Just as Marianne must experience a considerable amount of maturity, so too must Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey (1818) when she is first meet by readers. Unlike the characters of Elizabeth and Elinor, who are known for their cleverness and good sense, Catherine’s: “mind [is] about as ignorant and uniformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is” . Despite her immaturity Catherine has an affectionate heart “disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affection of any kind – her manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; her persona pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty” . In the development of both her protagonist and plotline, Austen parodies the popular Gothic novel of the day by calling Catherine a “heroine” in the very first sentence of the book: “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine” . Austen is of course using irony, as she is comically referring to the usual heroine portrayed in such novels, beautiful damsels in distress who are waiting to be rescued by a handsome man. Catherine is not one of these heroines; she is simply an ordinary girl waiting for something to happen. Before she is able to discover her hero she must learn how to assess the character of others, and learn how to understand herself before she can claim the title of “heroine”.
Throughout Northanger Abbey Catherine learns that real life is not as exciting, romantic, or black and white as the romance novels she reads. This is especially apparent in her friendship with Isabella Thorpe. She becomes immediately close to Isabella who is attractive, intelligent and socially confident, but who later emerges as the anti heroine of the novel. Isabelle appear...
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...e you must respect for her sincerity, her high principles, her generous trust of others, and her patience under trails that would be too great for much stronger heads...and in spite of her romantic folly she has so much good heart that it serves her in place of good sense” .
It seems both these critics have missed the point about Catherine, her inadequacies as a heroine, such as they are, exists because Austen tries to do too much with her – “to establish her both s a gooselike parody of the sentimental gothic heroine, and to advance claims for her as a human being who would learn good sense and learn even to go beyond it” .
Catherine is a true Austen heroine, not only because she learns to examine her own spirit, heart and mind so that she is able to mature beyond her flaws, but also because she inspires readers to develop truly heroic behaviour themselves.
Catherine first becomes exposed to the opposing forces as she experiments with her desires for love and a better quality of life. *6* Because she constantly shifts priorities from one man to the other, her love for Heathcliff and Edgar results in a destructive disequilibrium. *1*In the novel, Cathy is portrayed as a lady with untamable emotions. *7* In her childhood she learns to l...
Catherine has an extremely naive, novel-like view of love. “[Henry’s] name was not in the Pump-room book, and curiosity could do no more. He must be gone from Bath.yet he had not mentioned that his stay would be so short! This sort of mysteriousness, which is always so becoming in a hero, threw a fresh grace in Catherine's imagination around his persona and manners, and increased her anxiety to know more of him,” (34-35). She is obsessed with Henry’s “mysteriousness”, not so dissimilar to the heroines in her novels, who were all in love with tall, dark and mysterious men. Although her naivete and imagination almost get her in trouble with Henry when she thinks his father has killed his mother, her naive obsession with him is the only reason their relationship ever
Several times in Northanger Abbey Austen’s main character, Catherine, gets caught up in her emotions. In the second part of Austen’s story, Catherine is frequently consumed by curiosity, and it is in this same part of the novel in which the gothic mood is introduced, beginning with Catherine’s travels to Northanger Abbey. Catherine is eager to find the abbey to be like those that she reads about in novels, and Henry affirms this belief stating, “And are you prepared to encounter all the horrors that a building such as ‘what one reads about’ may produce? – Have you a stout heart? - Nerves fit for sliding panels and ta...
Jane Austen completes her story with a “Cinderella ending” of Catherine and Henry marrying. However, her novel is more than a fairytale ending. Although often wrong and misguided in their judgments, she shows the supremacy of males that permeated throughout her society. Jane Austen takes us from a portrayal of men as rude, self-centered, and opinionate to uncaring, demanding, and lying to downright ruthless, hurtful, and evil. John Thorpe’s and General Tilney’s total disregard for others feelings and their villainous ways prove Austen’s point. Whether reading Northanger Abbey for the happy ending or the moral lesson, this novel has much to offer.
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet’s journey to love and marriage is the focal point of the narrative. But, the lesser known source of richness in Austen’s writing comes from her complex themes the well-developed minor characters. A closer examination of Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s dear friend in Pride and Prejudice, shows that while she did not take up a large amount of space in the narrative, her impact was great. Charlotte’s unfortunate circumstances in the marriage market make her a foil to Elizabeth, who has the power of choice and refusal when it comes to deciding who will be her husband. By focusing on Charlotte’s age and lack of beauty, Austen emphasizes how ridiculous and cruel marriage can be in this time.
...e and high society, but shift the focus from a first-person perspective (Evelina) to the more omniscient third-person narrator’s voice (Northanger Abbey), and there are many comparison points to be made between the two. They enrich each other, offering two perspectives on a very similar world—one character sees reality, as it is—the humor, the difficulties, and danger of it. The other creates her own reality, allowing her imagination to cloud what may actually be truth. Combined, they offer a rich glimpse into the life of an 18th century girl becoming an 18th century woman.
Catherine was born into a rich solid family, where her father, Mr. Earnshaw, was a strict man, and her mother, Mrs. Earnshaw, was a pretentious woman. Through her conceited youth Catherine’s immaturity is clearly explained. Born with a very strong attitude; she is the type that throws a fit when doesn’t get what she wants. An example is, “when she learnt the master had lost her whip in attending the stranger, showed her humor by grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing” (33). Catherine was never love by her father, whom felt the need to tell her, “Nay Cathy, I cannot love thee; thou’rt worse than thy brother. Go, s...
In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen presents her readers with a dilemma: Fanny Price is the heroine of the story, but lacks the qualities Jane Austen usually presents in her protagonists, while Mary Crawford, the antihero, has these qualities. Mary is active, effective, and witty, much like Austen’s heroines Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennet. Contrasting this is Fanny, who is timid, complacent, and dull. Austen gives Mary passages of quick, sharp, even occasionally shocking, dialogue, while Fanny often does not speak for pages at a time. When she does, her speeches are typically banal and forgettable. In Mansfield Park, Austen largely rests Fanny’s standing as protagonist on the fact that Fanny adheres to the moral standards of Austen’s era. Mary Crawford makes a more satisfying and appealing heroine but due to her modern-era sensibility and uncertain moral fiber, she cannot fulfill this role.
Catherine’s revenge does not make things better for her. Her revenge on Heathcliff by blaming him for her upcoming death does not meliorate her mind. Just before she dies, she ascribes Heathcliff for her “murder.” “You have killed me, and thriven on it, I think” (Bronte 158). Catherine resembles what Oliver Goldsmith said, “When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy?
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen expresses the powerful narrative voice. The narrative voice that she uses is different from other novels. Most authors try to hide their presence in their novels but Jane Austen does not try to hide her presence. Her presence in the novel is so clear. For example, “The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of sister author, and her treatment of the subject I will only add” (Austen 81). She tries not to trick her reader as he/she reads the novel. Instead she informs the reader that the book itself is just a novel. Her purpose is not to convince the reader and correct her story, but to understand the imperfection of language because language does not always tell the truth or enough for the truth.
Catherine is trapped between her love of Heathcliff and her love for Edgar, setting the two men down a path of destruction, a whirlwind of anger and resentment that Catherine gets caught in the middle of. Catherine is drawn to Heathcliff because of his fiery personality, their raw attraction and one certainly gets the sense that they are drawn together on a deeper level, that perhaps they are soulmates. C. Day Lewis thought so, when he declared that Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the soul...two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." This certainly seems to be backed up in the novel when Catherine exclaims “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being...” This shows clearly the struggle Catherine feels as she is drawn spiritually to Heathcliff, but also to Edgar for very different reasons. Edgar attracts Catherine predominantly because he is of the right social class. Catherine finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with," but her feelings for him seem petty when compared to the ones she harbours...
Throughout the novel Lady Catherine is a foil to Elizabeth to show Elizabeth’s best characteristics. Elizabeth is shown to be more independent and self-confident than prior when she confronts with Lady Catherine such as in Chapter 29, “Elizabeth’s courage did not fail her. She had heard nothing of Lady Catherine that spoke her awful from any extraordinary talents or miraculous virtue, and the mere stateliness of money and rank, she thought she could witness without trepidation” (pg. 158). The other role of Lady Catherine is her personality on the effects of society and class. One particular account of this is in chapter 29, “Lady Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and her daughter. I could advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest—there is no occasion for anything more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank preserved.” (pg. 158). This expresses the ideas that Jane Austen was trying set forth with Lady Catherine in the principles of what society and class had as an effect with the plot of Pride and Prejudice and the surrounding
Some of Gargano's other premises were not as insightful for me. For example, I had trouble with what Gargano called Catherine's "transcendentalizing imagination" that causes her to create "beautiful figments" of Townsend that possess her and become the "paramount value of her life, and other attachments, no matter how strong, must somehow accommodate themselves to it." (132). This contention tends to belittle Catherine's intelligence as well as her grasp of reality.
... Darcy and Elizabeth. Additionally, Austen sculpts the theme of social expectations and mores using the self-promoting ideology and behaviors of Lady Catherine as fodder for comic relief. Austen does not simply leave the image of the gilded aristocracy upon a pedestal; she effectively uses the unconventional character of Elizabeth to defy aristocratic authority and tradition. In fact, Austen's proposed counter view of the aristocracy by satirizing their social rank. Lady Catherine is effectively used as a satirical representation of the aristocracy through her paradoxical breach of true social decorum and her overblown immodesty. Evidently, Lady Catherine is nothing short of the critical bond that holds the structure of Pride and Prejudice together.
Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27). They became very close friends; they were practically brother and sister (Mitchell 122). Heathcliff is intent upon pleasing Catherine. He would “do her bidding in anything” (Brontë 30). He is afraid of “grieving” her (Brontë 40). Heathcliff finds solace and comfort in Catherine’s company. When Catherine is compelled to stay at Thrushcross Grange to recover from her injury, she returns as “a very dignified person” (Brontë 37). Her association with the gente...