Klam jako gotický prvek v románu Opatství Northanger Jane Austenové – anglicky

Mocking the gothic: the exploration of 

the  concept of gothic delusion

in Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey

According to the following definition the Gothic novel is “a story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery” whose aim is to create the atmosphere of terror by transporting the reader into a fallen deteriorated world with predominantly morbid atmosphere where the protagonist is usually threatened by evil characters and he or she often comes across with supernatural phenomena. It is generally considered as a manifestation of dramatic emotions, romantic sensibility and imagination and that is why it is sometimes also called the “romance of terror”. The Gothic novel is a sort of reaction against the rigidity of Neoclassicism and early 18^th century literature and in spite of being considered only as a second-rate and a non-academic genre, it became very popular in Britain mostly during the period from 1790’s to the 1820´s. The first novel written in the style of Gothic fiction was Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764. Other well-known writers who significantly contributed to the Gothic tradition are, for example, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and most importantly Ann Radcliffe with her fourth novel The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) which became enormously popular at that time and later on served as a source of inspiration for Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey which was published posthumously in 1818. In my essay, I would like to explore the concept of gothic delusion as it is employed in Jane Austen’s third novel Northanger Abbey (1818) mentioned above.

The novel is a coming-of-age tale consisting of two parts. The first part takes places in Bath, a popular spa resort, whereas the second is set in the mysterious Northanger Abbey, a family mansion belonging to the Tilney’s with whom the protagonist is acquainted. The story is based on social adventures of a seventeen-year-old girl called Catherine Morland, a daughter of a clergyman, who learns how to conduct properly in the polite society of Bath. She is very fond of reading novels, especially those written in the style of Gothic fiction and she is so much influenced by her reading that she confuses real life situations with scenes from a novel she is reading – The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). In fact, Catherine’s vivid imagination helps her to create a link between events from ordinary life such as meeting new people and her naïve confusion of art and life nourishes her fantasy and pushes it almost to the level of morbidness. It is very probable that Catherine suffers, as her irrational behaviour already suggests, from some kind of mental disorder that could be defined as delusion.

The term “delusion” itself comes from philosophy of psychiatry and according to the Oxford Dictionary it could be explained in the following way: delusion is “an idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder“.[1] Delusion goes often hand in hand with some serious mental illnesses such as paranoia or schizophrenia. Fortunately, Catherine does not develop any kind of these illnesses, her main defect is solely lack of experience, so her delusion remains only temporary. By the end of the novel she is able to awaken from her romantic vision, perceives the world the way it truly is which enables her to see clearly the true substance of social interactions, and therefore to become a better judge of human characters. From a naïve romantic girl with silly fantasies, sometimes of a slightly erotic kind, she transforms into a democratic heroine who seeks individual fulfillment through domestic tranquility and the love and respect of a husband as she finds these things in Henry Tilney whom she marries in the end. In this process of maturation, Catherine equals other romantic heroines from Austen’s novels such as Emma who is at the end of the novel able to recognize the foolishness of her behaviour when she deliberately plays a matchmaker or Elizabeth Bennett who leaves her prejudice behind in order to enter into the marriage with Mr. Darcy with open heart.

I think that the point of inserting Gothic scenes into the narrative structure of Northanger Abbey (1818) is to show the persuasive power that literature can have over its readers. The author was actually aware of the link between art and life. By satirizing the Gothic genre, Austen herself suggests that the romantic heroine such as she is portrayed in the Gothic fiction is no longer suitable for 19th century literature.[2] In fact, she mocks openly the genre through Catherine‘s naïvety and her lack of judgment. She is, for instance, unable to recognize the falsity of her friend Isabella and her treacherous conduct towards her brother James when she betrays him for Captain Tilney. Catherine succumbs to the negative influence of her friend who cultivates even more in her the hobby of reading second-rate literature by offering her other Gothic novels such as the Castle of Wolfenbach, Necromancer of the Black Forrest, Midnight Bell etc. Their friendship, in fact, is rather shallow and exploitative based merely on compliments and gossips. In Northanger Abbey, for a change, Catherine finds herself in an embarrasing situation when she unlocks the mysterious cabinet hoping to discover something dreadful and finally finds only laundry bills. Her overactive imagination probably reaches the edge when she suspects General Tilney of having murdered his wife. Actually, the only person who is somehow able to ground Catherine is Henry Tilney, a clever young clergyman of a respectable family, whom Catherine meets in Bath, falls in love with and marries in the end.

Catherine Morland is a typical example of a classical sentimental heroine who exalts her sensibility to the extent that it drives her away from reality. The truth is that she cannot find real happiness by acting like this. Actually, by pursuing her interest in reading second-rate literature, she can easily become another Madame Bovary. In order not to do so she has to make a clear separation between fiction and reality. Therefore, Catherine has to accept the unromantic ordinariness of life and abandon the gothic delusion in order to be able to carry on a normal life. She cannot detach herself from the tangible world, otherwise, she would end up like most people suffering from mental disorders who are not able to distinguish their false fantasies from what is real.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. 1818. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1995.
• Hume, Robert. “Gothic versus Romantic: A Revaluation of the Gothic Novel.“ PMLA 84.2. (1969) 282 – 290. JSTOR. Web. 2 May. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/search>.
• De Vore, David, Domenic, Anne, Kwan, Alexandra, Reidy, Nicole.

The Gothic Novel. Web. 10 May 2013. <http://cai.ucdavis.edu/waters-sites/gothicnovel/155breport.html >.

• Haggerty, George. “Fact and Fancy in the Gothic Novel. “ Nineteenth-Century Fiction 39.4. (1985) 379 – 391. JSTOR. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/search >.
• Jurtíková, Marcela. “Northanger Abbey as a Parody of the Gothic Novel.“ MA Thesis. Masaryk University, 2006. Print.
• Merriman, C.D., Menon, Sindhu. The Literature Network. Jalic Inc. 2004. Web. 5 May. 2013. <http://www.online-literature.com/ann-radcliffe>.
• Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press 2013. Web. 10 May. 2013. <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/delusion>.
• Glock, Waldo. “Catherine Morland’s Gothic Delusions: A Defense of “Northanger Abbey.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 32.1 (1978) 33 – 46. JSTOR. Web. 2 May. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/search>.

[1]                     see Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press 2013. Web. 10 May. 2013.    <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/delusion >.

[2]                     see S. Glock, Waldo. “Catherine Morland’s Gothic Delusions: A Defense of “Northanger Abbey.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 32.1 (1978) 33 – 46. JSTOR. Web. 2 May. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/search>.