As I was reading Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, I was struck by its similarities to Ann Radcliffe’s
A Sicilian Romance. What made this
more interesting is that Austin’s characters do note in the novel that they
have enjoyed reading Radcliffe, which leads me to believe that the similarity between
the two novels was intentional. The novels share somewhat of a similar plot,
but also setting, character profiles, and themes.
The plot is similar in that both feature a love triangle
where the main character is running away from and towards one gentleman over
the other. In the case of Northanger
Abbey, Catherine is running away from Mr. Thorpe in pursuit of Mr. Tilney.
Radcliffe’s Julia and Austin’s Catherine also share some character traits in
that they both are…what’s the word? Immature? Julia faints often for no apparent reason,
and Catherine is entirely upset over her candle going out, and can hardly bear
being more than a couple of paces from the chest in her room once she notices
it. Both stories take place in a gothic setting: Radcliffe’s in Sicilian
castles, and Austen’s at Northanger Abbey.
What’s most interesting to me is how both the authors
demonstrate the uncanny. Using Freud’s definition, “the uncanny is in reality
nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old established in
the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of
repression”. As the “uncanny” is assuredly linked with gothic sublimity, which
is no doubt a main theme of the novel, aspects of the uncanny are present
within the Austen’s novel.
Like A Sicilian
Romance, the mother figure in Austen’s Northanger
Abbey can be analyzed in relation to the uncanny. In fact, when Catherine
suspects General Tilney of murdering his wife, the only other possibility that
comes to her mind is that General Tilney has instead suppressed his wife and
must give her food nightly; a situation which exactly mirrors that of A Sicilian Romance (likely because
Catherine has read the book). In this way, Mrs. Tilney is seen to embody the uncanny
in the same way that the mother figure does in Radcliffe’s novel, which is
difficult to explain if you haven’t read Radcliffe’s novel. In what other ways
is Mrs. Tilney used to represent the uncanny aspects of Austen’s novel? How do
Catherine’s actions also represent the uncanny?
What is the significance of Austen’s novel being a remaking
of Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance?
Does it bear resemblance only because they are both gothic novels, or does the
similarity extend beyond their respective genres?
Could Austen convey what she wanted to convey with Northanger Abbey using a different
genre? To what extent does the Gothic genre contribute or inhibit Jane Austen’s
story?
Another interesting take on this novel is the ways in which
reading novels influences our opinions and ways of viewing the world around us.
Catherine, after having read Radcliffe’s novels, among other gothics, began to
think about her world as if it was set in a gothic novel itself. She made
assumptions and inquiries reminiscent of the events of A Sicilian Romance, which ended up being quite an embarrassment for
her. Reading so much, Catherine was less able to separate fiction from reality.
To what extent does reading or watching television in our modern age affect how
we see the world? Is the effect a positive, negative, or neutral one? Does
awareness of the effects of fiction affect our engagement in it?
