The Importance Of Life In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

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The complexity of the human psyche is a concept people still ponder the vast capabilities of. When different people interact there is always a change in behaviors depending on the environment and the people themselves. One can never truly predict how a person will behave in a situation until said person is actually tested. However, while one cannot predict the outcomes of people interacting, it is known that humans tend to act in ways that will benefit themselves. It is often debated that people are inherently egotistical, that we will always perform in a manner that will be beneficial to ourselves before we begin to take others’ needs into account. In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen weaves a tale of a young farm girl named Catherine who goes on an exciting vacation accompanying wealthy neighbors to a fancy city filled with an avaricious, selfish population. The reader follows Catherine through her time in Bath, and eventually Northanger Abbey, where she experiences the horrible behaviors people display; however, there are also occasions where we get to see the good qualities of the city. Bath is a fast paced city in which people are always coming and going; this offers people plenty of opportunities to do whatever they desire. While Bath does possess positive and negative qualities, most find it hard to tell which outweighs the other.

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