―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).
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B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics
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.
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B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics
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 had a beautiful figure nor high intelligence. In fact, before she turned fifteen, Catherine had ―a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features‖ (3; ch.1). Instead of music or drawing, Catherine was a tomboy and was very fond of boys‘ plays, especially cricket, and loved
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B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics
rolling down the green slope at the back of their house. Judging by these descriptions, we can see that Catherine‘s situation in life, her family, her own personality and disposition are all against a real heroine in Gothic novels: ―No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine‖ (3; ch.1). Through the characterization of the heroine, Jane Austen actually criticizes the general expectations of a well-mannered gentle lady in Gothic novels.
Then the heroine begins her adventure to Bath. In Gothic novels, the heroine‘s parents should be very worried and severely anxious or in tears with sadness when she is about to leave home. Nevertheless, Catherine‘s mother was not like that: she just reminded her daughter of wrapping herself warm and trying to keep account of the money, and her father only put ten guineas into her hand and promised more when she wanted it. During their journey to Bath, nothing alarming occurred to them except Mrs. Allen‘s having left her clogs at an inn which later on was proved groundless. ―Neither robbers nor tempests befriended them, nor one lucky overturn to introduce them to the hero‖ (11; ch.2). 注意前两段文学作品的引文格式要求：（页码; 章）。
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