The novel is one of the most popular one from Jane Austen. The novel is about a girl growing up as a tomboy and later become sexually matured women. While coming of age mean being able to drink or graduation from high school or get bitten by thousands of ants depending on what society you belong to, in this novel coming of age for a girl means being able to attract a romantic partner and get married. In chapter one the description of the girl in the first sentence hints us the total theme of the story. The author did not hesitate to reveal the protagonist in the first few sentences, unlike the other stories we read where there is a series of events that revels the main character. Catherine Morland who grows up playing games like boys grows up as her interest grows form childish games to books. Books are her window to the world of mystery and interpretation of people. However she does not think about the emotional horrors that people have in mind as she fails to understand people more.
The setting of this story is in England where the nobles have extravagant lifestyle of fashion and ball-room dances. It is different in style from the regular Gothic genre as the Dark castle; spooky hallways are only fragment of the protagonist's imagination. It is more about the internal conflict of the characters than the external conflict. The Protagonist, Catherine Morland tries to understand more about people but usually she fails every time. Miss Morland is just 17 years of age and never had affection is attracted by well mannered and humble Henry Tinley, the son of General Tinley. General Tinley seems to be interested in the brewing love between his son and Miss Morland. He is represented as a dynamic character as he seemed all nice but later turns out to be antagonist. Mr. Thorpe is used as a Foil character as he admits that the Morlands are poor. This creates a twist in the story where everything happens very fast and it seems chaotic. General Tinley upon finding that the Morlands are poor and not the heir of the generous Allen family turns against Catherine as he orders her immediate leave without escort or protection from the abbey. He is not all evil but certainly no saint as he seems to have won his three children through orders and not love as the mother’s room is restricted to the children which make Catherine more suspicious of his intentions. This is the point where the reality and imagination conflicts. The imagination is not so different to the ones fueled by Gothic books that Ms Morland reads and I believe that is a satire to Ann Radcliffe and other Gothic writers which rely on vague and cynical elements to create excitement and thrill upon readers. This novel is written very cleverly as this contains no supernatural events and yet promise to deliver the same thrill to reader. If the mind is playing tricks on the characters it can be equally horrendous. That is the point Jane Austen wants to make in this literature. The character such as Thorpe and Isabella add instability to the relations that the growing girl is trying to make. She is emotionally tested in every moment of her stay in bath and in the abbey. The society seemed to have high opinion of the higher class and the amount of wealth one could get after being married. However Henry is consistent but not willing to fight for his love until the end of the novel where he goes to visit Catherine and the Morlands to ask her hand for marriage.
There is a happy ending to this but the point the writer is trying to address is that real life is different than the imaginary world of literature and a growing girl should try to understand people more than books with imagination.
The setting of this story is in England where the nobles have extravagant lifestyle of fashion and ball-room dances. It is different in style from the regular Gothic genre as the Dark castle; spooky hallways are only fragment of the protagonist's imagination. It is more about the internal conflict of the characters than the external conflict. The Protagonist, Catherine Morland tries to understand more about people but usually she fails every time. Miss Morland is just 17 years of age and never had affection is attracted by well mannered and humble Henry Tinley, the son of General Tinley. General Tinley seems to be interested in the brewing love between his son and Miss Morland. He is represented as a dynamic character as he seemed all nice but later turns out to be antagonist. Mr. Thorpe is used as a Foil character as he admits that the Morlands are poor. This creates a twist in the story where everything happens very fast and it seems chaotic. General Tinley upon finding that the Morlands are poor and not the heir of the generous Allen family turns against Catherine as he orders her immediate leave without escort or protection from the abbey. He is not all evil but certainly no saint as he seems to have won his three children through orders and not love as the mother’s room is restricted to the children which make Catherine more suspicious of his intentions. This is the point where the reality and imagination conflicts. The imagination is not so different to the ones fueled by Gothic books that Ms Morland reads and I believe that is a satire to Ann Radcliffe and other Gothic writers which rely on vague and cynical elements to create excitement and thrill upon readers. This novel is written very cleverly as this contains no supernatural events and yet promise to deliver the same thrill to reader. If the mind is playing tricks on the characters it can be equally horrendous. That is the point Jane Austen wants to make in this literature. The character such as Thorpe and Isabella add instability to the relations that the growing girl is trying to make. She is emotionally tested in every moment of her stay in bath and in the abbey. The society seemed to have high opinion of the higher class and the amount of wealth one could get after being married. However Henry is consistent but not willing to fight for his love until the end of the novel where he goes to visit Catherine and the Morlands to ask her hand for marriage.
There is a happy ending to this but the point the writer is trying to address is that real life is different than the imaginary world of literature and a growing girl should try to understand people more than books with imagination.
I love your blog--great analyses of the texts, too. Good job!!! Best, LD
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