Female Heroine?

“She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features;-so much for her person;-and not less unpropitious for heroism” (13)

With this description, Jane Austen offers the reader an image of a very casual female figure who finds herself quite far from that of a Gothic heroine. However, the latter is presented as a goal that Catherine Morland wants to attain. This character wants to be modelled on the heroines that are included on the Gothic literature she is reading: “from fifteen to seventeen she was training for a heroine …” (15)

A process of maturity can be noticed on her when she stays at Bath. Her intrusion within society makes her being far from innocence, she is stepping into adulthood. It is a process of identifying herself as part of society. She starts facing her situations even though she does not show her emotions. That is completely opposite to the idea of a gothic figure.

Since Austen’s work is a parody of the Gothic, she draws the image of an active woman who is reacting against any circumstance and not the passive female character that is developed by the influence of typical Gothic incidents in which she is involved.

Catherine is constantly reading Gothic fiction and therefore she wants to enjoy gothic adventures but she hardly finds them. She fulfils her enthusiasm when she enters the Gothic inspired abbey. However, she fails at finding any mysterious aspect. Being that failure a useful lesson for her to be learnt: using reason before giving free use to imagination.

Widmark, Elisabeth. "Catherine Morland in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, an unlikely Gothic heroine".University of Gothenburg, June 2011.