The Unheroic Heroine and the Uncharacteristic Villain

The Unheroic Heroine and Uncharacteristic Villain

Parodying the Gothic characteristics of a hero, Catherine in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is perceivably not a heroine. Naïve Catherine is young, innocent, and searching for an adventure that parallels the Ann Radcliffe novels that preoccupy her time. Continually, the antagonist of the novel, John Thorpe, is uncharacteristic of the common villainous ways of gothic literature.

Although General Tinley may be perceived as the villain, at least partially in Catherine’s mind, he is wrongly read by Catherine. Austen utilizes John Thorpe’s obnoxious, boasting, and suggestive actions juxtaposed against Catherine’s naïve, quiet, and rather demure behavior to indicate his evil way. The opening of the novel describes Catherine as average and unheroic, thus the first description of John Thorpe describes him as rather unattractive but not as a villain. “He was a stout young man of middling height, who, with a plain face and ungraceful form, seemed fearful of being too handsome unless he wore the dress of a groom, and too much like a gentleman unless he were easy where he ought to be civil, and impudent where he might be allowed to be easy,” (Austen).

Several instances throughout the novel illuminate Thorpe’s menacing and manipulative ways. Primarily, John calls his two sisters ugly, before having Isabella tell Catherine that he is quite pleased with her and would like to dance with her at the ball. Despite the compliment of wanting to dance with her, John abandons Catherine to gamble and play cards with his friends. When he does resurface, after Catherine turned her crush Henry Tinley down, John dances with Catherine but speaks of animals, a topic that does not intrigue his date.

Attempting to win her hand in marriage, John Thorpe decides the day trip Catherine had planned with the Tinleys would no longer be acceptable. After lying to Catherine about seeing the siblings in order to manipulate her from going with Henry and his sister, a rather villainous action, Thorpe refuses to let Catherine out of the carriage despite her direct wishes to leave. Even her begging, “But Mr. Thorpe only laughed, smacked his whip, encouraged his horse, made odd noises, and drove on; and Catherine, angry and vexed as she was, having no power of getting away, was obliged to give up the point and submit,” (Austen). This scene is another demonstration of the villainous Thorpe, who despite Catherine’s begging, continued to drive the carriage and even sped up, abducting her.

Although he may not look or act as obviously as other Gothic villains, John is Austen’s uncharacteristic villain as much as Catherine is the unheroic heroine. Adding lying, manipulation, and abduction to the list of wrongdoings that make Thorpe the villain of Northanger Abbey.