Catherine Morland is the heroine of
Jane Austen
Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...
's 1817 novel ''
Northanger Abbey
''Northanger Abbey'' ( ) is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic fiction, Gothic novels written by the English author Jane Austen. Although the title page is dated 1818 and the novel was published posthumously in 1817 with ''Persuasio ...
''. A modest, kind-hearted
ingénue
The ''ingénue'' (, , ) is a stock character in literature, film and a role type in the theater, generally a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. ''Ingénue'' may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such role ...
, she is led by her reading of
Gothic literature
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean m ...
to misinterpret much of the social world she encounters.
Character
Catherine is barely out of the schoolroom when she enters the social whirl of Bath society, and the novel centres around her attempts, often laughable, to learn about life and social realities. Many of her problems stem from her tendency to take people at their own evaluation; However, while socially naive, Catherine also has an underlying sense of reality to support her; and her honesty and strength eventually see her successfully through her troubles.
Her confrontation at Northanger Abbey itself with the novel's main
father figure
A father figure is usually an older man, normally one with power, authority, or strength, with whom one can identify on a deeply psychology, psychological level and who generates emotions generally felt towards one's father. Despite the literal t ...
, General Tilney, brings matters to a head. Unable to see through his manipulations over her postulated inheritance, or to recognise him beneath his fine words as a domestic tyrant, Catherine turns to Gothic fantasy to explain her sense of unease, only to be embarrassed and humiliated when her imaginings of a gruesome murder are laid bare as false. Arguably, however, she has been both wrong and right in her preconscious judgement of the General, using her Gothic imaginings to articulate the gap between her experience of the General and his social facade.
[J. Nardin, ''Those Elegant Decorums'' (1973) p. 75=7]
See also
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Ann Radcliffe
Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist who pioneered the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel, and a minor poet. Her fourth and most popular novel, ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'', was published in 1794. She i ...
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Arabella
''Arabella'', Op. 79, is a lyric comedy, or opera, in three acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration.
Performance history
It was first performed on 1 July 1933 at the D ...
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Henry Tilney
Henry Tilney is the leading man in Jane Austen's 1817 novel ''Northanger Abbey''. The younger son of a local landowner, Tilney is comfortably placed as a beneficed clergyman on his father's estate.
Character
Tilney, with his teasing yet kind-hear ...
References
External links
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Catherine Morland
Catherine Morland is the heroine of Jane Austen's 1817 novel ''Northanger Abbey''. A modest, kind-hearted ingénue, she is led by her reading of Gothic literature to misinterpret much of the social world she encounters.
Character
Catherine is ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morland, Catherine
Northanger Abbey characters
Literary characters introduced in 1817
Fictional gentry
Female characters in literature