Class today began discussing the problem with looking at Austen's literature from an objective point of view.  The main reason for this inability to objectively analyze Austen's prose comes from the modern acknowledgement that her writing style and prose is equivalent to what modern readers consider exceptional literature.  Since Northanger Abbey was written around 1798 when Austen was in her early twenties, her remarkable command of the English language at such an early age is lauded by readers.

 Austen is the first novelist to use a completely third-person omniscient narrator.  Her use of free indirect discourse allows her to exquisitely describe the inner thoughts, emotions, and motivations of her characters through prose rather than in letters or dialogue.  She moves to describing the interiority of a character with more ease than any of the previous authors we have covered.  By utilizing this form of narration, Austen is able to describe the inner thoughts of a character more realistically than other 18th century authors.  Through the use of free indirect discourse Austen is able to draw the reader closer to the action and thoughts of the characters as opposed to feeling as if the reader is on the outside looking into the story, such as one feels in Haywood's Love in Excess.  Austen's development of narrative style opened up new avenues for the maturing of the novel.

Austen constantly mocks the Gothic conventions within Northanger Abbey.  By having Henry give Catherine a spooky history of Northanger Abbey, Austen is implying that the conventions of the Gothic are so well known and ingrained into this society that people utilize the conventions without realizing they actually are employing them.  Henry so accurately describes Gothic conventions that the natural flow of the conversation and actual content of the exchange make the reader sense that freedom in 18th century England consisted of the realization of the extreme social customs of the era, which then allowed a person such as Henry to freely employ all these conventions in natural conversation.  Being a participant in this culture allows a person to have the ability to mock it.  Austen continues this mocking of 17th century Gothic conventions in a more serious tone by portraying General Tilney as a true representative of a tyrannical patriarch who does not directly oppress his family and commit heinous, evil acts, but as a more realistic patriarch who causes his family more strife based on his personality and actions throughout his daily life.

Importantly, we also discussed a new kind of interiority in Northanger Abbey. The models for interiority that we have previously seen are journals, letters, and dialog, but these models don't allow for the depth that Austen achieves. Her omniscient narrator, discussed previously, will zoom in and reveal the process of thought and deliberation within the minds of her characters. This type of interiority also exemplifies how "character" is moving from meaning the actual face of a person to mean their interior person as well. For example, take a look at pages 19-20 where the narrator zooms in on Catherine's interior thoughts via third person; the narrator reveals Catherine's initial surprise, her remembrance, and then her extension of this memory to the present situation. This detail is new and couldn't have been possible using earlier models of interiority.

Close Reading:

      " Charming as were all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and charming even as were the works of all her imitators, it was not them perhaps that human nature, at least in the midland counties of England, was to be looked for." (p. 147)

     This passage comes after Catherine has told Henry Tilney of her suspicions about his father.  Tilney is not amused and proceeds to chastise her for her Gothic fears.  This leads Catherine run away in shame; she realizes that Gothic novels are not true to life.  The scales fall from her eyes, and there is a sense that she is becoming more in tune with the way the world really works.  This passage displays Catherine's realization that, in England at least, real life doesn't reflect Gothic novels.  Her comment about the "midland counties of England" shows that she isn't quite ready to dismiss the reality of Gothic novels completely; she seems to be holding onto the hope that these events do happen somewhere in the world.

    After this realization, we are shown how Catherine has grown up and has become better able to read people.  She receives a letter from Isabella in which Isabella tries to convince Catherine to help her win James back.  Now that Catherine is a better "reader", she is able to see Isabella for what she truly is: superficial and insincere.  Because she can put what she reads into its proper place, she is a more educated reader and can better understand people.

 Close Reading 2:

"Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might since they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the last fifteen years. Compliments on good looks now passed; and... they proceeded to make inquiries and give intelligence as to their families, sisters, and cousins, talking both together, far more ready to give than to receive information, and each hearing very little of what the other said." (p. 19)

This quotation comes from when Mrs. Thorpe and Mrs. Allen reunite and exemplifies how social conventions dictate behavior and conversation. Austen is conscious of most 18th century novels and their conventions; in this novel, she seeks to show how social conventions are not the conventions of the novel. Thinking of the world as a book is problematic; Catherine's expectations for the world are based on gothic novels which gets her into trouble when she meets real people. Austen is not only concerned with the conventions of the gothic novel and the eighteenth century, but she is also concerned with social conventions. Compare this above interaction with that on page 51 between Catherine and Miss Tilney where they too go through the proper motion of conversation but at least they do so with sincerity. Early in the novel, Catherine doesn't realie how dictated social life truly is, but Henry Tilney does. He is "good-mannered" in that he has so fully absorbed social conventions that he does them naturally. This is liberty for Austen: so fully absorbing conventions and social structure that one can understand them as structures and adhere to them entirely naturally.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->Re   Referent:  Dancing

  Dancing was  an important social convention of the time. The waltz., when newly introduced, was scandalous because the couple would be in close physical contact and would dance exclusively together-normally every woman would dance with every man.  Dance in many novels can be seen as a metaphor for the harmony that society is trying to achieve
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