Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and the Gothic Paradox

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey strives to satirize the Gothic genre-- a genre that was not only popular at the time of Northanger Abbey's publication, but also still budding as a form-- but, unfortunately for Austen, [it] fails to do so. Whereas Northanger Abbey's protagonist, Catherine Morland, seemingly cannot adhere to the status quo represented in the novel, the primary reason is (according to Austen's rationale) because of her childish obsession with Gothic literature.

Yet Austen misses one thing: the delivery lies within a novel itself; a manufactured and, more importantly, fictitious realm. Therefore, Austen's rationale is fallacious and hypocritical-- constructed with an attitude that undermines the many qualities of novel-reading, as well as those that belong to what has become the timeless Gothic aesthetic.

Throughout the novel, the author makes it clear that Gothic novels are the cause of this aforementioned ignorance. Catherine's upbringing is promising, however. Austen's prescribed fate [for Catherine] has placed her the midst of mediocrity on every plane: a moderately wealthy family is present to support her; her physical presence is fully capable of being attractive, i.e., she might pass as "almost pretty"; and the intelligence she does have is directly related to her love for the pursuit of literacy (Austen 3). And yet, come time for her departure to the novel's epicenter of high society (located in Bath), she is left with one handicap: "her mind [is] about as ignorant and ununiformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is" (5).

Catherine's reading abilities fall short, however, when it comes to learning from real life situations, namely the ones involving the characters present throughout her stay at Bath. In fact, Catherine fails to pick up on the many pressures manifested by the culture present in Bath; on numerous occasions, Catherine finds herself the victim of her own naiveté as she is manipulated.