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Essay on representation of gender and literature
Gender's role in literature
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Jane Austen is best known for novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, wherein the female protagonist spends the majority of the book falling for her brooding male counterpart. However, while specks of this common theme are present within Northanger Abbey, a large aspect of the novel is Austen’s use of satire to mock gothic novels of the time. Throughout the story, Austin also seems to jeer at the culture in which she has placed her characters. She structures her characters with seemingly stereotypical attributes, focusing this mostly on the females. With her use of contrasting details to that of a gothic, exaggerated techniques common to a gothic, as well as hyperbolic character traits, Austen is able to successfully satirize gothic novels along with the view some had of women associated with them. The idea of the gothic novel, as well as its satire, is introduced within the first few pages of the novel. The reader is told of Catherine’s upbringing, stating at one point that her mother, “…had three sons before Catherine was born; and instead of dying in bringing the latter into the world, as any body might expect, she still lived on…to see them growing up around her, and to enjoy excellent health herself” (3). This, along with other elements, is essential in beginning the satire of the gothic novels. In a gothic, the young female protagonist would probably have had a terrible childhood, either orphaned or raised only by her terrible father. However, this is not what Catherine experienced at all. If anything, she actually had a rather pleasant childhood. Austen even has Catherine, and her new friend Isabella Thorpe, read The Mysteries of Udolpho, which was a widely known gothic novel. All of these factors help... ... middle of paper ... ...ncement of their personal charms…”, Austen is going against the ideas held about women and greatly satirizing them. Austen employs many ideas and means within Northanger Abbey to give it the multitude of dimensions it has. Not only does it carry on with an interesting and thought out story, but she also uses this voice of hers to successfully satirize gothic novels and inaccurate thoughts about women of her time. By creating an altogether divergent plotline to that typically found in a gothic novel as well as apply other perfectly accurate aspects, Austen points out what she deems to be flaws and comically criticizes them. She also creates her female characters as what they were stereotypically thought to be, thus confronting that issue as well. Altogether Jane Austin was able to create a story that approached and challenged many social aspects in a successful way.
Abbey are crucial for developing and maturing Catherine’s character. Bibliography Austen, Jane. [1818] 1990 Northanger Abbey, ed. by John Davie, with an introduction by Terry Castle, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford: Oxford University Press Regan, Stephen. Ed. 2001.
Jane Austen completes her story with a “Cinderella ending” of Catherine and Henry marrying. However, her novel is more than a fairytale ending. Although often wrong and misguided in their judgments, she shows the supremacy of males that permeated throughout her society. Jane Austen takes us from a portrayal of men as rude, self-centered, and opinionate to uncaring, demanding, and lying to downright ruthless, hurtful, and evil. John Thorpe’s and General Tilney’s total disregard for others feelings and their villainous ways prove Austen’s point. Whether reading Northanger Abbey for the happy ending or the moral lesson, this novel has much to offer.
When authors write a story they “tell a particular story to a particular audience in a particular situation for, presumably, a particular purpose” (Phelan 4). Northanger Abbey and Frankenstein came out in the same year, were both gothic novels, and were both written by female authors. Despite these similarities, the two authors produced very different works of fiction and have very different authorial intentions for their stories. Austen and Shelley both use gothic elements to portray their purpose for their stories. The two authors create characters exhibiting powerful emotions and moralize through the usage of these emotions.
Catherine was born into a rich solid family, where her father, Mr. Earnshaw, was a strict man, and her mother, Mrs. Earnshaw, was a pretentious woman. Through her conceited youth Catherine’s immaturity is clearly explained. Born with a very strong attitude; she is the type that throws a fit when doesn’t get what she wants. An example is, “when she learnt the master had lost her whip in attending the stranger, showed her humor by grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing” (33). Catherine was never love by her father, whom felt the need to tell her, “Nay Cathy, I cannot love thee; thou’rt worse than thy brother. Go, s...
Characters in Pride and Prejudice and The Rape of the Lock are necessary tools in establishing satire within the stories. Austen uses a range of different character types in order to highlight the absurdity of society. For example, Elizabeth Bennet differs greatly from her other sisters and young ladies of Hertfordshire because h...
Catherine is free-spirited, wild, impetuous, and arrogant as a child, she grows up getting everything she wants as Nelly describes in chapter 5, ‘A wild, wicked slip she was’. She is given to fits of temper, and she is torn between her wild passion for Heathcliff and her social ambition. She brings misery to both of the men who love her, ultimately; Catherine’s selfishness ends up hurting everyone she loves, including herself.
Therefore, although Austen can be seen to conform to the view of gender stereotyping, it is possible to see the emergence of feminist attitudes in the way Austen presents strong female protagonists. In Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice ’ there are no less than thirteen female characters, in contrast to the seven male characters that appear throughout, suggesting that Austen does challenge traditional female roles by writing a female centric novel. To a certain extent the males in this novel are controlled by the females. Caroline Bingley’s controlling attitude towards her brother in his affections to Jane seen in volume 3, chapter 18 where ‘Miss Bingley's congratulations to her brother, on approaching marriage, were all that were affectionate and insincere’ suggesting with the word ‘insincere’ that her brother has gone against her wishes, her behaviour reflecting this.
Jane Austen Society of North America, Inc. A Brief Biography. jasna.org. 26 April. 2014.
Catherine Morland is a naive young girl in the eighteenth century created by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey. Throughout the course of the book we see a change in Catherine from being a naive girl who gets taken advantage of due to her innocence, ignorance and pureness to a young girl who has become sensible and cognizant of the intentions of those around her. Austen’s novel gave insight on how individuals in the eighteenth century behaved and how women as a whole were viewed based on their status. A woman's status and her fortune determine how she is treated and how others in society will perceive her. Catherine may not be the heroine everyone expects to read about, but nonetheless she is a dynamic character.
Catherine’s revenge does not make things better for her. Her revenge on Heathcliff by blaming him for her upcoming death does not meliorate her mind. Just before she dies, she ascribes Heathcliff for her “murder.” “You have killed me, and thriven on it, I think” (Bronte 158). Catherine resembles what Oliver Goldsmith said, “When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy?
After much danger and possible exploitation, she is rescued by a good, pleasant young man who falls in love with her,. Gothic novels are always very dramatic and mysterious, with a great deal of detailed description and suspense. tension. Then there is the. Charlotte Bronte did not perhaps aim to write a Gothic novel.
The literature output in Jane Austen’s creation is full of realism and irony. Janet Todd once asserted that "Austen creates an illusion of realism in her texts, partly through readably identification with the characters and partly through rounded characters, which have a history and a memory.” (Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen, 28.) Her works are deeply influenced between by late eighteenth-century Britain rationalism phenomenon and early nineteenth-century of romanticism.
According to Federico, young Catherine “represents a successful passage through the difficult rites of adolescence” (“Wuthering Heights”). I concur with this idea; unlike her impulsive, self-centered mother who constantly aggravated her late grandfather, young Catherine expresses caring for others, especially for her father. Within all her actions, “her affection for him [is] still the chief sentiment in her heart” (Bronte 247). Even at a younger age, young Catherine is already more selfless and compassionate than her mother, a fact juxtaposed with the static development of Catherine Earnshaw in the first half of the
In Northanger Abbey, Austen intended to reflect a contrast between a normal, healthy-natured girl and the romantic heroines of fiction thorough the use of characterization. By portraying the main character, Catherine Moorland, as a girl slightly affected with romantic notions, Jane Austen exhibits the co...
Jane Austen's writing style is a mix of neoclassicism and romanticism. Austen created a transition into Romanticism which encourages passion and imagination in writing instead of a strict and stale writing style. It is very emotional and follows a flowing not structured form. Mixing these two styles was one of Austen's strongest talents, which gave her an edge in the literary world. No other author in her time was able to create such a strong transition between writing styles. Austen used her sharp and sarcastic wit in all of her writing including in one of her most famous works; Pride and Prejudice. She could create a powerful and dramatic scene and immediately lead it into a satirical cathartic scene. We see these in various locations in Pride and Prejudice. She was able to use her experiences as well as her intense knowledge to create meaningful insights into her words, regardless of what topic she would be discussing. She often talks about marriage, or breaking the roles of what a person should be. She made controversial works that praised imperfections which praised the...