"Northanger Abbey"

An analysis of Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey" with a discussion of how it is a critique of the world of the English gentry.

1,440 words () | 0 sources | 2002 United States

Paper Summary:

Jane Austen's novel, "Northanger Abbey" depicts the life of a young girl, Catherine Morland and the importance novel-reading plays in England during the 1790s. This paper shows how Jane Austen critiques the world of the English gentry through the way in which Catherine reads gothic novels. It examines how gothic novels play an important role in that they are a key to the societies they depict and shows how, as Catherine starts see how the evil in these novels is depicted in real life, the reader also sees the evil that exists in England during the 1790s.

From the Paper:

"Throughout the novel, Austen seems to make fun of Gothic novels, particularly Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. The typical Gothic heroine is a sentimental woman who has no parents, no friends, and is left to be devoured by the man who eventually marries her. Catherine, the heroine of Northanger Abbey is the exact opposite. She has both of her parents, she's not an orphan. Instead of drawing, like the heroine of Mysteries of Udolpho, she reads novels. She has many friends too. By portraying Gothic heroines as alone, without a mother or father to watch over them, authors emphasize how vulnerable and defenseless they are to men. "