Gender In Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen begins his passage to his novel by creating an honest and nonjudgemental tone when explaining the reality of Catherine Morland's simplistic life, and simple parents. Austen states, “ No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine”, Austen sets the tone honestly that Catherine is the opposite of a heroine, yet hints to the reader that she eventually does grow to become someone of

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

Austen’s representation of reading epitomises the excesses of the imagination exhibited by sentimental readers which effectively led to their disconnection from reality. Austen’s employment of the gothic reflects Catherine’s transition from the excesses of her gothic fantasies to reality, which fundamentally enables Catherine to develop independent judgement through her exploration of human experience and to reject her projection of idealist imaginations influenced by her gothic readings (move up). Although Austen satirizes the excesses of sensibility through the characterisation of Catherine’s absorption of the gothic, Austen does not completely ridicule or dismiss the truth behind the gothic or the imagination. Richardson (2005:399) explains

The analysis will cover three aspects. First of all, in her book, Jane Austen expresses the view that both genders possess equal creative and intellectual qualities, and thus women are born to be equal to men. Second, she expresses her skepticism towards the degree of rationality and justice of the common social norms about female behavior. The third aspect is that Austen also insists that women should act for themselves in a rational way rather than merely trying to impress or to please the other sex.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice examines and critiques a society built upon gender roles. Austen does this by examining the obstacles women experienced in the Regency Period. Austen expresses how women were controlled, and objectified by men through their need to get married to a man. Additionally, the novel ridicules how women who could not afford to live without men were shadowed by their partner. This commentary is seen through the portrayal of the Bennet sisters. The females of the family are forced to marry because they do not inherit any wealth. The family is forced to comply with the same boundaries Austen was governed by. Therefore, Austen focuses on how the Bennet sisters overcome a society that suppresses them. This allows the reader to comprehend the strength, perseverance, determination, and assertiveness of the women in this time. Overall, Jane Austen addresses gender issues throughout the story. This is seen in the progressive image of Elizabeth, as she combats the inequality women experience. Although it was not common for women to criticize the patriarchy, the overall depiction of females is progressive. Elizabeth represents Austen’s feminist views, and the depiction of women in the novel is seen through her feminist image as she deals with Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy.

Jane Austen presents her characters in a unique way. At the beginning of each chapter she either introduces a new character with a long paragraph containing a little bit of background information or she begins a chapter with a paragraph by giving the reader more information on a previously introduced character. Austen's characterization technique is useful, however, it can become hard to follow because she has so many characters in Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen's characterization is effective to the way she introduces her main characters and not quite as effective while introducing a supporting character.

Hence, Austen’s protagonist Catherine Morland, is not the typical gothic heroine, she is an ordinary, gullible, and naïve young girl. However, stereotypically, to the gothic novels she reads, Catherine becomes absorbed with the metonymical language, and hackneyed fantasised events portrayed in this gothic fiction. Thus, Catherine’s ingenuousness disposition makes it difficult for her to differentiate between the fictitious gothic world, and real life-reality. Ultimately, she misunderstands situations, confuses friendships, and fails to distinguish between manipulative and genuine

In Emma Jane Austen exposes the limitations of the role of women in her society. Examine Austen’s presentation of what is called in the novel, women’s usual occupations of eye, and hand, and mind. Emma – Role of Woman In Emma Jane Austen exposes the limitations of the role of women in her society.

In the novel, Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen introduces many events and key characters, including the heroine Catherine Morland, to the reader to exploit the flaws of society during the regency period. The main character of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, ventures away from her sheltered home in Fulleerton to a place called Bath, where many people gather every year to partake in a multitude of social events. Accompanied by the Allen’s, a wealthy married couple quite fond off Catherine, Catherine is placed in a class not necessarily hers. Catherine is expected to learn and comply with society and the unsaid ‘laws’ that follow. During Catherine’s journey she meets many people who break and/or challenge these standards.

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.

Making fun of the standards in a way that shed light on how degrading these standards were on women. Also, by Austen writing in a satirical tone, her points were able to come across in a way that wasn’t dangerous for her because at this time women speaking out about anything was frowned upon. Main character Catherine of Northanger Abbey played the victim of these harsh degrading beauty standards, and by Austen using Catherine as her muse, she was now able to illustrate how degrading society was to women. “At fifteen, [Catherine’s] appearances were mending” (Austen 3), this quote is one example of how beauty standards became part of young girls realities at this time. Women, including young girls, felt as though they could only be beautiful if society said so and as soon as society said so, then all of a sudden they must be beautiful.

Starting from the opening sentence of the book, Catherine is repeatedly described as a heroine: “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland […] would have supposed her born to be an heroine” (15), “from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine” (17). Furthermore, the plot is filled with experiences that are imagined by her as grand events typical of the Gothic genre, only to end in everyday, normal happenings. These intrusions guide the reader to laugh at Catherine’s naiveté by mocking the way she is swept up by Gothic novels: “And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch, which is the true heroine’s portion; to a pillow strewed with thorns and wet with tears” (86). As Katie Halsey puts it: “[it] shows Austen’s amused ability to resist and appropriate for her own purposes what she perceived as ridiculous or unnatural in the writing of others” (Halsey

For Catherine’s “…situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition were all equally against her” (Austen 1). She was fairly normal and did not have any of the commonly used characteristics of heroines working in her favor, despite being a heroine herself. Austen writes Catherine this was to parody the way women are written in novels. There normally has to be some catalyst that makes the heroine special, different than the average women. However, Catherine wasn’t incredibly poor, had two well-tempered parents, and preferred other hobbies “…to the more heroic enjoyments…” (Austen 1) that heroines were normally fond of. By completely disregarding the characteristics normally attributed to heroines, Austen creates a character that would not fit into the normal novel. She essentially gives Catherine the character of someone who is almost the antithesis of what a heroine normally is, and by doing this critiques the

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a novel that features vibrant character development but the biggest development is that which occurs in Catherine Morland. Catherine’s character nearly develops in all components of her being and she is able to evolve from the unorthodox “heroine” that she is initially described as. In the novel, Catherine starts out as an incredibly naïve and inexperienced girl who confuses all facets of the real world as the plot in a Gothic novel. Catherine develops as a character through her social interactions with those around her as it helps her gain experience with how to correctly perceive the world. With her newly gained experience of her surroundings, Catherine develops and is able to see the real world through a social lens rather than her own subjective lens or that of a Gothic lens.

Explicitly calling the first character we are being introduced to as a fictional being, a “heroine”. This is the set-up Austen wanted, she wanted the reader to already assume that because she is being called by such a adventurous title she herself will be an adventurous person which as by the end of the novel we discover isn’t the case at all. Austen keeps this up throughout the entire novel though referring to Catherine as the heroine when in a watered-down summary her biggest struggle is boy troubles. Austen specifically does this to get the point across that life isn’t as exciting as it is in a novel, and she uses Catherine as the example for us and shows how mundane life is at the time. Austen is in no way trying to mock the gothic genre here she is actually doing the opposite. Because the novel is metafictional we are able to see the growth of Catherine from someone who’s so engrossed in her life being a story to someone who accepts her reality and starts living life from there. Catherine is essentially us the reader and Austen uses this obsession with wanting our existence to be larger than life as the crutch of ourselves. Later in the novel we see how