4.2 Henry and Catherine's value to marriage 6

4.3 Rationality of General Tilney's value to marriage 6

5. Conclusion 7

References 9

1. Introduction

Northanger Abbey is a unique novel for its simplicity. Many scholars even think it is not worth dealing with, whereas some people are attracted by its satire. Actually, satire is the key for us to comprehend it and feel it profoundly. Satire can be discovered in nearly every sentence or every line in Northanger Abbey. If we ignore satire in it, we can never understand this book fully.

In Northanger Abbey, Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman. Although a tomboy in her childhood, by the age of 17 she is "in training for a heroine" and is excessively fond of reading Gothic novels, among which Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho is a favorite. Jane Austen criticized Gothic novels, training for a heroine and improper value to marriage.

1.1 Researches both at Home and Abroad

    Previous studies of Northanger Abbey are primarily focused on five themes: woman education, views of marriage, views of money, thematic meaning of this book and satire. Papers on the theme of woman education mainly discuss about the education Catherine received and the problems which exist on her. Eg. Female education theme; analysis of Northanger Abbey from the aspect of feminism This type of paper can be regarded as the voice of feminism. Views of marriage is another topic which is frequently studied with the main focus on the contrasting views of Mr.Tilney and General Tilney toward marriage. Eg. Jane Austen's View on Marriage in Northanger Abbey. Views on money is also discussed from the conflict between General TIlney and Mr.Tilney or Catherine. Eg. Analysis on money determinism in Northanger Abbey.Papers with the theme of thematic meaning of Northanger Abbey obviously discussed with the principal idea of this novel. Eg.Out of the Woods - Study on Theme Significance of Northanger Abbey. And the last one is satire which is also the topic of my paper. Quite a lot of people have already done some research on this topic. Eg.Study on satire in Northanger Abbey. To conclude, in this kind of paper, there are three main ideas: satire on Gothic Novels satire on training for heroine, satire on improper value to marriage, satire on improper value to money. These papers can be viewed as the conclusion of the papers mentioned before but are written from the perspective of writing techniques.

1.2 Deficiencies of Previous Studies

    Previous studies of Northanger Abbey talk about the satire on Gothic Novels, satire on training for heroine, satire on improper value to marriage, satire on improper value to money. They totally negate the Gothic Novel, training for heroine, value to marriage and money in this novel. However, in my point of view, Jane Austen does not deny the value of these three things completely. Former studies are too exparte. This essay will discuss about satire from a more comprehensive perspective.

2. Satire on Gothic novels

In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen uses parody of Gothic novels as a way of satire. In the eighteenth century in England, there were lots of novels which full of murders and supernatural things that scared people. This kind of novel was popular in those days but isolated from real life. Scary and supernatural plots do attract people a lot especially young women just like Catherine, the heroine in Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen satirizes this kind of novel in this book.

2.1 Gothic plots in the novel

Many Gothic style writings exist in Northanger Abbey. At the first beginning, Author describes Catherine as a crazy fan of Gothic Novels. She is addicted to the imagination of the plots in Gothic Novels. As a teenager, she nearly spends all day on reading this kind of sentimental novels rather than study. From our heroine, we can know that Gothic Novels do have a bad effect on people, especially the novels of the late eighteenth.