Instead, she parodies and undercuts them, with subtle causticness, and ridicule. Austen’s priority when writing Northanger Abbey was to defend the novel as a genre, whilst also addressing the concept of ‘reading’ itself. Essentially, by writing in the style of the gothic, she emphasised the ordinariness of the domestic gothic and, patriarchal domestic
Women in literature represent many things. They are sometimes omnipresent and protagonist, but also feared, dangerous and often completely forgotten. The role of women throughout the History of literature is quite representative and relevant to understand the Historical moment. Gothic is no exception. In Gothic fiction we find different kinds of women, which embody the views of society towards women in the late nineteenth-century in England and Ireland.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a Bildungsroman, a coming of age story that focuses on the psychological development, of the protagonist Catherine Morland. This essay will analyse the language, and narrative techniques of the extract, and discuss how this excerpt suggests vicissitude in Catherine’s personal perspectives, and relationships. In addition, it will discuss the ‘domestic gothic’ and abuse ubiquitous in ordinary situations. Furthermore, it will argue how Austen’s rhetorical techniques work to encourage reader interest, and to exercise perception, when distinguishing between appearance, and reality. Finally, it will conclude by briefly discussing the significance of the extract within the novel’s wider themes.
This literature engulfs its reader in numerous and astonishing ways. Southern Gothic Literature involves
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, is a bildungsroman, a coming of age story that focuses on the psychological and maturity of the protagonist Catherine Morland, from youth to adulthood. This essay will analyse the language and narrative techniques of the set passage, and will discuss how this important passage suggests change in Catherine’s overall maturity and her subsequent friendships and relationships, and will conclude by briefly discussing the significance of the passage within the novel’s wider themes. Northanger Abbey is a consciously designed comedic satirical novel, which breaks the mould of the novel in that it uses other novels to construct an alternative to the kind of novel usually read at the time. Austen could simply have written a gothic, or sentimental novel, but chose not to, and instead parodies them, and undercuts this popular fiction with irony, and satire. The gothic novel, were typically full of fantasy elements, and were hackneyed and repetitive.
But most women had no way to change these standards, the only thing they could do was make them into a joke, which is exactly what Austen did in Northanger Abbey. By Austen writing in a satirical tone, her points were able to get across in a way that wasn’t dangerous to her. Main character Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey took on this role of being degraded because of her beauty, in order to illustrate how harsh society was. “At fifteen, [Catherine’s] appearances were mending” (Austen 3), this quote is just one example of how beauty standards were pushed into young girls heads. Even at such young ages, girls had these same extreme beauty standards as their mothers were, believing that they
People began to question the existence of God or a higher power and Gothic novels allowed writers and readers likewise to delve and analyze all those unexplored, unknown territories of life and beyond, through storytelling. To sum up, Gothic literature makes use of all that is valued by the romantics, such as intense emotions and aedthetics but has an almost sinister side. In addition to decadently aesthetic features, Gothic Romanticism also contains nihilistic features: the hold, handed down values are lost, dark, melancholic resigned moods. In the same way, morbidly absurd inclinations, the so-called "night sides" of the human mind as well as fantastic-ghostly and grotesque are discussed. In addition, this tendency, especially in the trivial literature, with its partly amoral-abnormal theme (incest, necrophilia), finds two manifestations: the horror romance and the ghost story.
Throughout history, many influential writers have used literature to teach people about human nature; these writers used their works improve the morals of humanity. In the 18th century, Romantic and Gothic writers used many literary elements to make their works more meaningful. These included figurative language, symbolism, imagery, allusions, mood and tone to enhance the theme in their stories. Two men who did this were the Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe, and the Gothic romance writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. The works “The Masque of the Red Death” by Poe, and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Hawthorne, are examples of using literary elements to enhance theme.
3 Northanger Abbey and the Gothic 3.1 Process of Creation and Style of Writing It is presumed that Austen wrote the first draft of Northanger Abbey in 1798 and the title was Susan. However, Emden suggests that the novel was actually composed in two stages. The first part describes Catherine’s stay in Bath and can be seen as a satire of sentimental novel, the second is set at Northanger Abbey and represents Gothic passages. Therefore, Emden argues that Austen wrote the first half in 1794 as a part of her juvenilia. To prove this claim he points out the similarities in characters and in style of writing.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, is a bildungsroman, a coming of age story that focuses on the psychological and maturity of the protagonist Catherine Morland, and her development from youth to adulthood. This essay will analyse the language, and narrative techniques of the set extract, and discuss how this important passage suggests change in Catherine’s role as Austen’s female bildungsroman. In addition, it will aim to decipher how linguistic presentations can have a profound effect, on a young imagination, and how reality can sometimes be misinterpreted with fiction and impede on the perception of moral and social relationships. Finally, it will conclude by briefly discussing the significance of the passage within the novel’s wider themes.