Most of Northanger Abbey is set in Bath, a city known not for Gothic edifices but for its Georgian architecture and hot spring, as we have noted. Catherine has the opportunity to make the trip to Bath in the company of Mr. and Mrs. Allen, a wealthy landed couple who own a great deal of property in Wiltshire, the area where the Morlands live. As was commonly the case during the late eighteenth century, Mr. Allen has a medical complaint (in this case gout), and his doctor recommends that he visit Bath for the healing properties that are supposedly contained in the hot water. Since Austen had twice visited relatives in Bath, she knew well the lay of the land.
• • •
Upon arrival, the Allen’s take Catherine to her first ball at the Assembly Rooms, a magnificent social-gathering place with a large and elegant ballroom. She is overwhelmed by the experience. The English country-dancing, the beautiful rooms with their high vaulted ceilings and chandeliers, and all the well-dressed participants make for a thrilling evening. Unfortunately, though, the Allens don’t see anyone they know. As much as she would like to participate in the dancing, Catherine is forced to sit on the sidelines.
Not long after she and the Allens arrive in Bath, Catherine meets a young gentleman named Henry Tilney, whose family belongs to the landed gentry. The couple have their chance encounter at Bath’s famous Pump Room, a neoclassical salon where people go to drink the natural hot water and mingle. Tilney, in his mid twenties, is smart and worldly, with hopes of taking orders in the clergy. As a second son, Henry will not inherit his family’s fortune—hence his need for a profession. Catherine takes an instant liking to him. They have an engaging conversation about Bath and about keeping journals. Following this initial encounter, however, Catherine doesn’t see him again for some time. She hopes to run into him soon, but the opportunity doesn’t come.
In Tilney’s stead, Catherine meets the Thorpes, whose parents are old friends of Mrs. Allen. Unlike the Tilneys, the Thorpes are of the middle class. Coincidentally, Catherine’s older brother James is friends with the Thorpe’s son John, and Catherine starts an immediate friendship with the eldest Thorpe daughter, Isabella. Catherine is still missing Henry Tilney, but for the moment she is feeling somewhat better. The two girls share a love of reading, and their first form of bonding is reading Gothic novels together.
When James Morland and John Thorpe arrive in Bath, the foursome begins to spend time together, and John appears to have a crush on Catherine. Expressing her literary interest, Catherine asks John if he has ever read Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho. To Catherine’s mortification, John insults the novel, adding cluelessly that if he were to read anything, it would be a work by Ann Radcliffe! When he realizes his blunder, John tries to recover but digs himself in deeper. In spite of his awkward flirtations, Catherine puts up with him because he is both her brother’s friend and her friend’s brother, but John has not made a positive first impression. He is arrogant and ignorant.
At her second ball, Catherine finally runs into the dashing Henry Tilney, and he introduces her to his sister Eleanor. Ironically Eleanor, who is socially superior, lacks the pretension of the middle-class Isabella and John Thorpe. Austen’s description of Eleanor reads like an entry in a conduct manual: Eleanor’s “manners showed good sense and good breeding; they were neither shy, nor affectedly open; and she seemed capable of being young, attractive, and at a ball, without wanting to fix the attention of every man near her, and without exaggerated feelings of ecstatic delight or inconceivable vexation on every little trifling occurrence.” Eleanor and Henry are members of the gentry who are ethical, honest, and not full of themselves like the Thorpes. This is the social class to which Catherine aspires, but she will have to earn it. The Tilneys have a natural sense of grace, modesty, and sincerity; Catherine is in training.
When Catherine has her next opportunity to meet Eleanor, they have a pleasing conversation and agree that they should see each other the following evening at the cotillion ball. When they meet, Eleanor is with her brother, so Catherine and Henry get another chance to dance and talk. They seem completely charmed by each other. And the added bonus is that Catherine has an opportunity to meet Henry’s father, General Tilney, who makes a brief appearance. To top off the evening, she, Eleanor, and Henry decide that they will all go for a country walk the next day. Catherine could not be happier.
As Catherine awaits news from the Tilneys about their country walk, her brother, Isabella, and John Thorpe arrive unexpectedly with plans to visit neighboring Bristol. Catherine initially resists as she is expecting to hear from the Tilneys, but then John mentions a visit to Blaise Castle. This piques Catherine’s Gothic interest. Blaise Castle is an important symbol in the text. To Catherine it represents Gothic mystery, the unknown, adventure, and excitement. In her Gothic-fantasy world, Catherine is not merely a plain girl. She is a heroine with purpose on a Romantic adventure. The real Blaise Castle, however, is a “sham castle” built not in medieval times, but in 1766; it’s a fake erected entirely for show on a hillside overlooking Bristol. Austen’s use of Blaise Castle here foreshadows future Gothic fantasies, and it begins to call our attention to the novel’s prominent theme that we should not mistake fiction for reality and truth. Appearances are deceiving.
In order finally to convince Catherine to join them, John lies, telling her that he has just seen Henry in a carriage with an attractive woman heading in another direction. Falling for the lie, Catherine is now convinced that the Tilneys will not show, and accepts the invitation to go on the outing. Predictably, the day is disappointing. They never reached the promised castle, there was not enough time to visit Bristol, and to make matters much worse, Catherine learned that the Tilneys did come for her after all. What a nightmare (and not of the Gothic variety).
In spite of John Thorpe’s continued efforts to keep her away from the Tilneys, Catherine is eventually united with her friends on their country walk. Social-class issues are underscored in the scene, as Catherine gets a tutorial of sorts from Henry. Their conversation covers both practical and erudite topics, including art, history, current events, and differences between the sexes. Demonstrating their elevated social status, the Tilneys are far ahead of Catherine in learning. But Henry acts as a mentor to her, and the walk provides one of many lessons that Catherine receives in her coming-of-age education.
Social class and monetary issues are even more intricately woven into the plot when Catherine learns that Isabella and James have become engaged. Catherine is initially happy about the match, but her view begins to shift when Isabella reveals her monetary agenda. In keeping with Austen’s theme that it is important to distinguish between fantasy and reality, Isabella had fantasized that the Morlands were extremely rich, when in fact they are not. In a conversation with Catherine, Isabella waxes about how money is not important to her, that she would be just as happy in a modest cottage as a palace. But there is a disconnect between what Isabella says and what she reveals about herself. In fact, Isabella’s statements are false; she is interested in money, and is sincerely disappointed to learn that James will receive only a modest income when he takes orders to be a clergyman. Here is a moment in the novel that connects well with all of Austen’s plots: Virtuous characters don’t think about money and are therefore often rewarded with income and privilege. Correspondingly, characters who are not favorably depicted (Isabella and John, for instance), and who prioritize wealth are denied. Catherine has no personal income to look forward to, but she does not think of wealth in marriage. She is looking for romantic love.
The last important character to be introduced in the narrative is Henry and Eleanor’s elder brother Frederick, an army captain. As the eldest son, Frederick stands to inherit the family estate. In her depiction of Frederick, we see that Austen is not monolithic in her portrayal of social-class status. In other words, she does not create a superficial structure where good characters have education and good breeding and bad characters have the lack. Thus far it might seem that way when we tak
e into consideration that the middle-class Thorpes have lower manners than the Tilneys. When we meet Captain Frederick Tilney, we learn that even landed characters with money, education, and good breeding can also have bad manners. For example, from the moment when he is introduced in the novel, Henry’s older brother is inappropriately flirtatious with Isabella. He even dances with her at a ball! Witnessing this behavior is devastating to Catherine, who seems to place the blame more on Frederick than Isabella. Indeed, they are both behaving badly. Catherine feels so sorry and scared for her brother, who, as it happens, is out purchasing Isabella’s wedding ring. But this is all part of Catherine’s coming-of-age experience. She has seen some of the best qualities in people, and now unfortunately, she has also seen some of the worst.
To that end, Catherine learns that Captain Tilney intends to remain in Bath even after his family has gone back home. Catherine is beginning to see him for what he is—an entitled and spoiled first son behaving like a womanizer and playboy. The news disturbs Catherine, who fears for her brother’s well-being. If Frederick and Isabella continue to flirt, their actions will certainly spoil her brother’s engagement to Isabella. When she confronts Henry about the situation, imploring him to influence his brother to leave Bath, Henry delivers one of the novel’s signature lines: “No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.” Isabella is proving to be extremely cruel. She revels in her flirtations with Captain Tilney, knowing that her fiancé suffers. Henry’s poignant lesson to Catherine on the subjects of flirting and fidelity clarifies that Isabella’s behavior is the problem, not Captain Tilney. If Isabella’s heart is not constant, James will never be safe. Henry is proving to be a wise mentor for Catherine, and we begin to suspect that he may be testing her. Perhaps he has an ulterior motive.
When her time in Bath has nearly run its course, Catherine receives an invitation from Eleanor to come stay with her family at their country estate called Northanger Abbey. This amazing news ignites Catherine’s Gothic imagination. To Catherine the abbey is symbolic. It represents mystery and romance, and it connects with the adventures she has been reading about in Gothic novels. She welcomes the prospect of being scared in the way modern moviegoers welcome the thrill of being frightened at a horror film. But it’s more than that for young Catherine. She welcomes having excitement in her life. Dark passageways, secret maps, hidden staircases, frightening characters and the like all present Catherine (and women of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries more generally) with challenges, thrills, excitement, spontaneity, and passion—all aspects of life that were hard to come by for women of the period. Thus, it’s no accident that a woman (Ann Radcliffe) was one of the premier and pioneer authors of the Gothic romance and that women were the primary readers of Gothic novels.
During the journey to Northanger Abbey, Austen turns up the heat on her satire of Catherine, who is full of fantasies about the Abbey and beside herself with joy to be driven by Henry. Understanding Catherine’s gullibility and her thirst for Gothic adventures, Henry teases Catherine by inventing stories about dark staircases, secret tunnels, and a mysterious housekeeper named Dorothy—in short, all things Gothic. He describes his home exactly as Catherine imagines it. But when they arrive, Catherine is disappointed to find that the abbey is entirely decorated with modern furniture, and that it could not be further from the Gothic romance she had pictured in her mind’s eye. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but Austen continues to warn her heroine that only trouble can come from a failure to be able to distinguish between the two.
Catherine is stubborn, however, and she will not so easily let go of her Gothic fantasy. When she spies an old wooden chest in the room where she is staying, her curiosity gets the better of her. She wonders what it might contain, and hopes that the contents will embroil her in an adventure. But after some secretive effort to find her way into the old chest, she discovers to her great disappointment that it contains merely a well-folded white bedspread; she is embarrassed. That same night a violent storm blows in, complete with lightning and thunder. Catherine welcomes the thrilling atmosphere. Not able to sleep, she looks around the room and spots an old cabinet that she hadn’t noticed earlier. She investigates. Being careful not to make any noise, she manages to open the locks on the cabinet doors and discovers many drawers and another locked storage space in the center of the cabinet. She inspects the drawers and finds them empty; however, after working her way into the locked section, she discovers a manuscript. Could this be the clue she has been waiting to find? She is eager to read it before day breaks, but just when she least expects it, her candle is snuffed out and she is lost in total darkness, scared. She lies awake in bed, eager to inspect the contents of the mysterious manuscript, but when morning comes she finds that it contains nothing Gothic and nothing of interest, just inventory lists of clothing and linens. Once again her great expectations are dashed.
At this point the reader might hope that Catherine would have learned her lesson and understand that no good can come from her obsession with Gothic fantasy, but that is not yet the case. Her hopes of being the central figure in some demonic plot are still alive as she turns her attention towards the deceased Mrs. Tilney. Catherine asks Eleanor about the woman, who died nine years earlier. She begins to make odd assumptions about the marriage between Mrs. and General Tilney—that perhaps the general wasn’t such a loving husband after all. Her imagination runs with this crazy idea, and soon she views the general as a monster, who may have murdered his wife!
In order to pursue her hunch, Catherine enters Mrs. Tilney’s rooms alone and without permission. She looks around eagerly for clues, but once again discovers nothing out of the ordinary. The rooms hold no evidence of a murder, an imprisonment, or torture. But before Catherine has a chance to exit, Henry discovers her. This time Catherine has gone too far. She confesses to him her suspicions about the general, and he sets her straight. Catherine feels a fool. Additionally, she fears that she has forever lost Henry’s trust and friendship. She finally learns her lesson, that novels are romantic and imaginary, but they are not the stuff of reality; the real and the imaginary should remain separate.
Once again we see Henry educating Catherine, acting generously as her mentor as she comes of age. Catherine trusts Henry, and he continues to shape her personality and help her mature. He is a positive influence. He is not spoiled and impetuous like his brother; rather he is smart, handsome, grounded, and highly ethical. He is one of England’s finest gentlemen, and Catherine is auditioning to be his wife.
As Catherine begins to feel that she has regained Henry’s confidence and trust, she once again thinks about Bath, her friends, and her family members. She receives a letter from her brother James and discovers that he and Isabella have broken off their engagement. James writes that Isabella has made him “miserable forever.” Henry and Eleanor are both shocked to hear the news, and they jump to the conclusion that Isabella may now be engaged to Frederick. Soon after, however, Catherine receives a letter from Isabella, stating her dislike for Captain Tilney and imploring Catherine to help her in smoothing things back over with James, whom she hasn’t heard from since he left Bath for Oxford. She calls Frederick a “coxcomb,” but apparently the reason Isabella is so upset with Frederick is that he has stopped paying attention to her and moved on to a different woman. Catherine concludes from the letter that Isabella is shallow and duplicitous and rejects her plea to contact James.
Catherine and Eleanor then spend a fun week together in the absence of the general who has been forced to leave for London. Henry spends most of the week with the young women, then leaves for a town called Woodston, where he will eventually find his employment as a country curate. Just as Henry departs, the girls get a surprise from an angry General Tilney, who has abruptly returned. Out of the blue he informs Catherine that she must leave Northanger Abbey because the Tilneys have a two-week obligation elsewhere. This means that Cathe
rine is forced the very next day to make a seventy-mile journey back home alone. All of this is so sudden, so disturbing, and so mysterious to Catherine. She wonders if she has angered or offended the general, but departs with no answers. This is as close as she ever gets to participating in a Gothic plot, but it’s not the one she was hoping for.
Back at home with her parents in Fullerton, Catherine is confused and extremely sad. She spends most of her time thinking about Henry, hoping that he will not forget her, and she imagines his reaction when he returns from Woodston to discover that she is no longer at the abbey. Two days pass in misery, and her family is concerned about her depressed state. They are not aware of all that has happened to their daughter, and for that matter, neither is Catherine.
On the third day back home, Henry makes a Darcy-like appearance at Catherine’s door! She is elated to see him. After introductions to the Morland family, Catherine and Henry go for a walk together, and Henry is able to explain both his own feelings for Catherine and details about what happened back at Northanger Abbey. Firstly, Henry indicates to Catherine that he holds a great deal of affection for her. He relates that during his journey back from Woodston to the abbey, Henry met his father, who informed him that he was never again to see Catherine Morland and that he should immediately break off ties and put her out of mind.
Jane Austen For Beginners Page 11