Northanger Abbey Blog

In Austen’s Northanger Abbey, the concept of antagonist vs. protagonist is consistently subjective as Catherine, our less-than-heroine, navigates the blindingly dull world she’s stuck with, as opposed to her beloved gothic novels. While there are certainly less than enjoyable personalities surrounding Catherine (the thorpes, namely), there is no clear cut villain. By personal standards I would consider a villain to be a character who explicitly wishes harm for the named protagonist. However, as no one is trying to harm Catherine, but simply use her for selfish reasons (which they don’t view as harmful or inherently negative), there can be no clear-cut villain. Even John Thorpe, who is, in my opinion, the most abrasive man in the book, is not premeditative in his obnoxiousness. His character is written to be obtrusive and annoying, even irritating, but he does not plan out how to make Catherine unhappy (he just does that naturally). John Thorpe is being selfish, true, but I argue that without premeditated intention to cause some form of harm to who is named the protagonist, he cannot be considered a villain.

I feel that the most challenging aspect of Northanger Abbey is the concept of etiquette; in modern American culture, there is very little in the means of social rules defining who we associate with, and how we go about it. In Northanger Abbey Catherine has layers of rules and expectations to work through before she can consider her feelings, or even be social. This is especially relevant as Catherine struggles against John Thorpe and his sisters, who press her to lie and break her engagement with Miss Tilney. This idea of social etiquette is very unlike what is currently abided by today, both by gender standards as well as class standards. Without knowing the boundaries Catherine must work within, the reader would find themselves frustrated with her actions, possibly finding her considerably less likeable or active in the novel. I find very little can be done to remedy this discrepancy aside from a little research on the reader’s part.

Gothic fiction seems to be the pop music of the literature world in Austen’s time, as it is proposed in Northanger Abbey. With Catherine’s foolishness and the overwhelming normality of the world, the tone of the novel suggests that the extreme fantasy of Gothic fiction is entirely unrealistic and full of useless notions. Many characters in the story disapprove of Catherine’s ideas, tendency to jump to conclusions, and obsession with the genre.