Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses that Jane Austen's first published novel, "Northanger Abbey", takes the form and structure of a parody of Gothic and Romantic literature, as evidenced by Catherine Moreland's fascination with aspects of both genres begins to deepen and expand. The author points out that Austin is so concerned with telling the reader what Catherine Moreland is not that she hardly tells the reader what Catherine Moreland is. The paper concludes that, in attempting to create a manifestly ordinary heroine, Austen creates for herself an extraordinarily distinctive, ironic, and satirical voice as an author.

From the Paper:

"The irony inherent in the passage, therefore, has nothing to do with the "bad" qualities of Catherine. Rather the irony in the tone of the author is between the real and ideal, or the world the author perceives having been created in novels of romantic heroines and the world that she as an author inhabits in real life. Catherine Moreland inhabits the real world, the author assures us, even if Catherine stands as a fictional creation, because she also stands in defiance of so many of the conventions of romantic fiction. Catherine Moreland is not an orphan. She is not poor. She is not unbelievably intellectually and spiritually gifted."

More papers on Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey":

• Book Review # 71225 : "Cultural Criticism of Northanger Abbey"
• Book Review # 114819 : "Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey"
• Book Review # 65245 : "Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen"

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