As someone who has read and loved many of Jane Austen’s novels and has become familiar with her coming of age storylines, I have come to the conclusion that Austen’s brother made a mistake in renaming Austen’s first novel to a Gothic sounding Northanger Abbey from a more appropriate title of “Catherine.” I feel this novel is much more the story of young Catherine, a girl who loves the trendy Gothic novels of her day and is inexperienced socially, whose first time experience out in the world leads to her growth into a young woman and a happy marriage. Besides the Gothic obsession and distinct character traits, this story is doubtlessly Austen’s go-to storyline. This novel is different from her others as Austen does unquestionably have elements of Gothic parody in the second half of the novel. Austen’s biting hand serves as a wonderfully sarcastic critique of the Gothic fiction in this important but small section of the novel. I believe Northanger Abbey would generally discourage its audience to read Gothic novels as the novel sends such a clear message that the trending genre of the time was utterly ridiculous and overdone. 

Catherine, our 17-year-old heroine, is just that—17. She is still growing up and learning to become the serious, rational, depressing adult society expects her to be. So her imagination has yet to be squashed and her silliness unfortunately gets the best of her at times. Her love of Gothic novels and lack of her own adventure leads her flights of fancy of a mystery she will stumble upon and to the ridiculous and offensive idea that General Tilney murdered his own wife. We as readers cringe at her faulty reasoning—he paces too often, he goes on early morning walks, etc.—and her rude, impulsive attempts to snoop around the abbey. This active imagination and failure to reign herself in leads Catherine into situations of great embarrassment. Though she has great integrity and is very caring, Catherine’s character is painted as silly and naïve for letting her imagination get the best of her. We cringe at her more innocent follies of staying up late to search the cabinet and only finding laundry receipts, but we also feel bad for her at how much her foolishness hurts her when she sneaking around the late Mrs. Tilney’s rooms and caught by Henry Tilney who gives her quite the tongue-lashing. But the audience will be put off from the Gothic due to the clear message that Catherine’s obsession is not a good quality to have. Austen’s heroine is quite the dismal disappoint in comparison to other Gothic literature, but even more realistic had a real girl be placed in such a story.

The heroine is not the only element that falls flat in comparison to the Gothic fiction. Austen pokes fun at the villainous features of Gothic novels in her lack of one. Catherine begins to paint General Tilney as the villain of the story when he is only in fact described as a strict and sometimes meanly so man who values making money and spending it as well. He is not the most good and pure person, but he is by no means a heinous villain depicted in the Gothic. Austen does this purposefully to again point out the ridiculous of the genre and readers see General Tilney is no antagonist, but a mere obstacle.

In this small section, Austen spoofs the elements of Gothic novels; ominous and sublime setting of an old building, suspense, finding “clues,” strange noises, an evil man and emotions running high. Altogether she creates a harsh critique of the elements for being ludicrous and quite overwritten and over-read, which puts the reader off from reading such a silly sounding genre. But the absurdity of the genre is not its only problem. Throughout the novel Austen slips in not-so-subtle hints that the Gothic is widely overdone through characters like Henry Tilney and wry descriptions of all the possibilities Catherine could discover. Austen references many Gothic novels and the cliché events like The Monk, The Mysteries of Udolpho, a mistreated and tortured woman, evil villain and a courageous heroine that uncovers the mystery. As a Gothic parody, the reader learns that this genre is so exhausted that people are making fun of the whole thing. Readers would be unenthusiastic to pick up a novel that has been gathered to be ridiculous and exhausted of any novelty.

Readers will also be discouraged from picking up a sample of the genre due to Northanger Abbey’s brevity on the subject. Like I mentioned before, Northanger Abbey is more of a coming of age tale with a small Gothic parody element. This is not the best example of a true Gothic novel and unknowing readers may be bored of the relatively uneventful beginning and rather short Gothic section and thus be left unsure if they would want to try the genre again. This novel does not entice the majority of readers to pursue the Gothic literature, but rather to avoid and criticize it for the absurdity, Catherine’s foolishness, lack of a true villain and the overused Gothic elements.