Extracts In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey Is A Bildungsroman

Austen now introduces the reader into the lifestyle of Catherine Morland, and how her years have been spent quite different than the made assumption of a heroine. Austen decides on word choice to describe Catherine and her parents, to the complete opposite of what the average hero would be described as. Austen selects his word choice as, “for they [the Morland's] were very plain”, “She had a thin awkward figure, sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair”. The way Austen chooses to describe Catherine is not the common strong, muscular, genius, life changing, hero you hear about on an everyday basis. The image given by Austen on Catherine's appearance is carefully chosen to remain in

This article analyzes the way Austen portrays women in her novels. Kruger mentions that Jane Austen’s work is often deprived by the

Jane Austen was a Georgian era author who was best known for her novels that commented on social issues and class, and Northanger Abbey is no exception. Austen’s social commentary is apparent in this novel’s plot, as the reader follows a seventeen-year-old protagonist, Catherine Morland, as she matures and forms intimate relationships with fellow characters in an England town called Bath. Marriage between characters in the novel is heavily based on wealth, and because of England’s unstable economy at the time, marrying into wealth meant maintaining a high social class and economic stability for the characters. The importance of economic prosperity and social rank heavily influenced marriage in 19th century England, and this idea bourgeoisie classism and marrying for wealth is contradicted by Austen in her novel, Northanger Abbey.

A narrator, who is without a name, tells of his first hand experiences throughout the story. This is in contrast to ‘Miss Brill’ in which narrative is delivered in the third person, with the use of free indirect speech to depict the story and portray the characters. By Wells selecting a first person narrative he draws the reader closer into the character’s mind set. This gives Wells the ability to convey the primary characters full spectrum of emotional thought, from open mindedness to the conflict and fear within him. First narrative provides the reader insight to thoughts and observations therefore adding suspense of the unknowing into the gothic style.

From my point of view, Jane Austen should be seen as a ‘feminist’ writer. As she wrote in one of her novel Persuasion, she considers that ‘Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything’ (Anne Elliot, in Jane Austen’s Persuasion). Such feminist ideas are expressed in many of her literary works. In her another novel Northanger Abbey, there are various issues discussed, which include not only marriage, social criticism and Gothic, but also feminism as well. The essay is to discuss Jane Austen and her feminist thoughts by analyzing Northanger Abbey.

Having each story been written in a third-person narrative form, the reader knows the innermost feelings of the

The vulnerability of Jane Eyre's childhood, loss of innocence and exposure to death, rejection, abuse and disease at such an early age due to her initial complicated family background, being an orphan and thus avoiding poverty through her aunt’s charity, shows the initial 'violent' gothic convention used in this novel.

8. What does the simile at the end of the first paragraph suggest about the lieutenant?

Austen has set out to save the rising art form of the novel. In this address to the reader she glorifies what a novel should be: the unrestrained expression of words conveying the wide range of raw human emotion. This veneration of the novel is necessary to the development of Catherine's fiction-loving character as it justifies the narrator's right to remain fond of this flawed heroine.

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey establishes the inner feeling of a woman based on her own personal experience which provides a vivid glance into her perspective. Correspondingly, it reinstates Gothic novels as an reflection marginalized by the experiences of women living in the upper class. For contemporary modern day, Northanger Abbey functions as a warning, depicting the danger of amorous and sexual exploitation from the opportunistic characters within a social environment. These dangers are a realistic theme even in today's society marking potential threat for women. Mostly importantly, it serves as a device that's depicts the social separation between the companionship of woman and the inhuman acknowledgement of women as objects, which fosters the necessarily development for both men and

Soon after her own arrival in Bath, Catherine is followed by her brother James and Isabella’s brother John Thorpe. At the initial meeting with the boys, Catherine is mistaken on two different points, still being ignorant in her perceptions of other people. Although slightly thrown off by John’s manners, Catherine is unable to formulate her own negative opinion of him, too affected by the opinions of Isabella and James, and “her judgment was further brought off by Isabella’s assuring her…that John thought her the most charming girl in the world” (Austen 48). For Catherine, it is easier and more natural to accept the opinions of someone like Isabella, a mentor figure. Also, in the same scene, Catherine makes the assumption that her brother James has journeyed “so far on purpose to see me” (49). Catherine hastily jumps to this false conclusion, not having the experience to detect James’ continuous questions and compliments of Isabella as a sign of his true motives for coming to town: to visit the “prettiest girl in Bath” (49).

While this text is set from a third person viewpoint, it also uses an interesting narrative technique, which is known as 'free indirect discourse' or 'free indirect style'. This is when a third person story uses certain features of first person speech. This style is different in the fact that introductory expressions such as, ‘she thought’, and ‘they said’, are not used. Using this technique allows a third person text to utilise a first person perspective, portraying the characters thoughts and words more directly.

Jane Austen is well known as a novelist for her satirical representation of female characters in late Georgian society. During this period, novel writing and reading was still a controversial topic, and as such was incorporated in her book Northanger Abbey (1817), which has at its core a young female protagonist obsessed with novels. We can clearly interpret Northanger Abbey as Austen’s satirical response to the social conventions decrying novel reading, as she uses an intrusive narrator and more subtle supplementary techniques to comment on and satirize the debate surrounding novels.

Set in 1798 England, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is the “coming of age” story of Catherine Morland, a naïve young girl who spends time away from home at the malleable age of seventeen. Catherine’s introduction into society begins when Mr. and Mrs. Allen, her neighbors in Fullerton, invite her to accompany them as they vacation in the English town of Bath. While in Bath, Catherine spends her time visiting newly-made friends, such as Isabella Thorpe, and attending balls and plays. Catherine soon after is introduced to Henry Tilney, a handsome yet mysterious clergyman whom she finds herself attracted to. Catherine also befriends Eleanor

Though at first glance, Emma appears to be a generic romantic novel about virtue and ladyhood, Austen actually challenges what the meaning of “ladyhood” is to the reader. We view Emma’s follies, trials, and triumphs through the eyes of the omnipotent narrator who first describes Emma as a stereotypical, wealthy young lady who is “handsome, clever…with…a happy disposition” (1). Through the use of irony, Austen employs a series of situations in which Emma, a “lady” of high standing within her community, challenges conventional thinking of what it means to be a young woman in the early nineteenth century, particularly her ideas concerning marriage and