Q. Page 14 Chapter 3. 'Every morning now brought its regular duties......"you need not give yourself that trouble, sir"'. Discuss Austen's narrative styles with close reference to context.
In this text Austen has depicted an image of how the upperclass tends to spend their evenings and has presented readers with many colourful images. This text follows Catherine's arrival in Bath along with Mr. and Mrs. Allen. Succeeding their failed attempts at making acquaintances, Austen has displayed them to be going about their daily routine and eventually making acquaintance with a man named Tilney in the lower rooms.
Austen exhibits the readers the events of the day through Catherine's point of view. She illustrates what Catherine notices through long yet blunt sentences such as: 'Shops were to be visited; some new part of the town to be looked at; and the pump room to be attended..' perhaps Austen's intent here is to give readers a brief description of the events that happened before Catherine's arrival to the lower rooms in order to not distract from the main plot or maybe she is signifying Catherine's character, how she is oblivious to details.It can also be said that Austen is mimicking the Gothic style by presenting blunt details that present a picture of only that which fits the plot. By getting quickly to the action in either case, Austen captivates her audience and allows them to read with interest.
Austen flashes the typical lifestyle of an upper class family. She pokes fun at it in this text regarding how the only concern Catherine and Mrs. Allen have is finding an acquaintance. 'The wish of a numerous acquaintance in Bath was still uppermost with Mrs. Allen.'. Although Austen might be hinting at the prominent theme of friendship in this novel rather than mocking their insignificant worries. She is revealing that our heroine and her chaperone are so desperate for company that they are not cautious about it. Readers are allowed to contemplate on on how one should not accept anyone's company before trying to understand their motives and to not be so desperate as to lose common sense. For example, we see how Catherine is quick to talk to Tilney about her whereabouts and her plans despite knowing him for only a short amount of time. It could be said that Catherine is impressed by him sooner than she should be, 'she found him as agreeable as she had already given him credit for being.', this also hints at how she is heavily impressed by Isabella only to know of her deceit later on.
A vivid contrast Austen has depicted is that between the dialogues of Henry and Catherine. Henry speaks in long, detailed sentences 'with fluency and spirit' while Catherine only answers in short sentences that probably represents a lack of subject knowledge and experience, for example, 'You need not give yourself that trouble, sir.'. She is only being expressed as polite but maybe it represents her reluctance in talking about herself or her experiences since Austen has already pointed out how Catherine was not able to learn arts or numbers well and later on in the novel many of her conversations are shown to revolve around Gothic novels, which may not be the best conversational subject with a stranger at the ball. Another contrast that can be noticed is how Henry both begins and leads the conversation. This foreshadows how later in the novel Henry leads Catherine through the crisis caused by Isabella, General Tilney, and her mother novels, helping her come out a more mature person, Thus Austen allows her readers to meditate on character development and how the right person can help you change for the best.
Austen depicts this text in such way that perhaps readers can not help but stay engrossed. She presents important themes and foreshadows future events throughout this text, She shows the readers how a beginning can change the outlook of one's life. If Catherine had not met Tilney that day or instead met someone like John Thorpe she could have given up on trying to find a decent acquaintance overall, or if she had met Isabella first she could have given her preference over the Tilneys and perhaps would have remained blind to her true intentions.