5/20/2023 0 Comments Purpose of gothic literatureAustin uses Catherine to mock how the public will dissolution themselves to be frightened even when there is no present danger. She personifies the public through Catherine Morland when she says, “It had been all a voluntary, self-created delusion, each trifling circumstance receiving importance from an imagination resolved on alarm, and everything forced to bend to one purpose by a mind which, before she entered the Abbey, had been craving to be frightened.” (Austen, 1817). Instead of the looming disaster expected in a gothic novel, Austen uses these elements to satirise the genre. Order custom essay How does Northanger Abbey satirise gothic literature? He loved her, I am persuaded, as well as it was possible for him to.” (Austen, 1817). However, she is then proven to be wrong when confronted by Henry Tilney who states that, “You have erred in supposing him not attached to her. Similarly, she places General Tilney in the archetype of the stereotypical gothic villain believing him to be “an unkind husband”(Austen, 1817) who “did not love her (his wife’s) walk”(Austen, 1817), and therefore could not have loved her. Although Catherine perceives Northanger Abbey to be haunted and mysterious, it is far from so “Its long, damp passages, its narrow cells and ruined chapel, were to be within her daily reachTo an imagination which had hoped for the smallest divisions, and the heaviest stone-work, for painted glass, dirt and cobwebs, the difference was very distressing.”(Austen, 1817). The setting of an old abbey and the innocent heroine pursued by the aristocratic villain with a dark secret are satirised for their typical use to build suspense and tension in gothic novels. It is through her use of typical gothic elements and archetypes, the anti-climactic climaxes, and the false looming danger and mystery that Austen parodies both Radcliffe’s characters and tone as a means of satirising the gothic genre.Īustin displays several gothic elements in ‘Northanger Abbey’, however these elements are really only a figure of Catherine’s delusions. The novel is a direct parody of Ann Radcliffe’s ‘Mysteries of Udolpho’ and several other popular authors at the time as a means for Austen to criticise the lack of sensibility displayed in gothic novels. The novel, ‘Northanger Abbey’, is a satire of gothic literature written by Jane Austen between 17 during the era when gothic literature and romanticism were very popular.
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