The establishment of a new kind of heroine in Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey takes place in two main settings: Bath and Northanger Abbey. These two settings differentiate two different styles present in the novel, as a comedy of manners and as a parody of the Gothic novel, in Bath and Northanger Abbey respectively. However, it is by its use of parody alone that the novel is often defined, and the allusions to Gothic novels are not confined to the part of the novel in which Catherine is at Northanger Abbey. In the first pages, Austen begins to create a new kind of heroine. Catherine Morland, is described as not being very like a heroine at all, yet her imagination creates scenarios that mirror those of traditional Gothic novels. By writing in opposition to the Gothic style, Austen is doing something interesting and different: she is creating a romance of reality. Her heroine is not perfect like Adeline, the heroine of Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest, and her adventures are not as dramatic and fantastic. For these reasons, the story becomes one the reader can enter into without a suspension of reality; the reader can identify with the heroine and her life in the most accepting manner.
Austen immediately establishes Catherine as unlike the traditional heroine. In The Romance of the Forest, “The observations and general behaviour of Adeline [...] bespoke a good understanding and an amiable heart, but she had yet more– she had genius” (Radcliffe 29). Adeline possesses something that elevates her above the common woman. Radcliffe never elaborates on what this “genius” might be– whether it is a brilliant mind, talent, or sympathy for others– but leaves it for the reader to decide. By leaving it so ambiguous, she also allows the reader the opportunity to decide that Adeline’s “genius” extends to every possible area or subject. “Genius” becomes a word that encompasses all, and fails to truly express, in detail, any. Adeline is a heroine whose talents are so undefined but thoroughly perfect that she becomes almost goddess-like. Unlike Adeline, “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her” (Austen 1). Austen, like Radcliffe, lists the qualities that make up a character, and keeps each item on that list an ambiguous term. Catherine’s “person and disposition” is here as ambiguous and unhelpful as Adeline’s “genius.” Adeline’s “genius” seems to determine that she is a heroine– if she simply had “good understanding and an amiable heart,” she would be like many other women, but Adeline “had yet more.” Her “genius” makes her special. Catherine, however, is determined not to be a heroine by her “person and disposition.” Austen reverses Radcliffe’s definition of a special quality that makes a heroine to a special quality that makes an un-heroine.
Austen gives the reader more specific reasons for Catherine’s inability to be a heroine. A good part of this is physical, just as a good part of Adeline’s ability to be a heroine is physical. Much of Adeline’s “genius” is manifested physically in her beauty: it captivates her lovers and increases her overall perfection. If Adeline were ugly or plain, she would probably not qualify as a heroine. This does not mean that a heroine must be beautiful, but simply that a heroine is beautiful. It seems to emerge as a rule of nature rather than a rule of crafting the character. Adeline is “in her nineteenth year; her figure of the middling size, and turned to the most exquisite proportion; her hair was dark auburn, her eyes blue, and whether they sparkled with intelligence, or melted with tenderness, they were equally attractive” (Radcliffe 29). Adeline’s eyes seem particularly expressive of her “genius” here, conveying two opposite qualities with such power that “they were equally attractive” in both states. Adeline’s beauty, like her mental and emotional qualities, possesses something common that is elevated to the special. “Her figure [is] of the middling size,” average and neither too tall or too short, too wide or too thin. It seems surprising that anything about her should be called middling. But then Radcliffe says that Adeline’s figure is “turned to the most exquisite proportion.” Although it may be “of the middling size,” her figure is so well-proportioned that it creates the divine out of something normal. Her appearance demonstrates the rules that makes her a heroine, in a physical way. Catherine, in contrast, “[was] for many years of her life, as plain as any. She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features” (Austen 1). Again, the description of Catherine illustrates an inversion of Radcliffe’s description of Adeline. Whereas Adeline’s figure is “turned to the most exquisite proportion,” Catherine has “a thin awkward figure.” Like Radcliffe, Austen writes of geometric beauty, but on Catherine, the angles are turned inward to make her “thin [and] awkward.” Her hair lacks a distinct color and her skin is unhealthy and pale. In every way, she contrasts to Adeline’s beauty. Austen also couples the description of beauty with the description of personality, saying immediately afterward that “not less propitious for heroism seemed her mind” (1). Again, Catherine is described as a character who goes against the rules of being a heroine in every way, and yet still seems to destined to be one later in the novel.
Catherine, unlike Adeline, is financially and emotionally secure at the beginning of the novel, and is never really in danger at any point throughout. At the beginning of the novel, Adeline is essentially an orphan, and for the rest of the story is always searching for a family to attach herself to. When she gives the story of her life at the beginning of the novel, she says,
"Of my mother I have a faint remembrance: I lost her when I was only seven years old, and that was my first misfortune. At her death, my father gave up housekeeping, boarded me in a convent, and quitted Paris. Thus was I, at this early period of my life, abandoned to strangers." (Radcliffe 36)
The loss of her family gives Adeline something to search for and motivates the novel. It is both the internal motivation of the character of Adeline, as she searches for people to love and a place to call home, and the motivation of the external plot, when Adeline is rather roughly thrown into the care of the La Mottes when her supposed father betrays her. However, it also allows the reader to identify with Adeline; as an orphan, she is deprived of a historical past, and truly begins the story of her life when the novel begins. Thus the reader, beginning to read the novel, is in a situation analogous to that of Adeline, beginning the story without a past related to it. Austen alludes to this when she says that “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.” She begins with the character as an infant, in the early stages of her story and of life. Like Adeline, at this point, she is simultaneously new to the world and new to the reader. However, Catherine quickly moves past this stage. She lives happily with her family, and this is part of why “the character of her father and mother” seems to prevent her from being a heroine. Catherine’s father is a clergyman and
"had a considerable independence, besides two good livings– and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what is more remarkable, with a good constitution. [...] Instead of dying in bring the latter [Catherine] into the world, as any body might expect, she still lived on." (Austen 1)
Catherine Morland is a member of a large family, with both of her parents still alive and well, and is loved and provided for. Austen plainly alludes to The Romance of the Forest, in which Adeline’s father does seem “addicted to locking up his daughters.” Because she is so well-situated and lacks the drama and newness of Adeline’s situation, Austen implies that Catherine seems ill-disposed to be a heroine. It should prevent the reader from identifying with her in the same way, and certainly removes a large force of tension that maintains Radcliffe’s novel.
However, it is these ways in which Catherine does not comply with the Gothic standards of a heroine that make her so engaging for the reader and so essential to Austen’s style of romantic realism. The reader is not able to identify with Catherine in the same way as he or she does with Adeline– the reader and Catherine do not begin on an equal par within the novel itself. However, Catherine is more easily identified with by the reader through her experiences, as compared to the reader’s experiences in reality. The more ordinary situation of Catherine allows the reader to accept her as a heroine, because the reader can displace her with himself or herself. Catherine’s lack of “genius,” as Radcliffe describes that indefinable quality, is also oddly approached by Austen in a way that enhances this identification. Austen begins the novel by saying that Catherine does not have “genius,” and that she is not likely to be a heroine. However, with a few years’s time, Catherine changes, physically, mentally, and emotionally. When she is “fifteen, appearances were mending; she began to curl her hair and long for balls; her complexion improved, her features were softened by plumpness and colour, her eyes gained more animation, and her figure more consequence” (2). Austen does not say that Catherine has become a beauty: she is only “mending” and her looks are “improved” and “softened.” Her parents have a conversation about her that seems to narrowly avoid being cruel:
"'Catherine grows quite a good-looking girl,– she is almost pretty today,' were words which caught her ears now and then; and how welcome were the sounds! To look almost pretty, is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain the first fifteen years of her life, than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive." (2)
Adeline is the “beauty” mentioned here, and the reader immediately sympathizes with Catherine and is displeased with this spoiled woman, blessed with good looks for all of her life. It is an ambiguous sort of sympathy, however. Catherine herself is not clearly defined; her physical appearance is left undecided. What is “almost pretty”? Catherine’s looks only improve throughout the book, and sometimes she is complimented on her beauty. However, Austen also describes her as being plain. The reader is given a good idea of what Catherine used to look like, but not a very thorough one of how she has changed. This parallels Adeline’s “genius,” but in a lesser way. Because Catherine begins from an appearance and a personality that are acknowledged by the author as unappealing and unattractive, the change has the possibility of not being very great. However, the change may equally well be overwhelming. Catherine’s appearance and personality are left undefined enough that the reader can adjust her to fit what they want, and so better insert himself or herself into the story. Austen has created a heroine whose ambiguities create a sense of identification between the reader and the character, rather than hindering it.
In the first few pages of Northanger Abbey, Austen creates a sense of the parody to come through the establishment of Catherine’s character. This is particularly evident through the comparison of Catherine to Adeline, the heroine of The Romance of the Forest. Adeline is a perfect heroine, whose perfection actually forms a barrier between the reader and the character; although the reader can be intensely interested in the dramatic story, and can identify with the character in some limited way, she is too virtuous and angelic to displace. Austen hints at the creation of her new style in her parody of the Gothic– by making Catherine a heroine who is meant to be nothing like Adeline and yet becomes something like her, she creates a character who is easier for the reader to displace, and so immediately become a part of the story as soon as it begins. Her style is realism, formed through parody of the Gothic.
WORKS CITED
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New York: Dover, 2000.
Radcliffe, Ann. The Romance of the Forest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Austen immediately establishes Catherine as unlike the traditional heroine. In The Romance of the Forest, “The observations and general behaviour of Adeline [...] bespoke a good understanding and an amiable heart, but she had yet more– she had genius” (Radcliffe 29). Adeline possesses something that elevates her above the common woman. Radcliffe never elaborates on what this “genius” might be– whether it is a brilliant mind, talent, or sympathy for others– but leaves it for the reader to decide. By leaving it so ambiguous, she also allows the reader the opportunity to decide that Adeline’s “genius” extends to every possible area or subject. “Genius” becomes a word that encompasses all, and fails to truly express, in detail, any. Adeline is a heroine whose talents are so undefined but thoroughly perfect that she becomes almost goddess-like. Unlike Adeline, “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her” (Austen 1). Austen, like Radcliffe, lists the qualities that make up a character, and keeps each item on that list an ambiguous term. Catherine’s “person and disposition” is here as ambiguous and unhelpful as Adeline’s “genius.” Adeline’s “genius” seems to determine that she is a heroine– if she simply had “good understanding and an amiable heart,” she would be like many other women, but Adeline “had yet more.” Her “genius” makes her special. Catherine, however, is determined not to be a heroine by her “person and disposition.” Austen reverses Radcliffe’s definition of a special quality that makes a heroine to a special quality that makes an un-heroine.
Austen gives the reader more specific reasons for Catherine’s inability to be a heroine. A good part of this is physical, just as a good part of Adeline’s ability to be a heroine is physical. Much of Adeline’s “genius” is manifested physically in her beauty: it captivates her lovers and increases her overall perfection. If Adeline were ugly or plain, she would probably not qualify as a heroine. This does not mean that a heroine must be beautiful, but simply that a heroine is beautiful. It seems to emerge as a rule of nature rather than a rule of crafting the character. Adeline is “in her nineteenth year; her figure of the middling size, and turned to the most exquisite proportion; her hair was dark auburn, her eyes blue, and whether they sparkled with intelligence, or melted with tenderness, they were equally attractive” (Radcliffe 29). Adeline’s eyes seem particularly expressive of her “genius” here, conveying two opposite qualities with such power that “they were equally attractive” in both states. Adeline’s beauty, like her mental and emotional qualities, possesses something common that is elevated to the special. “Her figure [is] of the middling size,” average and neither too tall or too short, too wide or too thin. It seems surprising that anything about her should be called middling. But then Radcliffe says that Adeline’s figure is “turned to the most exquisite proportion.” Although it may be “of the middling size,” her figure is so well-proportioned that it creates the divine out of something normal. Her appearance demonstrates the rules that makes her a heroine, in a physical way. Catherine, in contrast, “[was] for many years of her life, as plain as any. She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features” (Austen 1). Again, the description of Catherine illustrates an inversion of Radcliffe’s description of Adeline. Whereas Adeline’s figure is “turned to the most exquisite proportion,” Catherine has “a thin awkward figure.” Like Radcliffe, Austen writes of geometric beauty, but on Catherine, the angles are turned inward to make her “thin [and] awkward.” Her hair lacks a distinct color and her skin is unhealthy and pale. In every way, she contrasts to Adeline’s beauty. Austen also couples the description of beauty with the description of personality, saying immediately afterward that “not less propitious for heroism seemed her mind” (1). Again, Catherine is described as a character who goes against the rules of being a heroine in every way, and yet still seems to destined to be one later in the novel.
Catherine, unlike Adeline, is financially and emotionally secure at the beginning of the novel, and is never really in danger at any point throughout. At the beginning of the novel, Adeline is essentially an orphan, and for the rest of the story is always searching for a family to attach herself to. When she gives the story of her life at the beginning of the novel, she says,
"Of my mother I have a faint remembrance: I lost her when I was only seven years old, and that was my first misfortune. At her death, my father gave up housekeeping, boarded me in a convent, and quitted Paris. Thus was I, at this early period of my life, abandoned to strangers." (Radcliffe 36)
The loss of her family gives Adeline something to search for and motivates the novel. It is both the internal motivation of the character of Adeline, as she searches for people to love and a place to call home, and the motivation of the external plot, when Adeline is rather roughly thrown into the care of the La Mottes when her supposed father betrays her. However, it also allows the reader to identify with Adeline; as an orphan, she is deprived of a historical past, and truly begins the story of her life when the novel begins. Thus the reader, beginning to read the novel, is in a situation analogous to that of Adeline, beginning the story without a past related to it. Austen alludes to this when she says that “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.” She begins with the character as an infant, in the early stages of her story and of life. Like Adeline, at this point, she is simultaneously new to the world and new to the reader. However, Catherine quickly moves past this stage. She lives happily with her family, and this is part of why “the character of her father and mother” seems to prevent her from being a heroine. Catherine’s father is a clergyman and
"had a considerable independence, besides two good livings– and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what is more remarkable, with a good constitution. [...] Instead of dying in bring the latter [Catherine] into the world, as any body might expect, she still lived on." (Austen 1)
Catherine Morland is a member of a large family, with both of her parents still alive and well, and is loved and provided for. Austen plainly alludes to The Romance of the Forest, in which Adeline’s father does seem “addicted to locking up his daughters.” Because she is so well-situated and lacks the drama and newness of Adeline’s situation, Austen implies that Catherine seems ill-disposed to be a heroine. It should prevent the reader from identifying with her in the same way, and certainly removes a large force of tension that maintains Radcliffe’s novel.
However, it is these ways in which Catherine does not comply with the Gothic standards of a heroine that make her so engaging for the reader and so essential to Austen’s style of romantic realism. The reader is not able to identify with Catherine in the same way as he or she does with Adeline– the reader and Catherine do not begin on an equal par within the novel itself. However, Catherine is more easily identified with by the reader through her experiences, as compared to the reader’s experiences in reality. The more ordinary situation of Catherine allows the reader to accept her as a heroine, because the reader can displace her with himself or herself. Catherine’s lack of “genius,” as Radcliffe describes that indefinable quality, is also oddly approached by Austen in a way that enhances this identification. Austen begins the novel by saying that Catherine does not have “genius,” and that she is not likely to be a heroine. However, with a few years’s time, Catherine changes, physically, mentally, and emotionally. When she is “fifteen, appearances were mending; she began to curl her hair and long for balls; her complexion improved, her features were softened by plumpness and colour, her eyes gained more animation, and her figure more consequence” (2). Austen does not say that Catherine has become a beauty: she is only “mending” and her looks are “improved” and “softened.” Her parents have a conversation about her that seems to narrowly avoid being cruel:
"'Catherine grows quite a good-looking girl,– she is almost pretty today,' were words which caught her ears now and then; and how welcome were the sounds! To look almost pretty, is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain the first fifteen years of her life, than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive." (2)
Adeline is the “beauty” mentioned here, and the reader immediately sympathizes with Catherine and is displeased with this spoiled woman, blessed with good looks for all of her life. It is an ambiguous sort of sympathy, however. Catherine herself is not clearly defined; her physical appearance is left undecided. What is “almost pretty”? Catherine’s looks only improve throughout the book, and sometimes she is complimented on her beauty. However, Austen also describes her as being plain. The reader is given a good idea of what Catherine used to look like, but not a very thorough one of how she has changed. This parallels Adeline’s “genius,” but in a lesser way. Because Catherine begins from an appearance and a personality that are acknowledged by the author as unappealing and unattractive, the change has the possibility of not being very great. However, the change may equally well be overwhelming. Catherine’s appearance and personality are left undefined enough that the reader can adjust her to fit what they want, and so better insert himself or herself into the story. Austen has created a heroine whose ambiguities create a sense of identification between the reader and the character, rather than hindering it.
In the first few pages of Northanger Abbey, Austen creates a sense of the parody to come through the establishment of Catherine’s character. This is particularly evident through the comparison of Catherine to Adeline, the heroine of The Romance of the Forest. Adeline is a perfect heroine, whose perfection actually forms a barrier between the reader and the character; although the reader can be intensely interested in the dramatic story, and can identify with the character in some limited way, she is too virtuous and angelic to displace. Austen hints at the creation of her new style in her parody of the Gothic– by making Catherine a heroine who is meant to be nothing like Adeline and yet becomes something like her, she creates a character who is easier for the reader to displace, and so immediately become a part of the story as soon as it begins. Her style is realism, formed through parody of the Gothic.
WORKS CITED
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New York: Dover, 2000.
Radcliffe, Ann. The Romance of the Forest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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