morland, infant and impressive character, who is described by such the words of Jane Austen at the very begging of the novel: “no one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.”

“The first paragraph of the first chapter, in telling us what Catherine Morland was, tells us, with delicate irony, what she was not; dwelling, in every line, upon the extraordinary beauty and ability of romantic heroines.” (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume XII. The Romantic Revival.X. Jane Austen.§ 3. Northanger Abbey)

From the first pages we understand that the atmosphere she was raised in could not give any other alternative in the development and forming of her inner emotional world and attitude towards the reality. Catherine’s father was a clergyman with “a considerable independence, besides two good livings--and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters”(p.5). Until the late teenage years she was more involved in games and activities with her brothers, as cricket and other games, than in activities common to the girls of her age. Only since fifteen she began to pay more attention to her appearance, reading novels and succeed in that: “To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.”(p.5) At these age she is developing as a young lady, reads romantic and gothic novels and she basically lives in the world of her imagination, in her own created world, which to the most part has nothing much in common with surrounding routines and hush realities of the real life.

The difference between the inner world of the main heroine and the reality she lives in divides the story into two parts. During the whole story Catherine is trying to somehow find a middle between these two worlds, and may that’s the main problem for her that differs life from reading books. She knew how to read books, she had a success in that, but she nearly always failed in reading life, especially reading life “in between lines, looking through it”, which often put her in not desirable situations. Her inner world was full of romanticism and harmony, but the realities contradicted it.

The story of her trip to Bath and acquaintance with Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor played a role in forming of her maturity. She found that a person of her dream wasn’t a hero of romantic novels, but a young level-head clergyman Henry Tilney. Henry made a lot to her to help her take the reality as it is, not the way she wants it to be.

In the first part of the novel she is introduced to the noble society of Bath, a resort for upper society in England. She spends a lot of time in the parties, meetings, balls and other entertainments, where she gets acquainted with Isabelle Thorpe. The character of Isabelle Thorpe is compared to that of Catherine, in contradiction to Catherine, Isabelle is very pragmatic and prudent young lady, she is more anxious about meeting a rich future husband that will support her and guarantee a position in higher society, than to meet a real love. That’s why she is changing her courtiers during the whole novel, and only at the end of the novel she tries to change something about herself.

As soon as she comes to the Northanger Abbey, she “realizes” that that place had much in common with all the things she read in gothic novels, to the contrast to entertaining city of Bath, was very mysterious and had a lot of mysterious and terrible stories to be discovered. Under the influence of her imagination, based on the gothic novels, she begins to think about general Tilney as about a murder of his wife and she tries to find some evidence to prove that. As a result Henry finds her looking in the papers of their family and everything gets on its places. She feels embarrassed and learns one more lesson from life.

At the end of the story we see her engagement and marriage on Henry Tilney. She is more mature at the end of the novel and we see how character developed. She less and less refers to the world of imagination, formed under the influence of passion for reading novels, and more thinks with her own head. Catherine is not that mature and experienced as characters of other Austen’s novels, but her pure soul, her thoughts, not spoiled by the evil realities and ambitions as well as her education give her enough credit to be a heroine of the novel, and put her infant personality higher than the other characters of the novel.

Even though that Northanger Abbey can not be considered to be a serious novel, still it has a lot of things to present. Showing the difference between Catherine’s inner word and reality, Jane Austen states that the perception of reality is more important than childish fantasies and romantic novels. All Northanger Abbey gives a bright picture of aristocratic society, of all it’s the mood of the aristocratic society, its life, prejudices and social isolation form other classes. It touches the topic of real love and relations between people, shows the triumph of virtue over mercantilism and pragmatism. The satire on gothic novels and vivid realistic narration of Jane Austin is described by Judith Wilt in such words: “Austen’s transformed machinery is activated, energized by dread; turning point of Emma and Northanger Abbey is recognition of dread; idea is not to mock but to raise machinery to its real importance, to make the anxieties of common life serious, high, significant.”

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Views of Women in Pride and Prejudice

Views of Women in Pride and Prejudice
By Mary Arnold

In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen does not portray her female characters in a favorable light. As Mr. Bennet remarks early in the novel, all his daughters are "silly and ignorant" (Austen 2). While he does give Elizabeth "something more of quickness than her sisters," he nonetheless does not exclude her from being silly also (Austen 2). Mrs. Bennet and the Bennet daughters vary in their exhibitions of silliness, but none of them, in the words of Mr. Bennet, have "much to recommend them" (Austen 2). Despite being a knowledgeable woman herself, Austen conforms to the stereotypical views of women in British society.

Mrs. Bennet is portrayed as the proverbial nag plaguing her husband and children with her mysterious ailments of which she never complains, and therefore is "never pitied" (Austen 98). The only employment Mrs. Bennet has is to "get her daughters married" (Austen 3). To achieve those ends, she resorts to many subterfuges, such as sending Jane to Netherfield on horseback when the weather looks bad in the hopes that she will need to stay the night (Austen 25). Instead of being concerned when Jane falls ill from being exposed to the rain, Mrs. Bennet is overjoyed that now Jane will have to remain at Netherfield for several days. Mrs. Bennet also displays bad manners by talking of Jane's engagement to Mr. Bingley at a dinner party before the engagement is settled (Austen 86). And when it seems that the engagement will not take place, Mrs. Bennet remarks that her only comfort is that she "is sure Jane will die of a broken heart, and then [Mr. Bingley] will be sorry for what he has done" (Austen 194). Throughout the novel, Mrs. Bennet displays a lack of regard for her daughters' well being, and unconcern for proper social behavior.

The youngest Bennet daughter, Lydia, is described as having a vacant mind, whose primary occupation is "running after the officers" with her sister Kitty (Austen 44). Elizabeth, along with the rest of her family, does not see any problem with Lydia's and Kitty's behavior until Mr. Darcy points out to Elizabeth the impropriety of their actions. Indeed, Elizabeth does her share in this by encouraging Mr. Wickham's attentions to herself (Austen 65). Lydia shows no shame or sense of wrongdoing in her running off with Wickham and living with him before their marriage when she visits her family. Instead she is proud of marrying before her elder sisters and even proposes that they come to stay with her so that she can "get husbands for them" (Austen 269).

The next youngest daughter, Kitty, seems to have no will of her own and instead follows the behavior of whomever she is in company with at the moment. Before Lydia's marriage, Kitty joined in pursuing the officers and displayed the same vanity and coquettish behavior that Lydia indulged in. She is seen as selfish and self-centered when, upon hearing of Jane's engagement to Bingley, she immediately thinks of what the marriage will mean to herself, i.e. in petitioning for Jane and Bingley to have numerous balls (Austen 297). When Kitty removes to living with her two sisters, Jane and Elizabeth, her disposition improves due to being in society "so superior to what she had generally known" (Austen 329). This easy improvement marks Kitty as pliable to whatever hand is in control at the moment, which is no credit to her character.

Mary, the middle daughter also turns Jane's marriage to her own advantage by requesting the unlimited use of the Netherfield library. Mary is characterized as the studious daughter who is always wrapped up in her books. However, her family does not admire her educational endeavors, and she is frequently the brunt of many of their jokes. One example of this is when Mr. Bennet asks Mary's opinion on the importance of the forms of introduction since she is "a young lady of deep reflection" and reads "great books and makes extracts" (Austen 4). Austen writes that "Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how" (Austen 5). In the few instances where Mary does speak in the novel, she is relegated with pompous moralizations (Austen 26, 75, 189, 244). However when Mary is left alone in the house with her parents, she also improves by going out into society more now that she is no longer "mortified by comparisons between her sisters' beauty and her own" (Austen 330). This seems to imply that Mary's self-imposed education was not something she particularly wished to be involved with, but was rather an escape from being found deficient to her sisters.

The eldest daughter, Jane, demonstrates her silliness by her repeated attempts to believe only the best of everybody. When Mr. Bingley does not return from London, Jane would rather believe him guilty of inconstancy than to believe that Bingley's sisters are working to separate the two (Austen 103). In many instances in the novel, e.g. the dispute between Darcy and Wickham, and Lydia and Wickham's elopement, Jane willingly blinds herself to the truth of those circumstances and endeavors to acquit everyone of any wrongdoing.

Even the female protagonist of the novel, Elizabeth, does not escape from her share of silly female behavior. Because Darcy does not rave over her beauty at first sight and calls her only "tolerable," Elizabeth determines to think only the worst of him, without giving him the justice of deferring an opinion until they are better acquainted (Austen 8). She eagerly seizes on Wickham's account of Darcy's character without first trying to determine if it is justified.

Elizabeth displays hypocrisy on many occasions in the novel, for instance when she condemns Darcy for interfering with Bingley's life, while shortly later she does the same with Lydia. She also excuses Wickham's seeking to marry for financial gain, while she berates Charlotte for acting in the same manner. Elizabeth, while speaking out against her mother's and sisters' actions of impropriety, does the same when she appears at Pemberley (Austen 212). She feels that it is wrong, but she goes anyway. It is at this point that Elizabeth begins to consider that being "mistress of Pemberley might be something" (Austen 207).

Whether the female characters are oblivious to the morals and conduct of good society or willing to believe the best, or worst, of everybody, all of the women portrayed in Pride and Prejudice are invariably seen as silly women. Not one of them is characterized in a manner differing from the traditional views of women in Victorian society.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1994.

Mary Arnold holds a B.A. in literature and history.

She is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writing.

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Jane Austen - Self Improvement Guru?

Jane Austen - Self Improvement Guru?
By Gordon Bryan

Jane Austen, English author who lived over the junction of the 18th/19th centuries. She wrote about English society around the turn of the, er, 18th/19th centuries.

Her books were filled with lots of lost love, dutiful requirements of men but more so the women, lots of forelorn gazes into the rain. No, we're not talking about my own love life here, blimey if it's comedy you want I suggest Laurel & Hardy...

Pride & Prejudice is probably her best known novel, and it sums up her style - people's natural personalities and desires being crushed but not extinguished by the accepted responsibilities of the day. The fact that the personalities are not totally dead is crucial, as they come to the fore at the end, and self expression triumphs into happiness.

You can probably see where I'm going with this...

I saw a great dramatization of her book 'Persuasion' recently. It was done very nicely, with some modern tv touches thrown in, but not too many, just to add a reality feel here and there. In fact a lot of these types of books are being worked on tv with a totally modern surrounding, and they work even better to put across the message that it's best to follow your passions, express you true self, and you'll be happy.

You don't suddenly achieve a goal of being happy, it's not a finish line you cross, its a state of mind a lifestyle. It seems ludicrous that so many people choose to stifle it, often based on no more than what other people tell them - usually other people who are only too happy to express *themselves*!

Yes, be aware of responsibilities, but do not neglect the responsibilities you have to yourself! The acceptance of happiness being unattainable was perhaps more understandable in Jane Austen's time, but we're 200 years further down the road!

Jane Austen died at 41, the same age as I am as I write this. She wasn't universally popular - Charlotte Bronte said Austen failed to write about passion. I can't agree with that, I think passion is exactly what she does write about!

Mark Twain said that any library was a good library if it didn't have a Jane Austen in it, even if it had no other books! That's harsh, wrong in my view, and not one of your finer quotes Twainy.

I think a good library *should* have a Jane Austen in it, maybe even under the 'self improvement' section?

Gordon Bryan is the author of 'Transform Your Life in 21 Days!' which has been described as 'motivational magic.'
Read about it and grab his free 8 Step Goal Achievement Plan at:
http://www.transformyourlifenow.com

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Jane Austen - Back to Her Roots

Jane Austen - Back to Her Roots
By Lexi Jewlgia

Jane Austen, born in village of Steventon in Hampshire, was one of eight children. Her father chose homeschooling as method of education. He had a extensive library which led to Jane's constant reading. As a child, she and her older sister Cassandra danced and performed plays to amuse themselves. At the young age of fourteen, Jane wrote her first novel, Love and Friendship.

During her twenties Jane Austen wrote the novels that were later to be re-worked and published as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Though she never married, she is said to have been in love once with a gentleman she met at the seashore, however he died immediately thereafter without even leaving his name. There are many who claim her novel, Persuasion was about this mysterious lover.

When her parents were ready to retire they decided to move to Bath, away from the countryside she had grown accustomed to. In Bath, Jane found life pretty difficult. She didn't feel the creative inspiration that she had while living in Steventon. Being surrounded by the busy town and crowded streets made it hard for Jane to write. While living there she accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, a wealthy landowner, but she changed her mind overnight. It's said that she may have only accepted the proposal in the first place because she lived in a society where marriage was the only possible goal for a woman.

In 1801 Austen's father passed away leaving Jane's brothers responsible for financial matters. The Austen women had to reside with Jane's naval brother Frank and his wife Mary in Southampton. Jane's creative writing was nonexistant there.

In 1809 Jane's brother, Edward offered his mother and sisters a permanent home on his Chawton estate close to her beloved homeland of Hampshire. The Austen ladies decided to accept his offer and move to the estate. Jane's inspiration seemed to return while residing in Hampshire. In the next seven and a half years, she revised Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813) and published them, followed by a period of intense productivity. Mansfield Park came out in 1814, followed by Emma in 1816. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously.

While Jane Austen was alive, she chose to publish her books anonymously. "By a Lady" replaced Jane's name on her published works. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park have all been made into movies.

For many years, Austen struggled with finding the right words, even though she was a very talented writer. She needed the right setting to get her mind moving. It wasn't until she returned home that she was able to rediscover a way to express herself comfortably through her stories.

Lexi is an author on http://www.Writing.Com which is a site for Creative Writing.

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Jane Austen

Jane Austen
By R J A Pettinger

Jane Austen was the author of several enduringly popular English novels, including: Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Mansfield Park.

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on 16th December 1775. She was the 7th daughter of an 8 child family. Her father, George Austen, was a vicar and lived on a reasonable income of £600 a year. However, although they were middle class, they were not rich; her father would have been unable to give much to help her daughters get married. Jane was brought up with her 5 brothers and her elder sister Cassandra. (another brother, Edward, was adopted by a rich, childless couple and went to live with them). Jane was close to her siblings, especially Cassandra, to whom she was devoted.

Jane was educated at Oxford and later a boarding school in Reading. In the early 1800s two of Jane’s brother’s joined the navy, leaving to fight in the Napoleonic wars; they would go on to become admirals. The naval connections can be seen in novels like Mansfield Park. After the death of her father in 1805, Jane, with her mother and sister returned to Hampshire. In 1809, her brother, Edward who had been brought up by the Knights, invited the family to the estate he had inherited at Chawton. It was in the country house of Chawton, that Jane was able to produce some of her greatest novels.

Her novels are a reflection of her outlook on life. She spent most of her life insulated from certain sections of society. Her close friends were mainly her family, and those of similar social standing. It is not surprising then that her novels focused on 2 or 3 families of the middle or upper classes. Most novels were also based on the idyll of rural country houses that Jane was so fond of.

Her novels also focus on the issue of gaining a suitable marriage. Marriage was a big issue facing women and men of her time; often financial considerations were paramount in deciding marriages. As an author, Jane used to satirise these financial motivations, for example, in Pride and Prejudice the mother is ridiculed for her ambitions to marry her daughters for maximum financial remuneration.

The strength of Jane’s novels was her ability to gain penetrating insights into the character and nature of human relationships, from even a fairly limited range of environments and characters. In particular, she helped to redefine the role and aspirations of middle class women like herself. Through providing a witty satire of social conventions, she helped to liberate contemporary ideas of what women could strive for.

During her lifetime, the novels were fairly popular. One of her strongest supporters was Walter Scott. He said of her novels:

"That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements of feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with."

Jane Austen died in 1816, aged only 41. She died of Addison’s disease, a rare disorder of the adrenal glands. She was buried at Winchester Cathedral.

Richard Pettinger lives in Oxford, where he works as a teacher. He enjoys writing biographies for his site Biography online.

View more: Writers Biographies at Biography Online. http://www.biographyonline.net/

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