The Female Quixote With Her Spear

Northanger Abbey was composed as the third among all of the six novels by Jane Austen, but published one year after her death in1818. The novel was written in a lively style and smart language, in which Austen included both her appreciation for her predecessors (especially women writers as Mrs. Radcliffe, Fanny Burney, etc.) and her incisive satire on the romantic conventions and gothic novels. Critics tend to think the only aim of the novel is to parody gothic novels, and it is not a mature work. However, this essay would state its importance. Under the cover of her playful tone is her effort in re-stating the value of novel-on one hand she satirizes the absurdity of romance, on the other hand she builds up her realistic attitude. Austen is like a female Quixote (also refers to the work The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox), holding satire as a weapon to defend the value of the novel. This essay aims to examine her defense, her realistic attitude, and hopefully to clarify her motivation in creating the novel, so as to recognize the significance of her composition.The first chapter introduces the historical and literary background of the creation of novel. Novel was not regarded highly since its appearance, though Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding made great efforts in establishing the realistic view of the novel, attempting to build it as a serious genre. Gothic novels crowned later in the development of novels and extended its popularity in the press market. However, as plagiarized gothic novels flooded in the press market, novel fell into mere recreation and lost its originality. By scrutinizing through the details of Northanger Abbey, chapter2and3include Austen’s firm belief in the value of novel, her attitude to the unfairness between gender roles, and her burlesque of romances. Then she expresses her realistic view, that money runs all the relationships, which could be seen in the hypocrisy of a man, in the incredibility of promises, and in the betrayal of friends and lovers. Meanwhile, Austen’s view of realism is not the same as Defoe or Richardson’s detailed reality portrayed in their works; instead, a few exaggeration and irony are well functioned in revealing human weakness. Austen’s realism was a "romantic" realism, which one would infer from the awkward happy ending presented in Northanger Abbey.In Northanger Abbey, Austen criticizes the prejudice against novel from the reading public, and she presents her idea in the composition of novel, which is to face the reality in a satiric point of view, though the view is combined with romantic features.