Example research essay topic: Sense And Sensibility Jane Austen - 1,251 words

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Northanger Abbey, a playful short novel is the one which most resembles Jane Austen's Juvenilia. It is the story of the unsophisticated and sincere Catherine Morland on her first trip away from home, for a stay in Bath. There she meets the entertaining Henry Tilney; later, on a visit to his family's house (the "Northanger Abbey" of the title) she learns to distinguish between the highly charged calamities of Gothic fiction and the realities of ordinary life (which can also be distressing in their way). Like Jane Austen's Love and Friendship, this book makes fun of the conventions of many late 18 th century literary works, with their highly wrought and unnatural emotions; some of this humor derives from the contrast between Catherine Morland and the conventional heroines of novels of the day. It is a satire on the novel of terror, but besides making fun of a literary convention, it has another kind of satire. Jane Austen is aware of human foibles and weaknesses.

The novel's central theme, common to Emma and Sense and Sensibility is the peril of confusing life and art: in this instance literature. Northanger Abbey didn't actually appear until after Austen's death, but in "Northanger Abbey" she satirizes the common idiocy of her time as well as the Gothic novel. The Gothic novel was "morbid writing" which over exaggerated the gloom and terror of ancient Abbey's of Jane Austen's time. Jane Austen makes a parody of the Gothic novel by placing Catherine in the place of the heroine when she visits Eleanor at Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen then goes on to satire all situations in which Catherine believes she will find something horrific. An example of this would be when Catherine found laundry bills inside the chest in her room at Northanger Abbey.

Jane Austen constantly mentions "the black veil" and in "The Mysteries of Udolpho" Emily, the heroine, comes across "a dark curtain, which, descending from the ceiling to the floor", conceals something. Jane Austen satirizes this by making Catherine expect the same black veil which makes us think her foolish. Another example of Jane Austen satirizing is Isabella. Isabella is satirized on her vanity. How she thinks she's beautiful and thinks everyone else does to.

An example of this is when Isabella and Catherine are in the Pump room and Isabella believes that two young men are watching her, so avoids they gaze getting Catherine to watch them. She complains of them watching, secretly enjoying it. When the girls go over to the guest book and the men walk away Isabella is outraged and then follows. This is a key example of her vanity.

My final example of satire is John Thorpe. The arrogant, selfish John Thorpe. He believes that horses should be worked for hours a day. "Nothing ruins horses so much as rest; nothing knocks them up so soon." This makes us think him arrogant and Jane Austen really builds on that. She satirizes him emotionally and plays on his selfishness. One of Jane Austen's best attributes as a writer is her rapier wit and sense of humor, which especially shows itself in her earlier novels, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility."Northanger Abbey", which preceded both of them but was published only after her death, is a clever parody of the Gothic novel as written by Anne Radcliffe: full of dark, stormy nights, ancient castles with secret passages and locked rooms hiding unspeakable crimes, damsels in distress, and all the rest. Austen's heroine, Catherine Morland, has read a few too many such books, and we meet her at the age of seventeen, emerging from the chrysalis of adolescence as a passably pretty young woman with her head full of romantic notions and not much else.

When she meets the hero of her dreams, Henry Tilney, a surprisingly level-headed young man, Catherine realizes that life as melodrama is a poor second to life in reality. Catherine is fascinated at the prospect of visiting Northanger Abbey -- what mysteries and horrors must be waiting to be discovered -- only to be brought up short by the pedestrian intrusion of real life (a locked cabinet which might have held vials of poison or, even better, a skeleton, turns out to hold nothing more dangerous than a laundry list). "Northanger Abbey" is a good first novel but it is by no means Jane Austen's best, and Catherine is not as interesting a heroine as Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Watson or Elinor Dashwood; she's a somewhat shallow, undeveloped young lady who lacks their depth and their intelligence. But she's a likeable heroine; unlike Fanny Price, Catherine doesn't try to be perfect nor judge others for failing to be so, and unlike Emma Watson, she's not meddling in everyone else's business. She can admit when she's at fault and she has a generous spirit. We like to imagine her as the tomboy Austen pictures her in her childhood, rolling down hills and chasing her brothers and sisters. Austen provided a number of interesting supporting characters: Henry's amiable sister Elinor, his insufferably snobbish and narrow-minded father General Tilney, and the artful, heartless flirt Isabella Thorpe.

By the book's end, Catherine has grown up a bit; she sees life as it is and realizes Henry's steady common sense is infinitely preferable to the histrionics of any Gothic hero. Jane Austen's first book was a promising introduction of better things to come. Jane Austen was arguably one of the best writers of her time; however, only she took the bold leap into poking fun at the books of her time. Northanger Abbey brings Catherine, the heroine (on whom, among other things, Austen periodically comments from afar) through the joys and troubles of being an eligible young lady with a probing mind and endearing naivete, acquired from none other than the countless novels she has read. The elegance, and at some points speed, with which Austen plays out and then reconciles her young heroine's difficulties is at the very least extremely amusing. The foolish suspense and embarrassed relief which center around the Abbey are no less entertaining when one considers this book against darker novels where the papers in locked drawers have slightly more bearing.

Catherine's friend Isabella, her vain (and in-vain) suitor John, and Mr. and Miss Tilney are brilliant foils for her character's development. Overall, I think this book rates as one of the true gems of the 19 th Century. I believe that Jane Austen uses Northanger Abbey to show mocking or exaggerated humor to ridicule faults and vices. She shows us that she is aware of human foibles and weaknesses which proves that she is the greatest satirize or of her time. Overall, Northanger Abbey is a good example of a gothic novel to highlight the gothic elements.

I can see that the heroine of this novel is most defiantly Catherine. Although at the start of the book I think she is still too immature to become a heroine, as she needs a hero to come into her life, someone with a secret, mysterious background. She has a confident (which is very common among gothic novels) and in a lot of cases, the confident turns out to be the villain. The villain of the novel would have to be John Thorp as he is a brash bully towards Catherine. The house is gothic as well as classical and the whole aspect of the novel highlights many gothic scenes.

Reference Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New York. Graphic Society. (1986)

Research essay sample on Sense And Sensibility Jane Austen