Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Considered a Gothic
parody but also
representing a
hybridized mixture of
neo-classicist, comedy
of manners and
romantic literary
elements.
Gothic vs. Romantic
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Gothic Characteristics
– Helpless victim against his
torturer
– Takes place in a cathedral
or a haunted mansion
– The novel gives a sense of
fear, mystery and darkness
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Romantic Characteristics
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Love of nature
The supernatural
Heroism
Neo-classism
clearness, elegance,
symmetry
Northanger Abbey:
It is considered a romantic novel, but as the main character
Catherine becomes more involved with her gothic novels the
reader gets a sense of both gothic and romantic characteristics
Fantasy vs. Reality
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Catherine imagines her stay at the abbey will be filled with
mystery and she searches through chests and secret rooms
in order to find clues or evidence
Catherine compares her passion of reading gothic novels
such as The Mysteries of Udolpho to the abbey
– “Its long, damp passages, its narrow cells and ruined chapel, were to
be within her daily reach, and she could not entirely subdue the hope
of some traditional legends, some awful memorials of an injured and
ill-fated nun” (132). Catherine Morland is described as being plain,
and she doesn’t fit the characteristics of a heroine
– “Catherine, for many years of her life, as plain as any. She had a thin
awkward figure, a sallow skin without color, dark lank hair and strong
features” (7).
– “She never could learn or understand anything before she was
taught; and sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive
and occasionally stupid” (8).
What makes Catherine a
heroine?
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She defies stereotypes of her time
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She keeps strong morals, despite peer pressure.
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She matures and grows as a character and as a person.
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Avid reader, Catherine, sees herself as a hero.
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“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her
infancy, would have supposed her born to be an
heroine”(7), but she proves to be one anyways.
‘Northanger Abbey’ Criticism
Reflects the commercialization of literature during
the late 18th century
– 18th century brings more public circulation of libraries
– commercialization of literature and textual skimming,
changes the way people read stories
– Northanger Abbey a critique of materialistic society,
narrator gives lens to view it
– Literature: for self-improvement or social standard?
Catherine is “frequently duped by the harsh world”
Northanger Abbey conveys Austen’s theme of “the
importance of the education of judgment” Nicola Cummins
Gothic Parody
‘Too often the modern assumption is that all parody, like burlesque,
must ridicule its object.’ Everett Zimmerman
Austen uses parody, not to completely reject aspects of ‘sentimental’
fiction, but to also show an appreciation for some aspects.
‘Sentimental’ fiction is both mocked and valued throughout
Northanger Abbey – it’s almost as if the discovery of one’s self (in
Catherine’s case) is the means through which Austen suggests a
notion of balance within fiction.
Parody acts as a device to force the reader to search for meaning and
purpose within the novel.
‘The narrator has made it difficult for Catherine not to be recognised
as a potential heroine, but because the language is understated and
Catherine’s ignorance is emphasized...the reader is forced to sort out
the hidden heroic qualities...’
Gothic Parody continued:
•mocks and uses the forms and conventions of the Gothic novel.
•parodic discourse so that reader are kept off balance
•Austen positions two kinds of readers and two kinds of texts;
•The naïve reader or romantic who would expect a heroine to be an
orphan and to engage in ‘the more heroic enjoyments of infancy’.
This reader is to find that NA disrupts or disorientates their
expectations
• More sophisticated reader who rejects romance and knows a
parody when he sees one .
•Readers are not only a partner in the narrative but an opponent
who struggles with the narrator for control of the text
•The relationship between the characters and the author are a tool for
parody. Austen emphasises Isabella as being superficial. The contrasts
between characters parodies the excess of Romantic tenets.
•Burlesque = intention of humour – treats lofty material humorously
or pretends something ordinary is significant & dignified
Author’s Purpose?
Reading novels causes foolish imagination
in the reader and leads to all sorts of
dangers
 Reading novels is harmless as long as the
reader doesn’t mistake them for real life
 Its not necessary to find danger in novels,
there’s plenty in real life

Links to Romanticism ?
The Romantic Age brought a more daring, individual, and
imaginative approach to literature and life. Writers valued the
individual rather than society and optimistically believed in the
possibilities of progress and social / human reform.
To what extent does ‘Northanger Abbey’ support or
subvert such Romanticist values and attitudes?
Valuing the imagination, individual and idealism
Search for meaning through relationships with the natural world and
wider social context
Examination or affirmation of the power of the imagination to
inform, illuminate and transform human experience
Experimentation with ideas and forms which may reflect or
challenge ways of thinking
Henry Tilney
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Henry as the hero/mentor - embodiment of the narrator’s values
who will rid the heroine of her romantic, girlish fantasies
Catherine senses that he is mocking conventions but does not know
“whether she might venture to laugh”. Just as Catherine doesn’t
know how to respond to mockery the reader is unsure of the
intended effect of the narrator
As Catherine tries to make sense of Isabella’s inconsistencies, she
turns to Henry to provide an authoritative interpretations –– a
parental narrator trying to protect her’
Against all her own instincts Catherine is convinced his speech
‘carried her captive’ because ‘Henry Tilney must know best’.
Throughout NA ‘Tilney chooses whatever rhetoric suits him–
parodic, critical, measured, ‘Austen may be providing polarities –
explicit commendation of novels vs implied criticism in parody – to
alert the reader to the dangers of generalisation’
Narrative Techniques
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Dialogue: direct, indirect, interior
Dramatic irony = situation is apparent to the reader, but not to the
character (laundry list)
Verbal irony = words used in an opposite manner to their literal
meaning (‘the delicacy, discretion, originality of thought, and literary
taste which marked the reasonableness of that attachment’). Use of
negatives: ‘without’ ‘never’ ‘instead of’
Socratic irony = adopts a character’s viewpoint to ridicule them –
shows us her characters foibles (dialogue of Isabella, Thorpe & Mrs
Allen reported second hand as so tedious)
‘To control the reader response, direct comment on novels
is used by both narrator and characters.’
 There is an underlying suggestion of balance; Austen
doesn’t completely reject the Romantic precepts, regarding
the gothic in literature, but rather ‘...her imagination...using
it to discern what aspects of human nature lie beyond
convention.’
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