Analysis in Jane Austen`s Northanger Abbey
Literature can`t be written without the
intervention of author`s intention of teaching morality and to probe
philosophical issue if the approach is not about morality and philosophy. In
the novel, Northanger Abbey the approach about moral-philosophical unlocked
minds on how the author wrote the story by the influence of reading Gothic
novels affecting the imagination of Catherine, the main character, to how
reality plays. In the beginning of the story, the portrayal of Catherine as
stubborn, stupid, easy go lucky and playful young girl at ten changed when she
was at fifteen to seventeen. She decided to train herself for heroine so she
read works and became hooked in Gothic novels in which later in the novel
inferred his ideas about the Northanger Abbey.
The place where the Tilney`s family reside
is on Northanger Abbey. Before Catherine able to visit the place, Henry Tilney,
the man whom she met that became her husband in the end, arouse the mind of her
to imagine Northanger Abbey`s suspense, security and disappointment. For
instance on page 147,3rd sentences of the book, “With this parting cordial
she curtsey's off- you listen to the sound of her receding footsteps as long as
the last echo can reach you, you discover, with increased alarm, that it has no
lock.” Those words terrified Catherine and made herself think of a book the
same to what he told her, but since she was pictured as maturing young lady she
said to him that it cannot really happen to her.
However, curiosity and impact of Gothic
novels managed her to open a large high chest, standing back in a deep recess
on one side of the fire-place and in the cabinet where old manuscript long
asleep. Her morality to think of what was right and proper eluded her
philosophy to be a heroine on her own. In the reason, her suspect of a crime
made by General Tilney because of the things she found out gave her an idea of
solving the issue by telling everything to Henry. As expected, blood is thicker
than water, Henry could not afford to believe in all the proposed examination
of the mysterious apartments made by Catherine so he told what Catherine
accused to his father. General Tilney in result talked to Catherine asking her
to go back to Fullerton, Catherine`s village, because of not only of her
suspicion but also of John Thorpe`s statement that her family was poor and that
she only wants grandeur of life with Henry.
Love is the loudest voice to a person with a sincere heart
and dignified choice. Meaning here, Henry`s love for Catherine did not stop him
even he had the hard choice of choosing his father`s advised or to obey his
heart`s wants. The novel teaches us the morality and philosophical issues
regarding insinuation of parental tyranny, filial disobedience, ladies maturity
and societal realism.
