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ABSTRACT
On Anti-Gothicism in Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen’s famous works, mainly tells the story of an innocent girl, a Gothic novel fan, who treats herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel and makes many ridiculous adventures by taking Gothic stories as real happenings, but finally learns to distinguish between the imaginary life in novels and the real life of her own. The novel criticizes the ridiculousness and meaninglessness of Gothic novels in a satirical way. The thesis analyzes Austen’s parody of Gothic plot, characterization, and the heroine’s Gothic adventures in Northanger Abbey, and argues that the work reveals her anti-Gothicism through a comparison with the typical features of prevailing Gothic novels in her age.
Key words: Northanger Abbey; Jane Austen; anti-Gothicism
Introduction
Jane Austen (1775~1817), who lived at the turn of the 18th and 19th century, is the most distinguished as well as the most widely read female novelist in British literature. She was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon rectory in Hampshire, England, and died in Winchester on July 18, 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen lives in a large family with six brothers and one sister. Her father, George Austen was a rector for much of his life. Her sister, Cassandra Elizabeth, was her best friend. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers, and her own reading also helped a lot with her writing. During Austen’s education and writing life, her father was the most important guide, for he not only provided her with a well-stocked family library, but also supported her writing with much effort. He had created a democratic and easy intellectual atmosphere at home. They often talked about different political or social ideas, and any personal opinions would be accepted and discussed. Jane Austen began to write when she was only about thirteen and the everlasting support of her family was crucial to her development as a professional writer.
Austen’s personal experiences have a great influence on her writing. “Of events her life was singularly barren: few changes and no great crisis even broke the smooth current of its course” (James 11). Austen’s works are usually confined to a limited circle. In a letter to her nephew Edward, Austen made comments on her own work as “[h]ow could I possibly join them on to the little bit of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labor?” (Lefroy 160). Liu Bingshan appraised that “[t]he comparison is true. The ivory surface is small enough, but the woman who made drawings of human life on it is a real artist” (309). Some critics accuse Jane Austen of writing with a narrow vision, and that her novels are all about love, marriage, money and rich relations, but Austen’s works show their values on reflecting the social realities of her day. As Zhang Dingquan and Wu Gang comment in their book that “her [Jane Austen’s] unique sensitivity to human emotions, her careful observation … made her one of the finest novelists of the age” (202).
Austen wrote six complete novels during her literary career. They are: Sense and Sensibility (1811); Pride and Prejudice (1813); Mansfield Park (1814); Emma (1816); Northanger Abbey (1818); and Persuasion (1818). Her literary works have been attracting more and more readers from home and abroad since their publication. Jane Austen is considered as “a genius that appeals to any generation” (Qiao iv). The British female writer Virginia Woolf said that “[o]f all great novelists, Jane Austen is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness” (Zhu 5).
The work discussed in this thesis is Northanger Abbey, which tells a story of the naive protagonist with a very over-active imagination, Catherine Morland, a Gothic novel aficionado, who treats herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel, takes stories in Gothic novels as happened in her real life and makes many ridiculous adventures, but finally learns to distinguish between the imaginary life in Gothic novels and her own ordinary life situations. Although Northanger Abbey was the first to be completed by Jane Austen, it had neither been given enough attention nor been adequately studied for some considerable time in the past. In fact, Northanger Abbey has its unique research value, particularly the author’s attitude towards Gothic novels, which has aroused more and more critical attention and debates in recent years (see Chapter One).
This thesis argues that Northanger Abbey shows Jane Austen’s anti-Gothicism through her satirical criticism of the prevailing Gothic novels in her times. In addition to Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces Gothic novels, illustrates different viewpoints on the relationship between Northanger Abbey and Gothic novels as discussed by some critics and scholars. The second chapter analyses Jane Austen’s parodic anti-Gothicism by comparing the plot arrangement and characterization of the novel with that of Gothic novels. The third chapter discusses Jane Austen’s criticism of Gothic novels through focusing on Catherine’s ridiculous adventures.
Chapter One
Gothic Novels and Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey is a parody of Gothic novels. The first part of this chapter briefly introduces the origin, development and typical features of Gothic novels; the second part mainly illustrates different viewpoints on Austen’s attitude towards Gothic novels.
I. Origin and Development of Gothic Novels
The word “Goth,” coming from the name of an ancient tribe in Europe, and its derivative form “Gothic,” which reminds people of mysticism, terror, and dark, were frequently used to describe medieval things in the 18th century. According to a highly-popular dictionary, the word “Gothic” means
a kind of architecture built in the style that was popular in Western Europe from the 12th century to the 16th centuries, and which has pointed arches, windows, and tall thin pillars and a novel written in the style popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, which described romantic adventures in mysterious or frightening surroundings. (Hornby 883)
Now it generally refers to a genre of literature, which is “full of depicts of murders and supernatural things to thrill readers” (Han 36), combines both horror and romance and “deals with the strange, mysterious, and supernatural designed to invoke suspense and terror in readers” (Zhao 283).
From the above quotes, it is known that some basic elements in Gothic novels include: setting in a castle, which often contains secret passages and staircases, dark or hidden rooms; an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that arouses fear and terror; supernatural events, such as ghosts or unknown giants coming to human life; high and overwrought emotion, like anger, sorrow, especially terror from which the characters suffer; heroine in distress, which appeals to the sympathy of the readers; and romance, such as powerful love between the heroine and the hero.
The first Gothic novel is The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story, written by the English author Horace Walpole. The work is remarkable because it is the first attempt to find “a tale of amusing fiction upon the basis of the ancient romance of chivalry” (Walter 115) and it “start[s] a fashion and set[s] an example for other Gothic novelists” (Zhang 5). In addition, the novel was “an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern” (Horace 19). Horace Walpole opens the door of Gothic novels and a lot of other Gothic novelists follow suit. Among them, Ann Radcliff and Mathew Gregory Lewis are two most famous ones for their respective work The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk. The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), through which Ann Radcliff made the Gothic novel socially acceptable, was an unparalleled success at that time, and was also frequently referred to by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. In the mid-1790s the Gothic novel reaches its summit, and David Punder comments, probably an exaggeration, that “this body of fiction may well have established the popularity of the novel-form” (David 61).
Besides its popularity among the public, the Gothic novel has a notorious fame for a long time and has been criticized as crude by many critics. In the preface of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth commented on Gothic novels as:
The invaluable works of … Shakespeare and Milton are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid German Tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse. (Wordsworth and Coleridge 248-249)
In spite of criticism from many literary figures, Gothic novels still attracted a lot of readers and the Gothic influence was amazingly continuing. “It has been estimated that the reading population of Britain increased from one and a half million in 1780 to between seven and eight million by 1830” (Lin 24), and “Gothic novels have exerted significant influence on the literature of later generations and on every European literature. They have exerted great effect on the American literature, Hawthorn and Allen Poe in particular” (Zhao 283). It is not so hard for us to find out that many works of great literary celebrities bear Gothic elements. In the Romantic period, some famous works are: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s first published work, Zastrozzi (1810), was publicly-known as a Gothic novel; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818); Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) and Christabel (1816); Keats’ La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) and Isabella (1820); and The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) are also acknowledged as Gothic novels as well as Elizabeth Gaskell’s tales “The Doom of the Griffiths” (1858), “Lois the Witch” (1861), and “The Grey Woman” (1861). Charles Dickens is another mainstream writers heavily influenced by Gothic novels. In his great works, such as Oliver Twist (1837-8), Bleak House (1854), Great Expectations (1861) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), we can easily feel the Gothic mood and themes. Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent and innovative re-interpreter of Gothic literature in the 19th century American literature, with his well-known works as The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), “The Black Cat” (1843), and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841).
II. Austen’s Attitude towards Gothic Novels
“The excesses, stereotypes, and frequent absurdities of the traditional Gothic made it rich territory for satire” (Skarda 178-179). As it is universally acknowledged, the most famous parody of Gothic novels is Northanger Abbey. We all say that Northanger Abbey is a parody of Gothic novels, but disagree on Austen’s attitude towards them. Some critics hold that Northanger Abbey offers a refinement on rather than denial of the Gothic: “Gothic elements in the novel are employed to express Austen’s feminist ideas rather than mock them” (Chen ii); “Through parody, Austen revises Gothic novels in a comic way for the purpose of negotiation with Gothic novels, as well as inheritance and preservation” (Zheng 89). However, some others argue that Austen shows her sarcasm towards Gothic novels and emphasizes reason and realism: “[Northanger Abbey] also satirized the sentimental novels, especially the Gothic novel, which was very popular at that time” (Yang 66), and “[the] mock of Gothic novels runs through the novel from beginning to end” (Sun 36).
Northanger Abbey expresses Austen’s sarcasm on prevailing Gothic novels, especially The Mysteries of Udolpho, which has been mentioned several times in the work. With a close reading of Northanger Abbey, we can easily find the Gothic craze surrounding it. First of all, Northanger Abbey shares similar plot construction with the prevailing Gothic novels; secondly, it contains a parodic characterization of Gothic novels; thirdly, they all describe the female protagonist’s adventures and her love romance with the male protagonist eventually obtained. Additionally, Jane Austen adopts a new tactic of writing novels in Northanger Abbey by addressing the reader directly. We can feel the sense of satire in reading the work. The following chapter deals with its plot construction and characterization to show Jane Austen’s anti-Gothicism.
Chapter Two
Parody of Gothic Plot and Characters
In this chapter, we mainly examine Austen’s parody of Gothic novels through comparing the plot construction and characterization of Northanger Abbey with that of Gothic novels. The novel seemingly imitates the construction of Gothic novels, but it actually satirizes their format of developing stories and depicting characters.
I. Parody of Gothic Plot
The widely spread Gothic novels then were sharing almost the same format. A noble heroine, who is very beautiful and intelligent and loves music and drawing, for some reasons leaves her own home to a completely new place, usually a haunted castle, where she experiences horrible and scaring things or being treated unfairly and cruelly. But there often appears an unknown hero who saves the heroine and challenges the villains. They would be together at the end of the story after so many hardships. Northanger Abbey seemingly follows the common format. The heroine, Catherine Morland, leaves her hometown for a new place, Bath, and meets with the hero, Henry Tilney. After undergoing some adventures and distress, the loved ones are finally reunited and get married. However, Jane Austen actually starts making a sharp mockery on Gothic novels from the beginning of Northanger Abbey.
Different from the Gothic heroine, Catherine Morland is a very common English girl, who was born in an ordinary family with her father as a clergyman and her mother a woman of plain sense. She neither had a beautiful figure nor high intelligence. In fact, before she turned fifteen, Catherine had “a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features”. Instead of music or drawing, Catherine was a tomboy and was very fond of boys’ plays, especially cricket, and loved rolling down the green slope at the back of their house. Judging by these descriptions, we can see that Catherine’s situation in life, her family, her own personality and disposition are all against a real heroine in Gothic novels: “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine” . Through the characterization of the heroine, Jane Austen actually criticizes the general expectations of a well-mannered gentle lady in Gothic novels.
Then the heroine begins her adventure to Bath. In Gothic novels, the heroine’s parents should be very worried and severely anxious or in tears with sadness when she is about to leave home. Nevertheless, Catherine’s mother was not like that: she just reminded her daughter of wrapping herself warm and trying to keep account of the money, and her father only put ten guineas into her hand and promised more when she wanted it. During their journey to Bath, nothing alarming occurred to them except Mrs. Allen’s having left her clogs at an inn which later on was proved groundless. “Neither robbers nor tempests befriended them, nor one lucky overturn to introduce them to the hero” .
Austen satirizes the expected appearance of the hero to the heroine in Gothic fictions. Henry just appears on an ordinary ball and is introduced to Catherine by the master of the ceremonies in a normal way without any air of romance. Henry, at first, was even partly joking with Catherine about the same routing that young ladies share.
Later, Catherine makes friends with Isabella Thorpe, who is an elegant and fine young woman, and they both consider themselves as old friends. It is Isabella who opens the Gothic gate for Catherine by introducing to her tens of horrible novels; one of them is The Mysteries of Udolpho. After reading so many Gothic novels, Catherine’s eagerness to visit and explore a real castle grows severe. Therefore, she feels extremely excited when General Tilney, Henry’s father, invites her to visit their house, the Northanger Abbey.
Additionally, there is one point we should pay attention to, i.e., Jane Austen has adopted a new tactic of writing by addressing the readers directly. For example, at the end of chapter five, when Isabella and Catherine shut themselves up to read novels, the narrator clearly says that “[novels] have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world” (32; ch.5), and that novels are works
…in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.
Here Austen gives her own insight of the value of novels, and questions the social prejudice against novels. The directness with which Austen addresses the reader gives a unique insight into Austen’s thoughts at the time. And her perspectives on novels are sharply in contrast with that of popular writers, especially the Gothic novelists of the time.
II. Parody of Gothic Characters
According to the common rule, Gothic novels not only have a set format in plot construction, but also share the same characterization. Below are some classified major characters around the heroine in Gothic novels: an aunt or another older woman of envy; a hero with an air of mystery; a female friend harbors evil intentions; a villain who is always bothering the heroine; a tyrant, usually cold and vicious, treats the heroine cruelly. We may find those familiar archetypes in Northanger Abbey as well, but we can also find a clear difference between them.
First of all, characterization of the heroine’s aunt Mrs. Allen is quite striking:
It is now expedient to give some description of Mrs. Allen, that the reader may be able to judge, in what manner her actions will hereafter tend to promote the general distress of the work, and how she will, probably, contribute to reduce poor Catherine to all the desperate wretchedness of which a last volume is capable – whether by her imprudence, vulgarity, or jealousy – whether by intercepting her letters, ruining her character, or turning her out of doors. (11; ch.2)
In Gothic novels, the heroine’s misfortune is partly caused by her aunt’s evil jealousy, but in Northanger Abbey, Mrs. Allen is not that evil or blood-hearted to Catherine. Mrs. Allen may truly be a little vulgar and careless. She has a great passion in dress and “had a most harmless delight in being fine; and our heroine’s entrée into life could not take place till after three or four days had been spent in learning what was mostly worn” (12; ch.2). We may say that she doesn’t fulfill her responsibilities as a senior companion by carefully and whole-heartedly looking after Catherine, but we cannot say that she shows an evil or jealousy towards Catherine. She has nothing to do with what happened to our heroine later on, and this is entirely ironic when compared with the usual Gothic aunt.
In addition, Henry Tilney is different from the hero in Gothic novels. Generally speaking, a Gothic hero must at first be mysterious about his identity and later found born in the purple. But Henry was no mystery since his appearance in the novel. At the very night when they met, Mr. Allen learnt that he was “a clergyman, and of a very respectable family in Gloucestershire” (23; ch.3). Moreover, Henry Tilney didn’t fall in love with Catherine at the first sight nor did he ever hold a strong affection for her, which was really weird for supposed Gothic readers because “no young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman’s love is declared” (23; ch.3). As for why Henry finally fell in love with Catherine, the narrator said:
I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new circumstance in romance…and dreadfully derogatory of a heroine’s dignity. (284; ch.30)
Apart from Mrs. Allen and Henry Tilney, there are three other negative protagonists: Isabella Thorpe, John Thorpe, and General Tilney. Although there are flaws in their personalities, they are never those Gothic villains who are extremely sinister or treacherous. Isabella was beautiful but a selfish and pitiful young lady who always wanted to marry a rich man. Like his sister, John Thorpe was merely a vulgar and imprudent young man and was always trying to be handsome and gentle. The only bad thing he has done to Catherine was telling General Tilney that Catherine was not at all rich so that the General angrily pushed Catherine out of Northanger Abbey. General Tilney was a money-driven man with a very strict sense of family status and wanted all his children to marry rich families. These three negative characters were never set up, or threatened, or tried to murder Catherine, they were quite unlike those vicious villains in Gothic novels.
Chapter Three
Catherine’s Adventures
We have discussed the differences of plot construction and characterization between Northanger Abbey and Gothic novels in the preceding chapter. In the last chapter, we are going to take a closer look at the heroine’s adventures in Northanger Abbey, the estate of the Tilneys’, which is the climax of the novel and through which Jane Austen shows us the absurdness of Gothic novels and the significance of real life.
I. On the Way to Northanger Abbey
During their journey to Northanger Abbey, Henry Tilney deliberately makes fun of Catherine’s innocent belief in Gothic novels, and says to her: “[a]nd are you prepared to encounter all the horrors that a building such as ‘what one reads about’ may produce? – Have you a stout heart? – Nerves fit for sliding panels and tapestry?” (178; ch.20). Henry also jokingly describes some horrible scenes to Catherine, such as “an apartment never used since some cousin or kin died in it about twenty years before,” or “gloomy chamber … with only the feeble rays of a single lamp … walls hung with tapestry exhibiting figures as large as life, and the bed, of dark green stuff or purple velvet, presenting even a funeral appearance” (179; ch.20). In fact, Catherine Morland was already very eager to take her adventures in the abbey though she said to Henry that she shouldn’t be easily frightened and thought the abbey has never been inhabited and left deserted for years.
As they drew near the abbey, Catherine’s impatience for a look at the abbey grew, and in accordance with her novel reading, she thought Northanger Abbey, by its name, as a place with “massy walls of grey stone, rising amidst a grove of ancient oaks, with the last beam of the sun playing in beautiful splendour on its high Gothic windows” (182; ch.20). But to her disappointment, the building stands too low and even without an antique chimney for her to discern. What’s more, unlike those heroines in Gothic novels, she just passes between modern lodges and “along a smooth, level road of fine gravel, without obstacle, alarm or solemnity of any kind, struck her as odd and inconsistent” (183; ch.20). General Tilney Eleanor, Henry’s sister, are waiting to welcome her on the hall, and she is shown into a common drawing-room where the furniture is in elegance of modern taste and panes of the pointed arch, which Catherine hoped them to be the heaviest stonework and painted glass with dirt and cobwebs, are, on the contrary, large, clear, and light. The abbey is just a modern family house with large and lofty hall, broad staircase of shining oak, long wide gallery, ect., and the people are all so friendly that she can’t feel any awful future misery that would happen to herself like what those heroines usually undergo in Gothic novels. The difference between her imagination and the abbey’s real condition is very distressing for Catherine.
II. Three Adventures in Northanger Abbey
Although feeling a little disappointed at the first sight on Northanger Abbey, out of her imagination, Catherine was delightful to be really in an abbey and began her imagined Gothic adventures with her observation.
When she was alone in her apartment, Catherine found that the walls, the floor, the windows, and the furniture were all handsome and comfortable which made her at ease. But she decided to lose no time in examining anything strange and she suddenly noticed a large high chest that was standing on the back in a deep recess of the fire-place. The sight of the chest made Catherine forget everything else, and she stood still, just gazing at it and wondering: “This is strange indeed! … An immense heavy chest! – What can it hold? – Why should it be placed here? … I will look into it – cost me what it may” (187; ch.21). Driven by curiosity, she advanced and examined the chest closely. The chest was made of cedar, inlaid with some darker wood, and raised on a carved stand of the same, with a rusty silver lock and broken silver handles. With trembling hands and great difficulty as well, she finally raised up the lid, but to her astonishment, there was only a white cotton counterpane that was “properly folded, reposing at one end of the chest in undisputed possession” (188; ch.21). Catherine felt blushed at the sight of it but she didn’t lose her heart for more fascinating adventures.
The first night in Northanger Abbey was stormy, the wind blew strongly the whole afternoon, and it rained violently. Those characteristic sounds brought to her the dreadful situations and horrible scenes in Gothic novels, and for the first time she felt she was really in an Abbey. But Catherine knew that she had nothing to dread from or to explore or to suffer because the house was “so furnished, and so guarded” (191; ch.21). However, she still looked around the room and courageously but fearfully peeped behind each curtain, hoping to see someone sitting there to scare her or a hand placed against the shutter. However, there was nothing. Then she was thinking to go to bed. At that moment, a mysterious cabinet appeared and suddenly captivated her eyes. It was a high, old-fashioned black cabinet, being placed in a conspicuous situation and thus escaped from her notice. The cabinet, with its key in the door, aroused her great interest and she could not sleep till she had examined it. Catherine placed the candle on a chair with caution and tried to turn the key “with a very tremulous hand” (192; ch.21). At first, she thought there could be nothing in it, and she did find nothing after checking the double range of drawers. But later, she surprisingly found a roll of paper inside a small door in the center of the cabinet. At that moment, “[her] heart fluttered, her knees trembled, and her cheeks grew pale” (194; ch.21) as she thought that the paper was some precious manuscript and grasped tightly in her unsteady hand. As she snuffed the candle and was about to read the paper, the candle suddenly extinguished. For a few moments, Catherine felt awful with horror and “trembled from head to foot” (194; ch.21). She hastily jumped onto bed and kept wondering “how was it [the manuscript] to be accounted for? – What could it contain? – to whom could it relate?” (195; ch.21). When she woke up only to find that many papers were just washing-bills, she felt humbled to the dust: “Nothing could now be clearer than the absurdity of her recent fancies” (197; ch.22).
After two adventures in vain, Catherine seemed to become a little sober. However, when she heard about the death of Henry and Eleanor’s mother, and none of the three children was at home and only General Tilney was with Mrs. Tilney, her imagination, which was heavily influenced by Gothic novels, began to exercise. She thought General Tilney was just like Montoni, the prototypical Gothic villain in The Mysteries of Udolpho, who imprisoned the heroine Emily and his wife Madame Cheron in Udolpho with an attempt to acquire their fortune. Catherine believed that General Tilney was cold, pitiless, and cruel; and that he had murdered his wife and probably imprisoned her in some hidden chamber somewhere in Northanger Abbey. So despite two failures before, Catherine once more felt shocked and chilled at the thought of the guilty scene of murder and imprisonment. She remembered that there was a forbidden gallery where lay the doors “of which the General had given no account” (217; ch.23). She thought firmly that unfortunate Mrs. Tilney’s confinement must be one of them, and she was so eager to examine those mysterious apartments.
One morning, the General’s early walk has provided Catherine a favorable time when she proposed to Miss Tilney to show her mother’s portrait and apartment. But when they were just about to turn the lock with fearful caution, “the dreaded figure” (221; ch.23) of General Tilney himself suddenly stood before them and he loudly and angrily ordered Eleanor to come with him, leaving Catherine stay in her own room for safety. As a brave reflection of the morning’s experience, Catherine became resolute to make her second detection on the forbidden door alone because she thought “the examination itself would be more satisfactory if made without any companion” (222; ch.23). She was finally alone and got the time to carry out her adventure. She quietly slipped through the folding doors and tip-toed into the room; before her was “a large, well-proportioned apartment” (223; ch.24), warm and neat, like the most comfortable apartment in the house, with nothing extraordinary, anywhere but ancient, gloomy, and awful place for imprisonment. Catherine felt a sense of bitter emotions of shame and her heart was sick of its folly. What’s worse, Henry just came back at that moment and surprisingly ran across her in his mother’s room. On hearing Catherine’s suspicion of his mother’s death, Henry angrily and firmly informed her that Mrs. Tilney died of a sudden malady after being carefully treated by a respectable physician, and that his father, General Tilney, loved his wife sincerely in his own way and was greatly afflicted by her death. Being criticized by Henry for her wild and ridiculous ideas, Catherine then felt extremely depressed and ran into her room with tears of shame.
III. Catherine’s Coming back to Reality
Before coming into Northanger Abbey, Catherine thought it might be a haunted place full of horror and danger, but after her three so-called “Gothic adventures” were all proved in vain and was mildly criticized by beloved Henry, she finally realized how foolish she had been and came to believe that the contents of those Gothic novels have nothing to do with human being’s everyday life. Here Jane Austen shows her satire on Gothic novels and her sarcasm may be illustrated much more clearly through Henry’s words:
Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained. What you have been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English, that we are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you—Does our education prepare us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? Could they be perpetrated without being known, in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such a footing; where every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open? (228-229; ch.24)
We may see Henry as the spokesman of Jane Austen and his words as Austen’s anti-Gothic manifesto to the prevailing Gothic novels and her mockery at their absurdity and remoteness from our daily life and the dangers resulted from Gothic-craze.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is obvious that Northanger Abbey shows Jane Austen’s anti-Gothicism by her parody of the plot, characterization and adventure of the prevailing Gothic novels in her times. In Northanger Abbey, Austen deliberately imitates the Gothic format of plot arrangement, the characterization and the description of heroine’s adventures, but makes them very different, or the opposite to those in the Gothic fiction in her own style. The heroine Catherine Morland is what she is not, neither beautiful nor destined for a fantastic fate, and her crazy love for Gothic novels, in particular, makes her the typical representative of the ordinary readers. Catherine was at first an innocent and simple-minded girl, but after reading The Mysteries of Udolpho and many other Gothic novels introduced by Isabella Thorpe, she took Northanger Abbey as the imagined Udolpho. At the abbey Catherine had her imagined Gothic adventures and undergone some unpleasant experiences resulted from her ridiculous adventures. Fortunately, she finally learnt her lesson and got out of her Gothic illusions and she has indeed become the true heroine by the end of the story. Through the heroine’s back to real life, Austen shows us the dangerous and ridiculous confusion between ordinary life and Gothic imagination, and the importance of being realistic and reasonable.
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