Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey isn't among the more well-known of Austen's works, and it focuses on different aspects than I feel any of her other books, although I'm nowhere near an Austen scholar since I have only read a few of her books. Her other books seem to focus more on social class and how ridiculous society can be, but Northanger Abbey goes into other dilemmas.
The rise of the gothic novel - although I'm not positive where gothic novels came into play in relation to Austen's romantic novels - seemed to worry scholars and gentry alike. Young people would spend their time absorbed in books that were not really indicative of real life, and Austen played on that. I'd assume that some of the same people reading gothic novels also ventured to Austen's books. They may not portray the same ideas or type and level of excitement, but it may have been the same age group.
Austen *lightly* mocks gothic novels and the ridiculousness around them. Catherine, Northanger Abbey's heroine who "No one who had ever seen . . . in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine" (opening line), falls prey to her imaginations because she has become too absorbed in gothic novels. Her reading material is openly ridiculed by others and by the author herself because it can lead young people to err.
I liken this to the internet. There are a few different ways one could go with this, but here are a few thoughts. We could see gothic novels as social networking sites where we create imaginary realities of communities etc. which can distort our reality - remember that Catherine was an ordinary girl with nothing "special" about her, yet she imagined great scenarios for herself because of what she was reading; gothic novels could be the internet in general, the way it sucks up your time because you become absorbed in it without question; the culture of today could be compared to the culture of the era regarding suitable behavior and unsuitable behavior as we are discovering together new culture online the same as Catherine discovered the existing culture she had yet to experience.
This has further merit in the idea I've been considering that the internet and digital age have made no big changes to us or our way of life, but simply given us new means to do the same things. Thus, Catherine discovers her society's mores just as we change ours.
What other ways does this text reflect our time and culture?
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