Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey
In the novel Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen uses character development to portray the theme of being separated from loved ones. The main character, Catherine Morland, is influenced by people, events, and decisions which cause her to change over time during her quest for heroism due to loneliness and rejection from being separated from the ones that she loves. Austen meant Catherine to be "simple-minded, insentimental, and commonplace unsolicitated falls in love with a man who snubs and educates her, not adores her" (Forster 51). These assets which make her so basic are the attributes which she develops from.
"Catherine couldn 't be aware from the outset because the story developed precisely from Catherine 's unawareness of distinctions" (Marvin 73). She had spent her entire life with her family, never knowing the concept of loneliness. She is only seventeen during the three months that the book takes place. Her mind was "about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is" (Austen 5). This character trait of Catherine is a lot like Jane Austen, whose life was private, uneventful, extraordinarily narrow and restricted. (Southam 107). Catherine knew that if adventures did not befal her in her own village, she had to seek them abroad. So she traveled to Bath upon invitation, and was separated from her beloved family for the first time (Austen 5). Austen 's life was very similar. For a period in her life, she had to take successive temporary visits to her relatives in Bath (Southam 107).
When Catherine went to Bath, she was determined to meet new people, since she was away from her entire family. In Bath "a whole new world" was opened to her. She was delighted to join in the social life of the colony to fill the gap in her heart due to being separated from her family (Magill 3303). Catherine visited Bath at the perfect time for meeting people, because in reality, this type of social life in Bath did not exist for long.
In the novel Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen uses character development to portray the theme of being separated from loved ones. The main character, Catherine Morland, is influenced by people, events, and decisions which cause her to change over time during her quest for heroism due to loneliness and rejection from being separated from the ones that she loves. Austen meant Catherine to be "simple-minded, insentimental, and commonplace unsolicitated falls in love with a man who snubs and educates her, not adores her" (Forster 51). These assets which make her so basic are the attributes which she develops from.
"Catherine couldn 't be aware from the outset because the story developed precisely from Catherine 's unawareness of distinctions" (Marvin 73). She had spent her entire life with her family, never knowing the concept of loneliness. She is only seventeen during the three months that the book takes place. Her mind was "about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is" (Austen 5). This character trait of Catherine is a lot like Jane Austen, whose life was private, uneventful, extraordinarily narrow and restricted. (Southam 107). Catherine knew that if adventures did not befal her in her own village, she had to seek them abroad. So she traveled to Bath upon invitation, and was separated from her beloved family for the first time (Austen 5). Austen 's life was very similar. For a period in her life, she had to take successive temporary visits to her relatives in Bath (Southam 107).
When Catherine went to Bath, she was determined to meet new people, since she was away from her entire family. In Bath "a whole new world" was opened to her. She was delighted to join in the social life of the colony to fill the gap in her heart due to being separated from her family (Magill 3303). Catherine visited Bath at the perfect time for meeting people, because in reality, this type of social life in Bath did not exist for long.
Cited: Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. Great Britain: Aldine Press, 1818. Forster, E.M. Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. 1925. Vol. 1. Ed. Cherie Abbey. Detroit: Gale Research Comp., 1986. 41, 51. Howells, William Dean. Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. 1900. Vol. 19. Ed. Cherie Abbey. Detroit: Gale Research Comp., 1986. Kiely, Robert. "Frankenstein." The Romantic Novel in England. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1972. Lewis, C.S. Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. 1954. Vol. 1. Ed. Cherie Abbey. Detroit: Gale Research Comp., 1986. Magill. Frank N. "Frankenstein." "Northanger Abbey." Master Plots. Vol. 5, 8. New York: Salem Press, 1968. 1677-8, 3302-3. Mudrick, Marvin. Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. 1952. Vol. 1, 13. Ed. Cherie Abbey. Detroit: Gale Research Comp., 1986. 58-61, 73-76. Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. London: Henry Colburn, 1831. Southam, Brian. British Writers. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 1981. 101-24