On-Anti-Gothicism-in-Northanger-Abbey--论《诺桑觉寺》的反哥特观念.doc

On Anti-Gothicism in Northanger Abbey
论《诺桑觉寺》的反哥特观念

ABSTRACT

Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen’s famous works, mainly tells the story of an innocent girl, a Gothic novel fan, who treats herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel and makes many ridiculous adventures by taking Gothic stories as real happenings, but finally learns to distinguish between the imaginary life in novels and the real life of her own. The novel criticizes the ridiculousness and meaninglessness of Gothic novels in a satirical way. The thesis analyzes Austen’s parody of Gothic plot, characterization, and the heroine’s Gothic adventures in Northanger Abbey, and argues that the work reveals her anti-Gothicism through a comparison with the typical features of prevailing Gothic novels in her age.

Key words: Northanger Abbey; Jane Austen; anti-Gothicism

摘要

《诺桑觉寺》是奥斯汀的一部著名作品。小说讲述了一位沉迷于哥特小说的天真女孩，把自己想象成作品的女主角，误把小说情节当做真实的生活，经历了一系列的荒谬历险；但她最终走出幻想，学会了分辨哥特小说的荒诞情节和现实生活的区别。小说以反讽的方式批评了哥特小说的可笑和荒诞。本文通过分析该小说对哥特式情节和人物的戏仿以及女主角的哥特式历险，并与当时盛行的哥特小说的典型特征相对比，认为奥斯汀通过《诺桑觉寺》表达了自己的反哥特观念。

关键词：《诺桑觉寺》；奥斯汀；反哥特

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………ii
Abstract………………………………………………………….…iii
Abstract in Chinese………………………………………………iv
Introduction…………………………………………………………1
Chapter One Gothic Novels and Northanger Abbey...…………3
I. Origin and Development of Gothic Novels……………………3
II. Austen’s Attitude towards Gothic Novels……………………5
Chapter Two Parody of Gothic Plot and Characters…………..7
I. Parody of Gothic Plot…………………………………………7
II. Parody of Gothic Characters…………………………………9
Chapter Three Catherine’s Adventures………………………11
I. On the Way to Northanger Abbey……………………………11
II. Three Adventures in Northanger Abbey…………………….12
III. Catherine’s Coming back to Reality…………………………15
Conclusion…………..……………………………….……………16
Works Cited……………………………………………………..…17

Introduction

Jane Austen (1775~1817), who lived at the turn of the 18th and 19th century, is the most distinguished as well as the most widely read female novelist in British literature. She was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon rectory in Hampshire, England, and died in Winchester on July 18, 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen lives in a large family with six brothers and one sister. Her father, George Austen was a rector for much of his life. Her sister, Cassandra Elizabeth, was her best friend. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers, and her own reading also helped a lot with her writing. During Austen’s education and writing life, her father was the most important guide, for he not only provided her with a well-stocked family library, but also supported her writing with much effort. He had created a democratic and easy intellectual atmosphere at home. They often talked about different political or social ideas, and any personal opinions would be accepted and discussed. Jane Austen began to write when she was only about thirteen and the everlasting support of her family was crucial to her development as a professional writer.
Austen’s personal experiences have a great influence on her writing. “Of events her life was singularly barren: few changes and no great crisis even broke the smooth current of its course” (James 11). Austen’s works are usually confined to a limited circle. In a letter to her nephew Edward, Austen made comments on her own work as “[h]ow could I possibly join them on to the little bit of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labor?” (Lefroy 160). Liu Bingshan appraised that “[t]he comparison is true. The ivory surface is small enough, but the woman who made drawings of human life on it is a real artist” (309). Some critics accuse Jane Austen of writing with a narrow vision, and that her novels are all about love, marriage, money and rich relations, but Austen’s works show their values on reflecting the social realities of her day. As Zhang Dingquan and Wu Gang comment in their book that “her [Jane Austen’s] unique sensitivity to human emotions, her careful observation … made her one of the finest novelists of the age” (202).
Austen wrote six complete novels during her literary career. They are: Sense and Sensibility (1811); Pride and Prejudice (1813); Mansfield Park (1814); Emma (1816); Northanger Abbey (1818); and Persuasion (1818). Her literary works have been attracting more and more readers from home and abroad since their publication. Jane Austen is considered as “a genius that appeals to any generation” (Qiao iv). The British female writer Virginia Woolf said that “[o]f all great novelists, Jane Austen is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness” (Zhu 5).
The work discussed in this thesis is Northanger Abbey, which tells a story of the naive protagonist with a very over-active imagination, Catherine Morland, a Gothic novel aficionado, who treats herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel, takes stories in Gothic novels as happened in her real life and makes many ridiculous adventures, but finally learns to distinguish between the imaginary life in Gothic novels and her own ordinary life situations. Although Northanger Abbey was the first to be completed by Jane Austen, it had neither been given enough attention nor been adequately studied for some considerable time in the past. In fact, Northanger Abbey has its unique research value, particularly the author’s attitude towards Gothic novels, which has aroused more and more critical attention and debates in recent years (see Chapter One).
This thesis argues that Northanger Abbey shows Jane Austen’s anti-Gothicism through her satirical criticism of the prevailing Gothic novels in her times. In addition to Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces Gothic novels, illustrates different viewpoints on the relationship between Northanger Abbey and Gothic novels as discussed by some critics and scholars. The second chapter analyses Jane Austen’s parodic anti-Gothicism by comparing the plot arrangement and characterization of the novel with that of Gothic novels. The third chapter discusses Jane Austen’s criticism of Gothic novels through focusing on Catherine’s ridiculous adventures.
Chapter One
Gothic Novels and Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey is a parody of Gothic novels. The first part of this chapter briefly introduces the origin, development and typical features of Gothic novels; the second part mainly illustrates different viewpoints on Austen’s attitude towards Gothic novels.
I. Origin and Development of Gothic Novels
The word “Goth,” coming from the name of an ancient tribe in Europe, and its derivative form “Gothic,” which reminds people of mysticism, terror, and dark, were frequently used to describe medieval things in the 18th century. According to a highly-popular dictionary, the word “Gothic” means
a kind of architecture built in the style that was popular in Western Europe from the 12th century to the 16th centuries, and which has pointed arches, windows, and tall thin pillars and a novel written in the style popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, which described romantic adventures in mysterious or frightening surroundings. (Hornby 883) 注意引语段格式
Now it generally refers to a genre of literature, which is “full of depicts of murders and supernatural things to thrill readers” (Han 36), combines both horror and romance and “deals with the strange, mysterious, and supernatural designed to invoke suspense and terror in readers” (Zhao 283).
From the above quotes, it is known that some basic elements in Gothic novels include: setting in a castle, which often contains secret passages and staircases, dark or hidden rooms; an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that arouses fear and terror; supernatural events, such as ghosts or unknown giants coming to human life; high and overwrought emotion, like anger, sorrow, especially terror from which the characters suffer; heroine in distress, which appeals to the sympathy of the readers; and romance, such as powerful love between the heroine and the hero.
The first Gothic novel is The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story, written by the English author Horace Walpole. The work is remarkable because it is the first attempt to find “a tale of amusing fiction upon the basis of the ancient romance of chivalry” (Walter 115) and it “start[s] a fashion and set[s] an example for other Gothic novelists” (Zhang 5). In addition, the novel was “an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern” (Horace 19). Horace Walpole opens the door of Gothic novels and a lot of other Gothic novelists follow suit. Among them, Ann Radcliff and Mathew Gregory Lewis are two most famous ones for their respective work The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk. The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), through which Ann Radcliff made the Gothic novel socially acceptable, was an unparalleled success at that time, and was also frequently referred to by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. In the mid-1790s the Gothic novel reaches its summit, and David Punder comments, probably an exaggeration, that “this body of fiction may well have established the popularity of the novel-form” (David 61). 注意文内引文规范。每个文献须在文末参考书目中出现。

Besides its popularity among the public, the Gothic novel has a notorious fame for a long time and has been criticized as crude by many critics. In the preface of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth commented on Gothic novels as:
The invaluable works of … Shakespeare and Milton are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid German Tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse. (Wordsworth and Coleridge 248-249)
In spite of criticism from many literary figures, Gothic novels still attracted a lot of readers and the Gothic influence was amazingly continuing. “It has been estimated that the reading population of Britain increased from one and a half million in 1780 to between seven and eight million by 1830” (Lin 24), and “Gothic novels have exerted significant influence on the literature of later generations and on every European literature. They have exerted great effect on the American literature, Hawthorn and Allen Poe in particular” (Zhao 283). It is not so hard for us to find out that many works of great literary celebrities bear Gothic elements. In the Romantic period, some famous works are: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s first published work, Zastrozzi (1810), was publicly-known as a Gothic novel; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818); Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) and Christabel (1816); Keats’ La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) and Isabella (1820); and The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) are also acknowledged as Gothic novels as well as Elizabeth Gaskell’s tales “The Doom of the Griffiths” (1858), “Lois the Witch” (1861), and “The Grey Woman” (1861). Charles Dickens is another mainstream writers heavily influenced by Gothic novels. In his great works, such as Oliver Twist (1837-8), Bleak House (1854), Great Expectations (1861) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), we can easily feel the Gothic mood and themes. Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent and innovative re-interpreter of Gothic literature in the 19th century American literature, with his well-known works as The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), “The Black Cat” (1843), and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841).
II. Austen’s Attitude towards Gothic Novels
“The excesses, stereotypes, and frequent absurdities of the traditional Gothic made it rich territory for satire” (Skarda 178-179). As it is universally acknowledged, the most famous parody of Gothic novels is Northanger Abbey. We all say that Northanger Abbey is a parody of Gothic novels, but disagree on Austen’s attitude towards them. Some critics hold that Northanger Abbey offers a refinement on rather than denial of the Gothic: “Gothic elements in the novel are employed to express Austen’s feminist ideas rather than mock them” (Chen ii); “Through parody, Austen revises Gothic novels in a comic way for the purpose of negotiation with Gothic novels, as well as inheritance and preservation” (Zheng 89). However, some others argue that Austen shows her sarcasm towards Gothic novels and emphasizes reason and realism: “[Northanger Abbey] also satirized the sentimental novels, especially the Gothic novel, which was very popular at that time” (Yang 66), and “[the] mock of Gothic novels runs through the novel from beginning to end” (Sun 36).
Northanger Abbey expresses Austen’s sarcasm on prevailing Gothic novels, especially The Mysteries of Udolpho, which has been mentioned several times in the work. With a close reading of Northanger Abbey, we can easily find the Gothic craze surrounding it. First of all, Northanger Abbey shares similar plot construction with the prevailing Gothic novels; secondly, it contains a parodic characterization of Gothic novels; thirdly, they all describe the female protagonist’s adventures and her love romance with the male protagonist eventually obtained. Additionally, Jane Austen adopts a new tactic of writing novels in Northanger Abbey by addressing the reader directly. We can feel the sense of satire in reading the work. The following chapter deals with its plot construction and characterization to show Jane Austen’s anti-Gothicism.

Chapter Two
Parody of Gothic Plot and Characters

In this chapter, we mainly examine Austen’s parody of Gothic novels through comparing the plot construction and characterization of Northanger Abbey with that of Gothic novels. The novel seemingly imitates the construction of Gothic novels, but it actually satirizes their format of developing stories and depicting characters.
I. Parody of Gothic Plot
The widely spread Gothic novels then were sharing almost the same format. A noble heroine, who is very beautiful and intelligent and loves music and drawing, for some reasons leaves her own home to a completely new place, usually a haunted castle, where she experiences horrible and scaring things or being treated unfairly and cruelly. But there often appears an unknown hero who saves the heroine and challenges the villains. They would be together at the end of the story after so many hardships. Northanger Abbey seemingly follows the common format. The heroine, Catherine Morland, leaves her hometown for a new place, Bath, and meets with the hero, Henry Tilney. After undergoing some adventures and distress, the loved ones are finally reunited and get married. However, Jane Austen actually starts making a sharp mockery on Gothic novels from the beginning of Northanger Abbey.
Different from the Gothic heroine, Catherine Morland is a very common English girl, who was born in an ordinary family with her father as a clergyman and her mother a woman of plain sense. She neither h