Key Facts

• Full Title: Northanger Abbey
• When Written: 1798-1803 (this was probably the first mature novel that Jane Austen finished)
• When Published: 1817 (Even though she wrote this novel first, it was the last the published, six months after she died)
• Where Written: Steventon, Hampshire, England (Jane Austen’s hometown); Bath, Somersetshire, England; Chawton, Hampshire, England (where Jane Austen edited her novels); Winchester, Hampshire, England (where Jane Austen died)
• Where Set: Fullerton, Wiltshire, England (Catherine’s hometown); Bath, Somerset, England; Northanger Abbey, Gloucestershire, England (the Tilney home); Woodston, Gloucestershire, England (Henry Tilney’s home); Putney, Greater London, England (the Thorpe home)
• Literary Period: Austen’s novels are early examples of the 19th-century realist tradition and satires of the sentimentalist novels popular at the time when she wrote.
• Climax: Henry Tilney discovers Catherine snooping around Northanger Abbey and she confesses her suspicion that his father is a murderer.
• Point of View: Northanger Abbey is told with a third-person limited perspective and an intrusive narrator. The narrator usually tracks Catherine’s experiences and thoughts, but occasionally describes other characters’ perspectives on the action. The narrator also sometimes speaks directly to the reader, as an essayist presenting a position might do. For instance, when Catherine is deliberating over what to wear to a ball, the narrator cuts in to present some general thoughts on whether it is worthwhile to spend time thinking about fashion.

Context of the Regency Era

Bath

Bath, England, was, after London, the center of high society. It was already a popular resort area when medieval Roman bathhouses were discovered there in the 1700s, but its popularity increased afterward. The pump-room, which is central to the daily life in Northanger Abbey, was a place where one could not only go to drink the mineral waters but also to see and be seen.

The character of Catherine Morland’s presence in Bath, especially accompanied by the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Allen, leads to the mistaken notion that she is a young woman of means, possibly the goddaughter of the childless couple who have brought her with them. That she attracts the attention of the wealthy Thorpe family and General Tilney is not surprising in this context. A not insignificant part of society was involved in making a “good match.” Being in the second city where society would gather, dressed fashionably by Mrs. Allen, and in the company of a wealthy couple would mark her as marriageable.

Ballroom Etiquette

• The focus was to be a social gathering/event.
• Gentlemen, including married men, were supposed to keep an eye out for any single ladies who were not dancing, to keep them involved.
• Ladies didn’t ask men to dance and in order to dance with someone you would need to be formally introduced beforehand.
• Ladies could only refuse a dance with a man if they were already engaged to dance with someone else or were planning to sit out on that particular dance.
• If a lady refused to dance with a man, it would be an insult to the man himself and the host of the party for inviting him. It was seen as complete impoliteness and of great disrespect.
• Ladies could only dance with the same partner for one or two dances (unless they were courting, engaged, or married).
• Each dance was intricately choreographed and would last for 15-20 minutes. Dances gave young men and women a chance to converse without chaperones hovering.
• The dance schedule was known in advance, and ladies would keep a dance card tied around their wrists to keep track of which dance they had promised to which gentleman.
• Social classes were prominent and people would associate with people of the same social level as themselves only.
• There were some rules such as the expectation that you must look presentable. Men had to wear a full black suit. Women would wear pastel colors to public balls, but white was the only color allowed at private balls.

The Marriage Market

• Propriety involves conforming to behavior while impropriety involves a person not conforming to behavior.
• Dancing was an integral part of 18th-century life. It allowed single people to meet, providing the opportunity for courtship.
• Strict rules were to be followed for propriety to remain, particularly in regard to a woman’s reputation.

Men: Gothic Heroes & Gothic Villians?

• Throughout the novel, Austen criticizes characters, including men, based on their actions.
• A conventional Gothic Hero is mysterious, dark, poetic, and brooding. Mr. Tilney is not a conventional hero as he is jovial and fun and likes clothing and reading.
• Mr. Tilney begins by following the conventions of Ballroom etiquette as he is formally introduced to Catherine by the host and compliments her.
• However, after the dance, he sits down with Catherine in an attempt to get to know her better. At this point, he does not follow the ballroom conventions as he is not being sociable with all who are present. This tells us that his character is more genuine and he has a tendency to follow his heart and not social expectations.
• Austen presents the character of John Thorpe as particularly stupid when he ridicules Gothic novels yet claims to like Ann Radcliffe’s works. Austen uses the character of Mr. Tilney to contrast and emphasize just how stupid Mr. Thorpe is. She also does this by providing a comparison:
  • John Thorpe:  “Udolpho, oh Lord not I.”
  • Henry Tilney: “I myself have read hundreds and hundreds.”

Gothic Architecture

During the English Reformation of the 1530s and 1540s, King Henry VIII created the Protestant Church of England and sought to undermine all institutions of Catholic power. To this end, he passed a law for the Dissolution of the Monasteries. This act allowed Catholic lands and buildings to be seized by the state. Many of them were sold to wealthy families of the era, while others fell into disrepair. The many monks and nuns who lived on these properties were expelled from their homes, while a new class of English landowners came to power. Although these events occurred more than 250 years before the time period when Northanger Abbey is set, their impact can still be felt throughout the novel. The suffering of the nuns and monks expelled from these places is a theme in the Gothic novels that Catherine loves to read, and the fact that these buildings and lands were taken over by landowners who did not care about their traditions is reflected in the character of General Tilney, who renovates without any regard for the historic value of Northanger Abbey.

Novels

Catherine is obsessed with Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Sentimental novels like Frances Burney’s Camilla and Samuel Richardson’s novel The History of Sir Charles Grandison are referred to throughout the book and form important touchstones for the plot. While sentimental novels focused on a heroine who faced many trials and tribulations on her way to finding love, eliciting a sympathetic reaction from the reader, gothic novels took this plot and placed it in an exotic and frightening setting. Northanger Abbey satirizes the conventions of Sentimental novels, as well as the gothic novels which formed an important subset of the Sentimental novel.

An omniscient (all-seeing, all-knowing) narrator usually stays in the background; however, in Austen’s novel, the Omniscient narrator interjects into the narrative. In the period of which Northanger Abbey was written, cheaper printing took publishing forward and more novels were published. Although more novels were published, there was a social contempt that Novels were inferior to academic books. Jane Austen wrote a defense of novels and their reputation for being “trash.” Some points she makes:

1. There seems to be a general tendency to slander authors of novels
2. Novels display the greatest powers of the mind.
3. It is easy to read academically based novels, but you learn so much more in fictional novels as they have wit, genius, and taste.
4. On top of having these qualities, the knowledge that can be gained is also written in the best language and manner.
5. Even novel writers themselves do not take enough pride in their work.

The novel of manners is a realistic genre in which the concern with rules, society, and convention is a driving force. The first half of Northanger Abbey reflects the convention of a novel of manners: A heroine is under the care of a wealthy childless couple. With their support, she is provided fashionable clothing and taken to Bath, the second city for the members of society at that time to pursue their leisure. With them she attends the pump-room, dances, the theater, and shops.

The humorous misunderstandings that complicate the relationships in Northanger Abbey stem from the unspoken rules of society. Catherine rebuffs Henry’s first invitation to dance because her dances are promised to John. Henry and Eleanor are rebuffed when Catherine is not home, although they had made plans with her. Catherine is rebuffed at their door when, after first being told Eleanor is at home, the servant returns and lies that, in fact, she is not.

Further difficulties in Catherine’s friendship with Isabella stem from Catherine’s naïveté, which is contrasted with Isabella’s ongoing deceit and manipulation. Isabella, who grasps Catherine as a friend instantly, assumes Catherine is wealthy and values her more highly because of it. But Catherine’s unfamiliarity with society leaves her unsure of the right choices—and subject to Isabella’s deceit, despite the latter’s increasing transparency.

The latter half of Northanger Abbey follows the conventions of the Gothic novel for the purpose of satire or humor. The Gothic novel is believed to have begun with English writer Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764). Common traits of the Gothic novel include:

• settings such as cloudy skies at night, a full moon, graveyards, castles, abbeys, ruins, secret passageways, or hidden doors;
• sounds in the night—owls, screams, laughter, or footsteps;
• characters such as an innocent heroine, a rescuing hero, a villain with a dark secret, and a kidnapper;
• mood of apprehension, fear, terror, horror, suspense, or mystery;
• a sense of coming disaster; and
• supernatural elements.

Gothic novels were, by and large, written and read by women. They were not considered to be serious literature, in part due to both their formulaic and sensational nature. As a female author, Austen triumphs over such criticism by at once mastering the genre and satirizing it.

In Northanger Abbey, the heroine, Catherine Morland, is anything but the traditional heroine of a Gothic novel. Rather than being intelligent, rich, beautiful, or tragic, Catherine is naive and silly. As an avid fan of Gothic fiction, she repeatedly relies on such fiction as a template for interpreting her experiences, often to mistakenly comic effect. When Catherine travels to the Tilney estate of Northanger Abbey, she anticipates a setting that matches her Gothic reading—an abbey, filled with secrets. Henry Tilney encourages this fantasy by telling her a Gothic novel–style story set in Northanger Abbey. However, the secrets found in the locked cupboard in Catherine’s room turn out to be nothing but old receipts, and General Tilney’s dark secret is not that he’s a murderer but that he thinks Catherine is an heiress.

Characters

Narrator

The identity of the Narrator is unknown, and the narration usually occurs in the third-person. The narrator has special access to Catherine’s thoughts and feelings, but also sometimes gives a brief sense of what the other characters are thinking and feeling. The narrator also occasionally intrudes into the narrative to provide a broader perspective on an issue raised by the story, like the importance of dress or the plight of novelists who are looked down upon. In these moments, the narrator resembles an essayist, seeking to put forward a thesis and provide supporting arguments.

Catherine Morland

A seventeen-year-old raised in a rural parsonage with nine brothers and sisters, Catherine Morland is open, honest, and naïve about the hypocritical ways of society. Her family is neither rich nor poor, and she is unaware of how much stock many people put in wealth and rank. Catherine was a plain little girl, and her parents never expected very much from her, though she has grown more attractive as she has entered her late teens. Catherine loves novels, but has not read many because not many new books are available in the out-of-the-way town where she was raised. She is especially obsessed by Gothic novels set in castles and abandoned abbeys, and hopes to experience some of the thrills portrayed in these novels herself. At the start of the novel, she has very little experience judging people’s characters or intentions, and does not trust her own intuition. When she is taken to the holiday town of Bath by the Allens, wealthy friends of her family, and meets the Tilneys and Thorpes, she begins to learn the ways of the world. Over the course of the novel, she proves herself capable of learning from the experiences she has throughout the novel, even as she maintains her honesty, goodness, and loyalty to those whom she loves.

Isabella Thorpe

A conniving, beautiful, and charming social-climber of twenty-one, Isabella befriends Catherine because Isabella believes the Morlands to be as wealthy as their neighbors the Allens, and she wishes to marry Catherine’s brother James. Isabella often uses reverse psychology, saying the opposite of what she means to influence others to do what she wants them to do. Isabella’s hypocrisy and desire to marry for money are clear to those, like the Tilney siblings, who are more experienced than Catherine.

John Thorpe

A college friend of James Morland and brother to Isabella Thorpe, John Thorpe is an unscrupulous, rude braggart. He is a boring conversationalist who is only interested in horses, carriages, money and drinking, and lies whenever he thinks it will impress others or force them to give way to his will. He wishes to marry Catherine because he believes her to be wealthy, but he is so rude and self-centered that, although he sees himself as courting Catherine, she completely fails to understand his true intentions.

James Morland

Another Morland (Catherine’s brother) who fails to suspect those he meets of hypocrisy, James is a loving brother, son, and friend who is easily manipulated by the Thorpes. He falls in love with Isabella and never seems to realize that she is a fortune-hunter. Eager to go along with Isabella and John, James pressures Catherine to do things she believes are wrong, showing that he has a weaker, less moral character than Catherine.

Henry Tilney (Mr. Tilney)

Henry Tilney is the second son of General Tilney and is Catherine Morland’s love interest. Like Catherine’s father, he works as a parson in a rural community. He is witty, charming, and perceptive, with a much larger frame of reference and experience than Catherine has, but is also sincere and loyal. He is especially concerned for his sister Eleanor’s happiness and welfare. Unlike his father, he is unconcerned with becoming even richer than he is already.

General Tilney

A rich man with many acquaintances, the General is obsessed with his social rank and the wealth of his family. His children all know that he would never want them to marry someone without wealth or high rank. He shows exaggerated kindness to Catherine because he believes her to be rich. The General fixates on home improvement, furniture, and landscaping his property (Northanger Abbey). He is very harsh and even dictatorial with his children, who know that he expects absolute obedience from them.

Eleanor Tilney (Miss Tilney)

A well-mannered, sensible, and sensitive young woman, Eleanor Tilney becomes friends with Catherine in Bath. Eleanor, whose mother died nine years before the action of the novel, suffers from loneliness when she is at home at Northanger Abbey with only her brusque and tyrannical father for company. General Tilney encourages her friendship with Catherine because he believes Catherine to be wealthy and wants her to be Henry’s wife, but Eleanor is very happy to have the company and friendship of another woman.

Mrs. Allen

A very dim-witted, childless woman, Mrs. Allen is a neighbor of the Morlands who invites Catherine to accompany her and her husband to Bath for a holiday. She thinks about nothing but clothing and how much it costs, and remembers very little from most conversations, merely repeating things that those around her say back to them. Supposed to serve as a guardian to Catherine during the trip to Bath, Mrs. Allen is too incapable of independent thought to properly guide Catherine through social situations. She runs into Mrs. Thorpe, a woman she knew fifteen years before at boarding school, which leads to her and Catherine spending much of their time in Bath with the Thorpes.

Mrs. Thorpe

A widow who thinks and talks only about her children, Mrs. Thorpe hopes for her children to marry well. Mrs. Thorpe went to boarding school with Mrs. Allen and knew her to have married a rich man. She believes the Morlands to be wealthy based on their friendship with the Allens.

Mr. & Mrs. Morland

A wife and mother to ten children, Mrs. Morland is not very aware of the dangers of society for a young, inexperienced woman of seventeen. She allows her eldest daughter Catherine to go to Bath with Mrs. Allen, whose character makes her an inadequate chaperone, and never imagines that Catherine might fall in love while there.

A parson in a rural village, Mr. Morland is the father of ten children, including Catherine and James. Although he is not wealthy, he has enough money to make sure all of his children can live comfortably. This level of wealth is a disappointment to both Isabella Thorpe and General Tilney, who believed the Morlands to be wealthy and hoped to hope to raise their own social status by marrying into the Morland family.

Themes

Novels & Their Heroines

From its very first sentence, Northanger Abbey draws attention to the fact that it is a novel, describing its protagonist Catherine Morland as an unlikely heroine. Catherine is “unlikely” because, in most of the novels of the late 18th and early 19th century, heroines were exceptional both in their personalities and in their lives’ circumstances, while Catherine is a rather average young woman. Throughout Northanger Abbey, Austen mocks typical novelistic conventions for their predictability, though never suggesting that this formulaicness makes novels unworthy of being read. Elsewhere in the novel, Austen also upends conventions of the typical courtship novel, especially in the way she describes the deepening relationship between Catherine and Henry.

Jane Austen wrote Northanger Abbey during a period when the popularity of novels had exploded and novel-reading had become an obsession, especially for women. British society was divided on the value of these books and debated novels’ impact on the values and behavior of the women who were their most avid readers.

The most popular works of the second half of the 18th century fell into the related genres of sentimental and Gothic novels. Sentimental novels often portrayed the difficulties faced by a heroine in her pursuit of love and happiness, while Gothic novels placed this same plot into an even more dramatic context, by setting them in spooky old castles during exciting historical times and by including supernatural elements. Many critics condemned such novels as silly, and worried that the dramatic stories of love would influence young women to disobey their families when selecting a spouse. On the other side of the debate, proponents of the novel said that reading about the experiences and emotions of different characters strengthened readers’ ability to feel compassion and act morally in their own lives.

Northanger Abbey sides strongly with the pro-novel side of this debate, but also does not portray the effects of novel-reading in an entirely positive light. In general, the book presents novels as influencing readers to explore the world and seek to understand it, although this sometimes leads to trouble. That trouble, however, can often lead to better self-understanding and a broader understanding of the world.

When Catherine seizes on the wild idea, drawn from novels, that General Tilney murdered his wife nine years earlier, Northanger Abbey is mocking the way that readers of novels can take their dramatic content too much to heart. Yet in this instance, Catherine’s mistaken idea leads her into an embarrassing encounter with Henry, which ultimately teaches her to be a better judge of situations. Although her reading of novels led her into trouble, it also forced her to confront her own ignorance and to grow and mature.

Northanger Abbey is able both to defend and parody novels, in the end, because Northanger Abbey itself is an innovation in the novel form. In the book, Catherine Morland learns that the drama of her real life is no less vivid than the worlds she reads about in novels. This discovery of Catherine’s functions as a kind of turning point for novels themselves, a marker signaling a shift in what constituted a novel. Soon after Austen published Northanger Abbey, novels more generally shifted away from the sentimental works that dominated the eighteenth century to the realist novels that dominated the nineteenth. It was a shift that Jane Austen anticipated.

Sincerity & Hypocrisy