I’ve read Northanger Abbey many times, and while I couldn’t help but notice Austen's satire of the gothic novel and her criticism of the extreme femininity of heroines, I never really paid too much attention to it. My knowledge of the gothic novel and the traditional behavior of heroines in the 18th century came simply from Austen’s comments about them. Therefore, I just found her comments to be amusing, and didn’t think much more beyond that factor. Now, I have a greater appreciation for Northanger, a book I used to just consider as Austen’s lightest, youngest and most amusing book to read. When reading Evelina I remember being very confused about Mr. Villars letter to Evelina, telling her that she was in love with Lord Orville. I believe in my blog post for Evelina, I commented about that letter trying to make sense of Evelina’s not already knowing that very obvious point. I only really understood the letter, however, when we discussed it in class. When Professor Nadell mentioned that women were not suppose to fall in love with men until they were proposed to by them, a passage from Northanger clicked in my mind, and for the first time I fully understood what Austen meant by it. The passage I’m referring to is in Chapter XV (Vol. II) where Henry Tilney’s motivation for falling in love with Catherine is mentioned. Austen writes, “…I must confess that his affection originated in nothing better than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new circumstance in romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory of a heroine’s dignity; but if it be as new in common life, the credit of a wild imagination will be at least be all my own.” Not only was Catherine’s love for Henry Tilney obvious, it was what initiated Henry’s love for her. It’s just great how Austen points out the ridiculousness of certain feminine conventions through her heroine.
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there is a similar moment when Austen archly ponders whether Catherine dreamed about Henry after meeting him; she notes Richardson's Rambler essay in which he pontificates that "no lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared"--she then remarks "it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamed of her." The effect of such passages in my experience increases over time. They make the most earnest moralizing seem flatly absurd--maybe girls shouldn't, but they do! and guess what: civilization has not yet crumbled!
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