One defining moment for Catherine comes as a result of reading text. She receives a letter from Isabella, and its contents open Catherine's eyes to Isabella's manipulative, ambitious ways. It would be going a bit too far to say that Catherine is an expert at reading people by the end of the novel, but she does become better at it, and she has learned when imagination can aid perception, and when it can hurt it.
Wealth and ostentation
In Austen's novels, characters are often partly defined by their wealth and status. In Northanger Abbey, several characters are preoccupied with material longings. Isabella wants to marry someone rich, and forsakes James in favor of the richer Frederick. Mrs. Allen is obsessed with clothing and shopping, and when talking to Mrs. Thorpe, she feels less bad about her own childlessness when she notices the shabbiness of Mrs. Thorpe's clothes. The General wants his children to marry into rich and wealthy families, and his personal obsession is with remodeling and landscaping. While giving a guided tour of Northanger Abbey, the General constantly asks Catherine to compare his home and gardens to those of Mr. Allen, and is always pleased to find that his belongings are larger or more impressive. In her later novels, Austen linked character's personalities with the particular items they loved. In this early novel, she makes wealth itself the goal and passion of characters like Isabella and General Tilney.
Northanger Abbey
Austen draws her portrait of Bath society from her own experience. Northanger Abbey, however, is probably as much a product of the Gothic novels that Austen read as it is a product of her own experience. A crumbling old building is often found in Gothic works, some of which feature an abbey, once used to house nuns or monks, then sold or abandoned and later purchased by some lord or baron who is generally a villain. The holy nature of the abbey becomes ironic in these Gothic novels, since terrible things go on there once the lord or baron takes possession.
For Catherine, Northanger Abbey symbolizes an imagined ideal. As soon as she enters the abbey, she begins to think of herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel. Unlike Bath, which is simply a pleasant tourist town, the Abbey is a place of mystery and perhaps even adventure, at least in Catherine's mind. When the Abbey turns out to be disappointingly normal, Catherine uses her memory of the abbeys from her novel-reading to make it more frightening.
Full Title Northanger Abbey
Author Jane Austen
Type Of Work Novel
Genre Bildungsroman (novel of education or moral development); parody of Gothic novels
Language English (British, late 1700s/early 1800s)
Time And Place Written 1798–1799 in Austen's home in Steventon, Hampshire. It was sold to a publisher in 1803 but not published. Later, after Austen's success with other novels, she bought back the manuscript and revised it slightly. Northanger Abbey was published posthumously in 1817.
Date Of First Publication 1817
Publisher John Murray, Albemarle Street
Narrator Third person omniscient; free indirect discourse
Point Of View The narrator varies greatly. Sometimes the narrator is contented to simply describe events normally; sometimes the narrator addresses the reader directly; and sometimes (especially in the second half of the novel) Austen uses the technique of free indirect discourse, in which she describes people and events from a 3rd-person perspective, but in the way that a particular character (in this case, Catherine) sees and understands them.
Tone Light, ironic, satirical; gently fond when talking about Catherine
Tense Immediate past
Setting (Time) January–April 1798.
Setting (Place) The first half of the novel takes place primarily in Bath, England, which was a big resort town for the upper classes. The second half takes place thirty miles away from Bath in Northanger Abbey, a large stone building, formerly a church, that has been converted into the Tilney's home.
Protagonist Catherine Morland
Antagonist Arguably Isabella Thorpe, her brother John Thorpe, or General Tilney
Major Conflict Catherine, enjoying the frisson of fear produced by her own literary imagination, scares herself and displeases the man who loves her
Climax General Tilney sends Catherine away from Northanger Abbey
Falling Action Catherine returns home, in misery, to Fullerton. She sulks around the house until Henry arrives and proposes to her. Several months later, after the General grudgingly gives his consent, the two are married.
Themes Gothic novels; youth
Motifs Reading; wealth and ostentation
Symbols Northanger Abbey
Foreshadowing Foreshadowing often exists in the novel as a parody of Gothic conventions. On the ride to the Abbey, Henry tells Catherine a hypothetical story about her upcoming first night in Bath, complete with mysterious chests, hidden passages, and villainous doings. This foreshadows Catherine's actual night, when she recreates Henry's prophecy with her imagination.
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