Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen

Soooo when Horace Walpole initially published The Castle of Otranto in 1764, he passed it off as a translation of a newly discovered Italian novel (which is rather impressive I approve m8). He stated that his aim was to combine fantasy from the medieval romance with the reality in the modern novel to create the ideal narrative voice.

It initially struck readers because they were beguiled by its fantastical elements, but they turned against it when they found out about its actual origins.

This started a trend, with other ‘gothic’ things like Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula and Vathek. At the base level, there is a comparison between reality and the supernatural, a contrast between the rational and the irrational (largely through architecture and the past). The roles of the sexes also plays a significant part in the gothic novel, this genre emerging at a time where this view is questioned, if not challenged.

Northanger Abbey was written with the intention to be a parody of the gothic. However, does it unintentionally display gothic elements that characterise it as more gothic than a parody? Well, let’s consider the way in which Austen satirises the genre. She displays a particular use of bathos/burlesque, presenting the idea of the gothic as a fantasy and merely an extension of her heroine’s fanciful imagination. In this way, she asserts its classification as a parody, or a critique of the convention of the gothic novel.

  Could we deem it gothic in plot? There is a definite incorporation of the themes – the idea of the rational vs the irrational as well as in the sexual politics. Firstly, the novel challenges the ‘heroine’s’ belief in the irrational with her use of bathos – superficially this appears to rebuff the idea of the irrational. However, this plays on Cath Morland’s idea of ‘reality’ as she, a fervent reader of ‘horrid novels’, incessantly seems to explore the concept of the supernatural with her imaginative ‘observations’. To an extent both concepts intertwine, with Cath curiously questioning her finding of ‘an immense heavy chest!’ wondering ‘what it (could possibly) hold?’ and ‘why (it) should be placed here?’ and later when she discovers a Japanese cabinet that resembles one mentioned in Henry’s stories she hears 'hollow murmurs' and 'distant moans', almost providing her with reason to honestly believe in her wildly imaginative theories. While the third person narrator is satirical and mocking of this, almost in dramatic irony, it seems to be Cath’s reality, which almost echoes the tone of the gothic novel, whereby a number of, to the readers, clearly impossible situations befall the characters. Later, Austen’s assertion that ‘though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in woman than ignorance’ attests to both the view on the role of women at the time of the novel, as well as simultaneously endorsing the gothic focus on sexual politics. While Cath is introduced from the very beginning to be an unexpected heroine, her role as a female protagonist is somewhat lessened, almost likening her portrayal to that of the weaker female archetypes in gothic novels. This ‘ignorance’ is largely contrasted and hence highlighted by the typical scheming Austenian character of Isabella, who declares that ‘(Cath’s) penetration has not deceived (her, and that) that arch eye of (hers) sees through every thing’ to which  ‘Catherine replie(s) only by a look of wondering ignorance. This exchange is very Austen in the assumption that everyone is evil and scheming, and paired with the idea that ‘(Cath) followed (John) in all his admiration as well as she could’ because ‘to go before, or beyond him was impossible (for) his knowledge and her ignorance of the subject, his rapidity of expression, and her diffidence of herself put that out of her power’ and the fact that ‘she could strike out nothing new in commendation, but she readily echoed whatever he chose to assert’ only further propels the idea of Cath Morland as a weaker female gothic heroine.

  And as for the concept? Let us base this upon Walpole’s declaration that his new style of writing (the gothic) incorporated the fantasy of the romantic genre with the realism of the modern novel. In a way, this form is followed, at least superficially, as Austen allows Cath Morland her gothic fantasies, only to (realistically?) present it as mere figments of her imagination. However, could we argue that it leans more towards Walpole’s idea of the ‘modern novel’ as it has more roots in reality, in its existence as a (typically Austen) social commentary? This is perhaps suggested when Cath, realising that ‘among the Alps and Pyrenees, perhaps, there were no mixed characters…(but) among the English, she believed, in their hearts and habits, there was a general though unequal mixture of good and bad’ and that ‘nothing could shortly be clearer than that it had been all a voluntary, self-created delusion’, as Austen’s narrator appears to advocate more a more realistic portrayal of characters.

  Is it gothic in style? From the very beginning of the novel, Austen utilises the burlesque to mock what is seemingly the fixed form of the gothic novel, with her declaration that ‘No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.’ This initially appears to deny any possible comparison to the gothic style. However, a point to be considered about Northanger Abbey is its occasional lapse into the gothic form. This is exemplified when General Tilney orders Cath Morland out of the abbey when he finds out about her lack of wealth, typical of gothic villains who are generally interested in the wealth of the heroine, specifically Count Montoni, from the Mysteries of Udolpho, to whom she initially compares General Tilney. Whether or not this is intentional is unknown, and it remains to be decided if this, a slightly watered-down version of a gothic villain, is merely part of her parody of the gothic, or if it unconsciously echoes the gothic style in its parody of/social criticism towards the gothic. Essentially, while Northanger Abbey is both gothic as well as being a parody of the gothic, the main purpose is social commentary, as opposed to being either singularly a gothic novel or a parody.