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| From the 2007 adaptation of Northanger Abbey (we might watch a clip later) |
NOTE: Northanger Abbey was probably Austen's
first true novel, though she started it around the same time she started Sense
and Sensibility. However, it was originally called Susan and was
written in the form of letters. She sent this novel to a publisher around 1803
and never got a response. She later had to pay to get the manuscript returned
to her, even though the publisher still refused to publish it. Since much time
had passed, she thoroughly revised the book and re-titled it, but never
published it--death got in the way. Her brother published it and her last book,
Persuasion, together in 1819.
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: How does the narrator defend and/or satirize novel
reading throughout the opening chapters of Northanger Abbey?
Consider that novels in the late 18th century had become primarily
the domain of women, chiefly works of a Gothic/romantic nature such as those
Catherine and Isabella discuss in Chapter 6. Can you tell if the narrator
approves of them, or does she find them a bad influence on the women of her
time?
Q2: We discussed in class on Wednesday about how
Austen is satirizing some of the conventions of Gothic novels, particularly the
"Mary Sue" characters who are the best, the brightest, and the most
beautiful. Where else do you see her satirizing or poking fun at conventions of
novels, romances, or of society itself? Where does she show us the opposite of
what we might expect?
Q3: In what way might Northanger Abbey be a
response to some of the issues of women and freedom we encountered in
Wollstonecraft's Maria? While this is a very different work, how
do we know that both women were interested in the same characters and ideas? Is
there anything of Maria in Catherine?
Q4: In Chapter 3, Henry Tilney jokingly informs
Catherine that “I have hitherto been very remiss, madam, in the proper
attentions of a partner here; I have not yet asked you how long you have been
in Bath; whether you were ever here before; whether you have been at the Upper
Rooms, the theatre, and the concert; and how you like the place
altogether." Based on this scene and others in Bath, what kind of
environment is Bath? Why might Austen be drawn to satirize such a place
in her novel? (By the way, Austen hated Bath!).
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