Book Quotes About Women

"Even the most ordinary women's lives have a touch of magic." (Amy Smith)

Need for change in women's status in society:

“I read it (history) a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all – it is very tiresome” (Austen)

“Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.” (Austen)

“Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half.” (Austen)

"Austen gave value to something that was undervalued - the daily lives of women, the things that mattered to them." (Smith)

Book Thoughts: Female Stereotypes in Northanger Abbey

 I deeply enjoy Austen’s characterization in her novels.  Of the three women -  Mrs. Thorpe, Mrs. Allen, and Isabella Thorpe - we know the least about Mrs. Thorpe.  However, we know enough to see that Austen is poking fun at the stereotypical gossip of her day (and ours too, for that matter).  Close behind her main love of gossip are her pride in her children (and herself) and her concern with fashion.  We can see Austen’s use of satire as she converses with Mrs. Allen and with her daughter, Isabella.  Large portions of her conversation deals with the current gossip in Bath. When she talks with Mrs. Allen she also often talks of her children, and particularly of Isabella.  This shows a lack of consideration for feelings other than her own since Mrs. Allen does not have children and so Mrs. Thorpe has a kind of one-upmanship in this area.  In chapter four we are told that both Mrs. Allen and Mrs.Thorpe talk to each without hearing a great deal of what the other one says. She believes Isabella is the most beautiful girl around and encourages her to value wealth in a suitor.  She and Mrs. Allen frequently discuss items of fashion, another of Mrs. Thorpe’s interests, although she doesn’t have as much money to spend on clothes as Mrs. Allen. 

While we read more often of Mrs. Allen she does not make a huge impression on the reader.  I think of her as a vague character.  She does not ever express strong emotion; and she is the most animated when she is talking about clothes.  Mrs. Allen’s character is stereotypically fashion-oriented.  She is a kind person, in a vague sort of way, but nearly the only subject she shows animation about is related to fashion and shopping.  We see Austen’s use of satire several times through the character of Mrs. Allen.  One example is in chapter 3 when Mrs. Allen is talking to Henry Tilney of how easy it is to shop in Bath – an item of extreme importance to her.  She states, “One can step outdoors and get a thing in five minutes.”  To her, this is one of the main attractions of Bath and she continues to talk of fabric and fashion to Henry at the dance, even though this seems an odd subject to pursue with a young man she has just met.  However, it does not seem odd to Mrs. Allen because her world revolves around fashion, and like Mrs. Thorpe, tends to only focus on what she is interested in herself.  When Mrs. Thorpe talks to her about the Thorpe children Mrs. Allen responds by talking about clothes.  Again, in chapter 12 we see her ability to focus only on clothes.  Catherine is apologizing to Henry Tilney over missing their appointed walk and appeals to Mrs. Allen with much emotion to corroborate her statement.  Mrs. Allen’s reply is, “My dear, you tumble my gown."

Isabella Thorpe’s character is stereotypical of a totally self-absorbed, shallow person out to get all she can…a gold-digger.  In her many conversations with Catherine she does not give any original opinions, but rather re-states what others have said.  For instance, when they are talking about books in chapter 6, although Isabella can rattle off a list of titles she has written down, she cannot tell Catherine anything about them except that Miss Andrews has read them.  In a nice moment of satire, Austen has Isabella play with enjoyment the game Commerce, a game with stakes (representing her love of money) and with bartering (representing her flirting with several men).  Isabella displays her shallowness in her treatment of Catherine in chapter 13 when Isabella, James and John plan to drive to Clifton and Catherine declines to go with them because of a previous engagement.  Although Catherine is firm in her inclination to do what she perceives is right, Isabella treats her with coldness for not doing whatever Isabella wants.  We also see shallowness of character in her treatment of John Thorpe when she discovers he has less money than she thought.  She immediately begins flirting with the elder brother of Henry Tilney and eventually sends James Thorpe away.  Her conversation focuses mainly on herself and the local gossip.  Isabella’s character satirizes the young women of that time who are only interested in marrying for money and security and do not love anyone other than themselves.

Book Thoughts: Heroines in Northanger Abbey and Austen's Satire

Austen gives a smile to her reader right at the beginning of Northanger Abbey when she brings a sense of reality to the definition of a heroine as portrayed by many authors of Gothic novels in her time.  She begins by first giving a wonderful tongue-in-cheek description of what heroic characteristics Catherine is lacking (in the Gothic sense).  

A heroine, as satirized by Austen in chapter one, first must have parents who are poor, handsome, lacking in sense and in a healthful constitution, be short-tempered, and given to such tactics as locking up their daughters.  The heroine herself must not be plain-looking nor given to mischievousness.  As a child she should enjoy feeding birds and watering roses.  A heroine is able to learn intuitively and be accomplished in music and drawing.  

As a child, Catherine shows none of the characteristics of such a heroine.  Not only does she show little aptitude and no application for studying music or drawing, she is only interested in reading story books that require little reflection.   She plays at cricket, rides horses, is not overly concerned with cleanliness, and is mischievous.   Catherine’s father is characterized as respectable, plain, and possessed with an independent living.  By being told he did not lock up his daughters we are led to believe he is kind and the rest of the book bears this out.  Her mother is characterized as having good sense, a good temper, and a good constitution. She has a large family and enjoys them without imposing an iron will.  

Interspersed in this description of Catherine’s lack of heroic qualities Austen is able to give us a glimpse of what she considers to be true qualities of a heroine, as opposed to the description she used in her satirical description of a heroine.  We are told Catherine has a good heart, a good temper, is not quarrelsome or stubborn, and shows kindness to others.   As Catherine’s character develops throughout the story we also see she is honest and unaffected – further examples of good qualities for a heroine.  

Between the ages of 15 and 17 she shows more promise in becoming a heroine.  She takes more care about her appearance and curls her hair and enjoys finery.  She enlarges the scope of her reading to include such authors as Gray, Thompson, Pope, and Shakespeare (although Austen continues to use satire in the fact that Catherine either remembers what is has read incorrectly or out of context.  I think this is a great touch of humor.).  She develops an appreciation for music, although she still does not play herself.  Her continued defects in her development as a heroine are in the areas of drawing and in not attracting the attention of any potential lovers. 

Catherine’s development as a heroine is largely left to own inclination as her mother, although a caring woman, is cumbered with caring for several younger children and cannot devote much time to Catherine’s education.  Her parents do have a limited influence on her development: her father and mother both give her some lessons and she has access to a music teacher for the short time she wants to study.  For the most part, however, Catherine is left to her own devices and her greatest outside influences are books (although often read without great understanding).  

Book Thoughts: Austen's Characters Read!

One of the questions my profressor, Dr. Kendrick, asked during our Jane Austen class began like this..."The 18th century saw a controversy regarding the reading of novels, especially by women  (and it's interesting that the number of female novelists increased exponentially during this time as well).  Novels were considered by many to be "low" forms of entertainment that enticed women to abandon virtue.  However, Zlotnick believes that this novel ". . . offer[s] an alternative vision, in which wise and judicious female reading emerges as a possible antidote to female victimization"." 

Here are some of my thoughts on Austen's take of the reading habits of women:

The reading habits of Catherine, Isabella, and Eleanor support Zlotnick’s support of the idea that wise female reading may be an antidote to female victimization.  In the case of Catherine Moreland her reading of Gothic novels allows her to read of heroines that have more spirit than the men in the novels, how to navigate in her social world, how to act for herself, and to become an amateur detective in the Tilney household.  She has for the most part avoided reading history (written in this time by male quthors with a view toward repressing females) and so her thinking has been guided more by thoughts of successful feminism than depressing male suppression.  She becomes a voluntary spy through imaginative thinking and her ability to think for herself and to take action on those thoughts (as when she opens the chest in her bedroom).  She believes she has the right to make her own choices, which intrigues Henry.  

Isabella’s reading also focuses on novels.  In her case, she learns to parrot back the words of what she believes eligible bachelors want a marriageable girl to be (the heroine), even though those words are for the most part the opposite of her true characteristics.  She believes that wealth is her ticket to freedom, at least to freedom of choice.  Like the world of commerce around her she tries to trade one man, James Thorpe, for another, Frederick Tilney, because he has greater wealth.  However, she does not realize that the men around her do not value or appreciate a woman who applies market values to them.  She believes that she not only has the right to make choices but that she has the right to trade her choices.  She is not successful in the marriage market and loses both men and her chances for marriage for the time being.

Eleanor mainly reads history books by male authors and her thoughts are thus shaped by a sense of women’s lack of value.  She feels immobilized by her reading.  She is less proactive than Catherine or Isabella and is content to let the men in her world – at this time her father and her brother – make choices for her.  Although she is well-educated she does not have the spirit to act on her education or to imagine a future different than what women before her have held.   This is where we see a great difference between the novel-reading of Catherine (often written by females) and the historical-reading (mostly written by males) of Eleanor.  She does not believe she can make her own choices.   Eleanor is successful in the marriage market only because her suitor becomes socially and financially acceptable, not because she has played a role in making any choices.  

Book Thoughts: Austen's Northanger Abbey: Her first novel, yet the last published. Why?

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen's first novel (outside of her juvenile works) was the last  Austen book published.  Why?  The answers give some important clues to the deeper meaning in the book.

According to Claire Grogan in an introduction to Northanger Abbey there are two separate delays to the publishing of the book.  The first delay, and the longest, was occasioned by the publisher and lasted from the original purchase date of 1803 until Austen regained rights to her novel in 1816.  For some reason, the publisher purchased the novel and then refused to print it. The second delay was due to Austen herself delaying the publication.  It is interesting to note that this second delay is of a shorter duration (Northanger Abbey was published in 1817) only because her death allowed her brother to publish the novel posthumously; Austen herself expressed ambiguity about ever publishing Northanger Abbey.

It is pointed out that the publisher, Crosby, may have had several reasons for delaying publication.  Critics agree that Austen’s opinions of issues such as individual rights, the questionable intellectual faculties  of women, and the merging of some parts of the middle class with the upper class, while pertinent to the late 1700s, would not have met with as much public sympathy in the early 1800s.  Critic Park Honan also cites conflict of interest as a possible reason for delay of publication.  Since Crosby also published The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (a novel in the Gothic tradition) and Austen satirizes the Gothic novel in her own book, there may well have been a hesitancy to publish Northanger Abbey in the same time period.  Another critic, Margaret Kirkham, suggests Austen’s support of feminist views as a reason to delay publication. 

Austen also appeared reluctant to publish her novel.  She was aware that her opinions regarding the feminist movement, as expressed in the book, were no longer accepted in 1816 (although theses thoughts may have been more acceptable in the late 1700s when she was writing the novel).  This was due in large part to the fact that English anti-revolutionary feeling opposed such thinking. Women authors were not generally approved and general opinion was even lower toward female authors who wrote novels because novel reading was thought to increase women's sentimentality.  Social, economic, and political thought had shifted in the years between the novel’s writing and its potential publication, and while Austen’s views had not necessarily changed she must have realized these views might face opposition.

There were many changes that occurred in English Society between the original manuscript completion of Northanger Abbey and its eventual publication in 1818. The revolution in France greatly impacted the English and led to more acts of repression and censorship, of which a specific example is censorship toward female authors of novels.  During this time the public displayed an increasing lack of sympathy for women as far as allowing them intellectual or economic freedom or political opinions. Austen plainly states her support of female authors of novels and of novels themselves in chapter five of Northanger Abbey when she breaks off from describing the relationship between Catherine and Louisa to urge female authors to stand together against unfair opposition.  She also defends novels as giving more pleasure to the public than other forms of literature and further states that some novels have “genius, wit and taste to recommend them.”  Realizing such ideas would not be received kindly by much of her reading audience may have caused Austen to postpone publishing Northanger Abbey.