Northanger Abey by Jane Austen - 2376 Words

Northanger Abbey is one of Austen’s move famous books. The novel is known for its unusual heroine, Catherine Morland, and her infatuation with the novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe, and while Jane Austen’s version does contain many of the important features that a gothic novel should contain, it does seem to take a few jabs by mocking the genre in general. Austen uses certain elements present in Gothic novels and satirizes them. In this particular novel she mocks the notion that people are always looking for something mysterious or supernatural to happen in their lives. She ridicules the idea that people are so dumbfounded by this constant search, that they often lead themselves into thinking the unreal during a very common situation. This is exactly what Catherine represents. She has immersed herself within the works of Radcliffe, and often finds it hard to come out of that world. She sees her everyday life as if it was the works of a gothic novel. This leads Catherine into many different â€Å"out of this world† situations, that if it was not for the love and support of her family and friends, could very much get her into a great deal of trouble. This is where I believe Austen throws her punches at the Gothic genre. She is trying to show how utterly ridiculous it is to be enthralled in a novel to the point where it affects the tasks in your everyday life. I believe that she uses Northanger Abbey to make fun of the way gothic novels are being interpreted during