Gothic novel, etc.
Northanger Abbey is fundamentally a parody of Gothic fiction, which was especially popular during the 1790s and at the turn of the nineteenth century.[2] Austen upends the conventions of eighteenth-century novels by making her heroine a plain and undistinguished girl from a middle-class family, allowing the heroine to fall in love with the hero before he has a serious thought of her, and exposing the heroine's romantic fears and curiosities as groundless. However, the British critic Robert Irvine wrote that though Catherine's specific fears that General Tilney murdered his wife are false, the book ends with her general fears of him being confirmed as his character is indeed vicious as the book says: "Catherine, at any rate, heard enough to feel, that in suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting up his wife, she had scarcely sinned against his character, or magnified his cruelty."[44] Likewise, the scholar Rachel Brownstein observed that Catherine's fears of General Tilney are in substance correct, though the book notes he turns out be a "villain of common life", not that of romance.[45] Brownstein wrote that the conclusion the book invites is: "...our heroine's instincts were good guides to truth—perhaps even that they were good because they were informed by Gothic novels about vulnerable women persecuted by powerful men".[45]
Irvine also points out that though parts of the book do satirize the Gothic novels popular in the 18th century, the interpretation of the novel as completely a satire of the Gothic genre is problematic.[46] Irvine points out that, except in book II, the problems faced by Catherine are not caused by her reading Gothic novels, nor is Catherine's rejection of romantic love following Henry's outburst the climax, but instead is followed by Catherine being summarily expelled from Northanger Abbey after General Tilney discovers that she is not rich as he had been led to believe.[46] Irvine observed that for Catherine her expulsion is a traumatic event that is equal in its emotional impact to the horrors that she had imagined General Tilney committing.[46] Irvine also notes that the first chapters in the novel satirize the novels of Maria Edgeworth and Frances Burney, whom the novel ostensibly praises, as it does the Gothic novels.[46] An early sign that Henry Tilney is the hero while John Thorpe is not can be seen in the fact that the former likes to read books while the latter does not.[45]
Austen was also influenced by The Female Quixote; or, The Adventures of Arabella (1752) a novel by Charlotte Lennox that was an imitation and parody of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. It was approved by both Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson, and applauded by Samuel Johnson.[47]
The story begins with the narrator remarking that the heroine is not really a heroine, with the narrator saying Catherine was not especially clever, nor a great beauty, and good without being virtuous.[48] The narrator goes to say that Catherine is a "strange, unaccountable character!"[48] Only with the second chapter does the narrator have anything positive to say about Catherine, which are even then still qualified by attaching the adjectives "remarkable" and extraordinary", which is only meant ironically as what the narrator calls the "extraordinary" traits of Catherine are in fact quite ordinary, which seems to be Austen's way of satirizing how women were portrayed in contemporary literature.[48] Austen's point appears to be that there is a gulf between how women really are and how they are portrayed in novels.[48] The point is further emphasized by satirizing Richardson's rule laid out in The Rambler "that no young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared", which Catherine breaks without suffering.[49] Later, when Catherine is feeling depressed, her mother tries unsuccessfully to cheer her up by having her read The Mirror (a popular journal in the late 18th century), which seems to be Austen's way of saying that what the moralising journals have to say is not applicable in real life.[49]
A reviewer in 2016 said "Austen's Northanger Abbey was in part a playful response to what she considered "unnatural" in the novels of her day: Instead of perfect heroes, heroines and villains, she offers flawed, rounded characters who behave naturally and not just according to the demands of the plot."[50]
Masculine power: Johnson, Richardson, Blair and Addison
At one point when Catherine uses the word "nice" in a way that Henry disapproves of, she is warned: "The word 'nicest', as you use it, did not suit him; and you had better change it as soon as you can, or you shall be overpowered with Johnson and Blair all the rest of the way".[49] The popular 18th-century arbiters of style and taste such as Johnson, Richardson, Blair and Addison are presented as a canon of masculine power, which the novel is competition with at least as much as the Gothic novels, that were so popular with young women at the time.[49] Irvine wrote that the way in which Henry frequently quotes these authors show he is just as much trapped in the world of the essays laying out rules of conduct and style as Catherine is influenced by the Gothic novels she loves to read.[49] When Henry tries to dissuade Catherine of her Gothic-inspired notions that General Tilney is a murderer, he cites the (male) authors of the essays that were so influential in establishing rules of proper conduct in an attempt to try to dismiss one genre that was popular with women with another genre that was popular with men.[49] Irvine wrote that: "The fact that the Gothic (and perhaps the novel in general) provides a means whereby young women can think for themselves is perhaps the real threat that Henry is countering here. After all, as we have seen, Catherine's fantasy proves to be a way of imagining as evil a truth about the General that Henry never criticises: the absolute nature of patriarchal power. The type of language that Henry uses does not originate with him: it is borrowed from the essays of Johnson, Blair and company, and gets its authority, its power over Catherine, from that masculine source".[49] Irvine contended that the discourse of the essays was a "linguistic version of the patriarchal power of the General" as a way of imposing power over women, not by locking them up in a room, but imposing a type of language that limits what one may think or not.[51] In this sense, Henry speaks either with his "natural tone" when he is being himself and his "affected" tone, where he uses the discourse of a Johnsonian essay, which mirrors the description at the beginning of the book between the narrator's ideal heroine and Catherine.[52]
However, even when Henry is speaking with his natural tone, his speech is that expected of a polite society in Britain at the time.[52] The ingenue Catherine, who has just arrived in Bath, is unfamiliar with the ways of a polite society and is vaguely aware that Henry's "affected" tone is meant to be satirical but is uncertain about what is the joke here.[53] As a Bildungsroman, Catherine has to learn the ways of polite society in order to fit in.[53] Of her possible guides, Mrs. Allen is too dim to provide the necessary knowledge while John Thorpe, though from the gentry, is only interested in gambling and horses.[53] With Thorpe, Austen makes the point that mere ownership of land does not make for a gentleman as Thorpe is simply too vulgar to be a gentleman despite being of the gentry. This is further emphasised when he pays Catherine a compliment as she says it "gives me no pleasure" to receive a compliment from someone like him.[53] Isabella Thorpe initially appears as Catherine's friend, but she proves herself an unworthy friend when she mentions to Catherine's brother, James, much to the latter's mortification, that she is too fond of both the Tilneys.[54] The way in which Isabella embarrasses Catherine is a violation of the major unwritten rules of polite society, namely the reciprocity principle that one should always think of the feelings of others.[54] By contrast, Eleanor just conducts herself as a friend, albeit one who speaks in the same sort of language her brother mocks.[55] Henry establishes himself as worthy of being Catherine's husband in his role as a "lover mentor" who teaches Catherine the ways of polite society to allow her to eventually fit in.[53]
As part of the novel's satire of the literature of the day, the American scholar Rachel Brownstein noted that Henry Tilney is described as "not quite handsome though very near it", it is implied to be not quite entirely manly owing to his love of literature and fabrics and is explicitly shown to be dominated by his father.[56] It is General Tilney rather than his son who openly admires the attractions of Catherine's body, praising her for the "elasticity of her walk, which corresponded exactly with the spirit of her dancing."[56] However, Brownstein wrote that Henry is the hero of the book as he constantly ridicules cliché language, is able to understand the type of books read by women because he also reads them, and is able to rise above the crowd as notes the lazy language used by others who overuse words like "amazingly" and "nice".[57] Another trope of the fiction of the day is satirized when Catherine first meets Henry at a dance and likes him right away, which in its turn causes him to pay attention to her for the first time.[56] Most notably, it is the Thorpes who have to restrain Catherine from following Henry after the dance by holding her arms, which was not the sort of behavior that was expected of heroines in romantic novels at the time.[56]
