Udolpho At Northanger

Most literary critics refer to Northanger Abbey as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody" because itsatirizes the form and conventions of the Gothic novels that were popular during the timewhen Austen wrote Northanger Abbey. In particular, Austen is said to have targeted AnneRadcliffe, the author of gothic novels such as The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). This thesissets out to illustrate that Austen is in fact an heiress of Radcliffe, not quite a parodist, almostan imitator. Her purpose of seemingly parody is not to mock or satire but to point out thepower of reason over excessive sensibility and to make the anxieties of common life seriousand high.Gothic novels and their conventions occur throughout the novel. I use several conventions ofgothic to illustrate Austen's inheritance of Anne's Gothic. They are the ruined church, theprogrammatic Gothic setting, the isolated and tyrannical villain and the over imaginativeheroine. Northanger Abbey and Udolpho are both ideal place for gothic illusion. Settingworks similarly in the two novels. Catherine, like Emily, moves from familiar childhoodsetting to ignorant and bewildered settings and then to a final lonely crisis-setting. GeneralTilney is a Gothic villain as Montoni while Henry Tilney is not merely an unromantic lover,he is a threatening one. Catherine is na?ve and young. This psychological advantage of the oldover the young, the strong over the weak, again dates back to the Gothic. The twoover-imaginative young heroines, Catherine and Emily all find their own imaginationinventing more terror than circumstances legitimately provide. They both need reason andcommandment of feelings.There is parody of gothic in this novel with some comic effect. But the true purpose of parodyhere is not to destroy or deny but to inherit and preserve. That is to preserve reason, whichinspires awakening to middle-class realties and common anxieties.