Book Thoughts: Northanger Abbey: A Parody of a Gothic Novel

On the way to Northanger Abbey, Henry Tilney satirizes Catherine’s expectations by telling her a story in the Gothic tradition of what she finds at the Abbey.  Generally speaking, the plot details of a Gothic novel include mysterious circumstances, stormy weather, wind, darkness, nightly noises and a lack of sleep for the heroine, and these details are matched with Catherine’s arrival at the Abbey.  As she is first removing her coat in her room prior to dinner, she notices a chest in the corner.  Since her imagination is filled with mysterious circumstances, she wraps the chest in mystery and determines to open it.  She struggles, but with a burst of adrenalin opens the chest and finds…a blanket!  Eleanor enters Catherine’s room at this moment and remarks that the chest is a handy storage space.  Catherine feels shame for having given way to her imagination and resolves not to do so again.

However, by the time Catherine goes to bed the night has become stormy and windy.  She resolves to not give in to her imagination, so she does not build up her fire.  By candlelight she examines an ebony cabinet (like one Henry described in his story that afternoon).  She gives in to her imaginative ideas and decides to search the cabinet.  After struggling with locks she is thrilled to discover a roll of paper. However, her candle goes out and she is left in darkness. She lies in bed in the dark, hearing the door lock seem to move, perceiving the bed curtains to move on their own, and hearing moans in the hall which prevents her sleeping until about 3 in the morning.  When she wakes in daylight she eagerly reads through the roll of paper to discover…a washing bill!  Once again she feels humbled and remorseful and wants to act more sensibly.

The Gothic influence continues to act on Catherine, despite her resolution to not give way to her imagination, in her impressions of General Tilney.  The General is generally polite to Catherine but it seems Eleanor is afraid of making him impatient and he sometimes acts and speaks abruptly. She notices the General avoids his late wife’s favorite walks, her pictures, and her room.  Catherine decides he must be a cruel man who did not love his wife, and perhaps he caused or hastened her death.  She realizes her surmises are bold but continues to think this way.   After General Tilney twice prevents her from going into his wife’s room she determines to probe its secrets.  She sneaks to the room when everyone else is occupied, thinking she will find a dark, dungeon-room and some kind of journal telling of the General’s cruelty.  What she finds is…a normal bedroom!  Realizing the enormity of her erroneous thinking, she slips away, only to be found by Henry Tilney who perceives what she has been thinking.  He admonishes her gently and reasonably.  Catherine again feels remorse, shame,misery, and that her “eyes have been opened to her own folly”.  

Her fiction reading is not in line with her reality and she decides that Gothic novels must not be a comparison for English people, although she might be able to draw comparisons in other countries.  It is interesting to note that she continues to believe the General is not “perfectly amiable” and further events in the story prove her to be correct this time.