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For Wednesday: Austen, Northanger
Abbey, Chs.1-9 (pp.5-46)
Answer TWO of the following:
1. 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. Does the narrator approve of these
works in general, or does she see them as the fruits of low culture, betraying
a lack of taste and judgment?
2. Why is Austen at such pains to
paint Catherine as a character who “was often inattentive, and occasionally
stupid” (Norton 6)? What novel-writing
conventions does she seem to be responding to here and throughout the opening
chapters? How do we know that satire is
behind these characterizations?
3. Considering that Northanger
Abbey is written at the tail-end of the 18th century (around the
1790’s), how might it mark an advance in style, characterization, or narration
on earlier novels such as Robinson Crusoe (1719) or Tom Jones (1749)? Consider how she is obviously writing in
their tradition while expanding and refining certain aspects of the novel. Does being a woman change what she
writes—and how she writes it?
4. 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” (14).
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? Additionally, why
might it form the ideal microcosm of English society in one convenient
setting? (By the way, Austen hated Bath!).
2. I would imagine that she is responding to depictions of young girls as ditzy and flighty. We know that she is being satirical here because Catherine turns out to be neither. Catherine does not leave me with the impression that she is stupid, but rather is a fairly smart character as is shown by her conversation skills and the great deal that she has read (even if it is just lowly novels).
ReplyDelete3. I may be biased, but I think it does. She infuses more humor and writes in a way that is easier for the 21st century reader to read. (Not necessary because she is a woman) I think that Austen, as a woman, has a lot more material to satirize, and it is particularly interesting to see how a woman responds to a society that treats woman at this time almost as second class citizens. I think that being a woman narrows her focus to situations that would concern other women. After all, she is a pioneer in satirizing society’s view and the treatment of women at this time. I can’t imagine how her works were taken when read by men (if men even read them). She is similar to the other novels, but she definitely tweaked the model of a novel to best suit her purposes.
Great points: she has so much material to work from that has been utterly ignored by men. Even Fielding, who has a shrewd observer of daily life, could only see (or care) so much about the feminine world. Austen wanted women to recognize themselves in her novels and to give role models for young women to follow, rather than some man's ideal wife/mother--or the "bad" girl. That's why Catherine is merely average; she can be anything, but she has to learn to be something first.
DeleteAshley Bean
ReplyDelete2. Austen went to great lengths to describe her heroine, while satirizing all of the others. A lot of writers over dramatized their heroes, especially in the opening chapters, and they would never really live up to those descriptions. Austen is doing the opposite, and on purpose. It stood out to me as satire because Catherine didn't meet any of those descriptions throughout the story. I don't think she's being overly modest with Catherine, I really think it is just a stab at the over played hero. Catherine is incredibly average, kind of like Austen's other heroes, not to say that they aren't great in their own ways and individuals as well, but they aren't super extraordinary. I think that she's making a point than anyone can be the hero of the story.
3. I think it definitely is expanding on things, especially the use of dialogue. The other stories had dialogue, but she uses it better, honestly. It has real flow even today. I think it does matter that she is a woman, since she is writing about a heroine after all. She knows the womanly matters of that time, so she's knowledgeable about what she's writing. There are little details that men would not have known.
Yes, I agree, she's not making fun of Catherine, just saying, "look, how accomplished and beautiful were you at 15?" Catherine has to be normal in order to be educated, and so we can learn from her own introduction to society. A hero doesn't have to be superhuman, and indeed, perhaps should be remarkably less so--otherwise, there's no danger and nothing to be gained for the reader except a little diversion (which she isn't against, but women of her time had plenty of that, and she hoped to offer something more, since the novel was capable of so much more).
Delete3. The writing seems to be more structured and diverse. We have portraits of multiple characters such as: Catherine, Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Thorpe, Mr. Tilney, James, and Isabella. In Robinson Crusoe the writing seemed to take rabbit trails here and there. Also the other characters seemed shallow in comparison to Crusoe. In Northanger Abbey we have a sense of depth in people other than Catherine. Being a women seems to allow a more intimate look into women’s interest. We discover the things they really love to do such as reading. We find out how they view different types of men, and feel about social gatherings such as the ball, or pump room. These are aspects that a male probably wouldn’t even know enough of to include in a novel.
ReplyDelete4. Bath is a very happening place. Busy and a tourist type of town. Bath feels very superficial, best friends talk about their children or lace on their gown. Society is very habitual, predictable, and plain. There is nothing gothic about this town. You have a sample of people from all over the place gathered together in one town. This helps portray English society in a broader way.
Great points--Austen wants to show us a real, if somewhat satirical, portrait of society to suggest the world a young woman will face when she enters society. The problem with some novels, she argues, is that they offer ideals, but you don't find ideals in society. So Catherine has to learn to find the happy medium between ideals and reality, to preserve her imagination without being led by it into a loveless marriage!
Delete2. I think that Austen doesn't want Catherine to be seen as stupid by any means, maybe a little naïve to what is going on around her but I think stupid is a bit harsh to her. I definitely don't want to view Catherine as stupid, maybe I have just developed a liking for her. There are some points I just want her to be more aware of what is going on, especially with Mr. Thorpe. I think Austen writes about Catherine this way because she feels this is how women are supposed to be written about back then, they weren't supposed to be seen as completely intelligent and aware of everything that is going on around them, this is for men, not women.
ReplyDelete4. Bath to me seems like this little, quaint town where there is always something going on. They all have a set schedule of what they are doing, when they are doing it and whom they are doing it with. It seems to be a very structured place where young individuals go to find the person that they will marry. I believe that Austen probably hated it because it was as if women were forced to find the person that they will spend their lives with, even if they are somewhat dumb as in the case of Mr. Thorpe, Catherine is kind of forced to engage with him even if she may not have any interest in it.
No, Catherine isn't stupid, but she's not remarkable--she's like anyone of us at that age. The danger of writing about an idealized, brilliant person is that we can't really learn from her: she's already fully-formed, and very unlike us. But if Austen gives us a young woman somewhat like us (at that age, anyway) it allows her to show Catherine's education, and likewise, how women should be educated in a society that only wants them for wives and mothers.
Delete1. I think that she is trying to show that it’s okay to read those books. It’s okay for woman to enjoy them. She is saying that woman shouldn’t have to put on a fake face to be accepted as an upper class and respected woman. Austin approves of these books and she chose those particular books to make these points.
ReplyDelete3. I think this is one of the first times a story is truly being told from a woman’s perspective. The main character is a woman, unlike books like Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones where there were either no woman in the book or they weren’t really the focus of the book ever. I think it’s the first time for woman to read things that they can actually relate to, such as reading about a woman reading the books they actually read and deep down enjoy. I think this book is complete different than the way the male authors wrote their books.
Yes, since she has a female heroine, she's very careful to portray one that could actually be a role model of sorts. Not all women can be beautiful or brilliant, but they CAN all be Catherine--young, somewhat pretty, somewhat well-read, but eager to learn. Through Catherine's education. Austen hopes to show women what they can be--and what (and who) to avoid.
DeleteElyse Marquardt
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: The narrator definitely approves of novels! In chapter 5, she adamantly defends novels and the multitude of purposes that they serve in the world. She points out how many people criticize them for being fanciful, useless little pieces of garbage, fit only for low-class men and no proper women at all. But the narrator points out how that novels are works in which "the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."
Question 2: Jane Austen is mocking the conventional way most novels were written in her time - heroines usually came from an oppressed family but bore boldly up with a quiet strength and a discerning heart. But our particular heroine here, young Catherine Morland, comes from a happy middle-class family, does not think especially hard about anything besides novels, and is prone to letting her emotions get the best of her. Jane Austen delights us with a mocking depiction of her heroine, but at the same time, she presents her in such a way that we can't help but be fond of her.
Yes, much of this novel is a defense of the popular, female novels of the time, which sought to expand a woman's role beyond a mere moralistic stereotype. At the same time, they could occasionally veer too far into unbelievable territory, particularly in Gothic works which represented hyper-romantic sentiments that might give readers unrealistic expectations in their love lives (like Twilight today).
Delete-Rocky Moore
ReplyDelete1. It is just funny to me that Austen is writing a novel but at the same time she is making fun of novels as well. Not only that but I think she is taking a shot at men too which is also hilarious because men during those days ruled things and every manner of life, so to have Austen's male character derail novels is very satirical. "Novels are all so full of nonsense and stuff; there has not been a tolerably decent one come out since Tom Jones, except the Monk, I read that t'other day; but as for all the others, they are the stupidest things in creation" (Norton 31). This occurs when Catherine asks Mr. Thorpe if he had ever read the novel she is currently reading "Udolpho" and his response was pretty much is disgust towards books except for that of Tom Jones, a very male dominated book to say the least.
2. There are obvious shots taken at the whole Robinson Crusoe novel aspect of characters being mundane and there being no description about the people they are. It is kind of like what Virginia Woolf said about Defoe's novel not being descriptive and to some extents she basically called it boring. Austen is definitely taking the novel to the next step by going into great detail about her characters, I mean not just Catherine alone but the many other ones that we have been introduced to so far in the novel. Calling her inattentive and occasionally stupid is the satire in this because she is doing two things at once here. She is first describing her character in a way in which the reader can better understand what kind of person she is but at the same time Austen is taking a shot at the underdeveloped characters that many had been used to in novels at the time just like boring old Robinson Crusoe.
Good points; in defending the novel, she also has to critique/satirize its conventions, since it is like any art form--full of good and bad qualities. Since women mostly read novels at this time, she wants the novel to reflect their concerns and interests, and most importantly, to be able to educate them to do more than simply snag a husband.
Delete1. 1. In chapter 5 Austen throws the story aside and defends the idea of novels in general. Catherine and Isabella are wrapped up in the gothic novel Udolpho, but they are seen as silly girls because of it. Men felt they had better things to do, but Austen didn’t agree. She was pushing against a world that saw novels, those who read them, and especially those who wrote them as immoral. On page 23 she says when pleading her case, “in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.” She knows others feel the same way; she just had the guts to stand up for what she believed in.
ReplyDelete3. 2. Unlike men of the time who bashed all novels, she came out and publicly embraced it. She pushes for people to open their eyes to the fact that novels aren’t bad, and accept that everyone, even those condemning them, are reading novels. This was a brave thing for a female writer to do. She also doesn’t put any of her female characters into the common female molds of the day, the angel or the devil. This suggests that she wasn’t afraid to shy away from convention and to say that woman are much more dynamic than male authors had portrayed them. I also love the womanly satire used by Austen when she says Tom Jones is the only book Thorpe liked. She made him look like a dunce without coming right out and saying he was.
Yes, Austen is defending the novel by showing what it can do rather than what it was supposed to do; thus, she gives us a very homely heroine rather than one that takes our breath away. Austen wants to show us the education of a woman in the right way, which requires a woman who isn't perfect of formed yet. She feels that novels are a way to educate women since they are full of ideas, morals, and situations that a young woman can learn from, rather than the insipid demands of polite society (such as Bath).
Delete1) The narrator in this story does like the idea of novels. There are a few instances of which she goes out of her way to show her approval of them. There are a lot of people in this time who criticized the novels. thinking they were only worthy of low-class women, but as you said in class, "the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."
ReplyDelete3) I believe that this novel is different because it is written AND narrated by a female. In this sense it has a different style feel. This is particularly true because hardly any other novels up to this point even had a main female character. Using a female for a narrator and author really gives an inside look to how women of this time felt about life, or more specifically, novels.
Deryk Ronk
Good points...even though there were novels with female protagonists, many were idealized women, those written by men to represent a specific idea or virtue. They weren't real people who could have flaws or not be beautiful, etc. She believes for a novel to be educational/useful to women, they first have to be realistic.
Delete1. The narrator defends the novel basically from the beginning. She states that her heroine loves to read and frequently has a book, and then she goes off on a rant about how people shouldn't pretend not to like them when in fact everyone does. She states that novels are the highest form of entertainment and she will not perpetuate the myth that they are a waste of time and/or useless. I love this. She digresses from the story a little bit, but it is worth it. She is one of the first, if not the first, people willing to openly embrace novels and the art of reading for pleasure.
ReplyDelete2.I think she is fighting the idea that is still prevalent about having "perfect" heroines. Unless she is a villain, the women in most literature are essentially perfect. Austen is fighting and refuting that. She wants to make her heroine a little more three dimensional, a little more real. She doesn't want Catherine to be pretty and perfect and the ideal highborn lady. She wants her to have flaws and quirks and be less than ideal. She is satirizing this because her character is real, while she is satirizing because some of the bad characteristics about her heroine "stupid" and "inattentive" are/were common traits in literary figures. She is pointing out there flaws by embracing them in her own character.
Great responses; Austen is both defending novels yet satirizing their shortcomings. For novels to be great literature, they must reflect a less idealized world--one where heroines make mistakes, aren't always ravishing, and might need a little guidance now and then. Ironically, in trying to defend novels, she is also proving how educational they truly are--especially for women, who rarely get any worthwhile education outside of books.
DeleteKelsey Tiger
ReplyDelete2. I think Austen is at such pain to paint Catherine as a character who “was often inattentive, and occasionally stupid” because that is how society portrays women yet I don’t think she totally believed that. I think she probably felt she needed to entice her audience. We know that satire is behind these characterizations because we see that Catherine is not that type of character. She seems to be smart and can carry her own.
3. I think being a woman does change what they write and how they write it. Women are more emotional beings so therefore I think that is something that would be different compared to men. I think women also are more involved with different aspects going on so they have more of a diverse type of writing. Their style probably tends to be more descriptive and cover different aspects to certain situations.
Yes, Catherine isn't stupid, she just isn't amazing or idealized as most protagonists in novels were--and often still are. She's just a teenager who reads novels and lives a sheltered life, and she has to learn the realities of society and who she can trust just like anyone else. If she made Catherine too ideal or brilliant, she couldn't take us through the various stages of her education.
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ReplyDelete1. It is very evident how strongly Austen feels about the importance of reading novels. Most of this NOVEL is about reading novels. I love that she spoke about a girl who was asked what she was doing and replied with “Oh! It is only a novel!” “only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language” (Austen, 23). You can also tell that she was somewhat horrified when Mr. Morland said he refused to read novels, and overjoyed when she found that Mr. Tilney enjoyed them.
ReplyDelete4. I think that in Chapter 3, Henry Tilney was definitely satirizing the events that normally go on in Bath in attempt to court one another. It is obvious that Austen loved to make fun of Bath because of how transparent its motives are. Also Austen is building Tilney’s character up to be obviously different from the rest of the species of men at this time, and also to show that he was more mature than to be worried about trivial things such as small talk.
Good responses; this is very self-consciously a 'female' book as it not only satirizes men who disdain novels, but it celebrates their charms and virtues. This is very rare, as at this time (as she explains in Chapter 5), novels were seen as low literature and a sign of a shallow person. Austen, not surprisingly, disagrees.
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