Rejection Of Imposed Gendered Subordination In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

Conor Coughlin

Professor Jasper Cragwall

Dev West Thght II Disc

13 February 2023

Learning is Rebellion: Rejection of Imposed Gendered Subordination in Jane Austen's “Northanger Abbey”

In Jane Austen's novel, “Northanger Abbey” the affiliation between pedagogy and torture is a recurring theme that highlights the inequality of knowledge and constraints imposed on women in a patriarchal society. Austen discovers how women’s education can be used to escape societal norms. Through the character of Catherine Morland, Austen explores how education through Catherine’s acquisition of experience and exploration of gothic literature encourages her to escape these societal norms and assert her independence. Catherine’s rejection of her imposed gendered

Catherine begins to become interested in the sudden death of Henry Tilney’s mother and starts to think that her death wasn’t accidental. Her curiosity leads her to go snoop around in her chambers. While she is there, she is caught by Henry Tilney and because of her disobedience, she is struck with guilt and shame, “the absurdity of her curiosity and her fears, could they ever be forgotten? She hated herself more than she could express” (Austen 146). Throughout the novel, her subtle but important acts of rebellion against the patriarchal society of 18th century England filled her with empowerment and hope for a future that she wanted. Being caught by Henry Tilney nearly abolishes her usual confidence. She begins to feel shame and doubt in regard to her independent nature. While she was able to previously break from her traditional gender norms, she suddenly makes her self small again in response to Henry. She is soon sent back home, “Tomorrow morning is fixed for your leaving us”(Austen 165). While she thinks it’s because she went into General Tilney’s wife’s room, the reader finds out it is because her family didn’t have the fortune to be married into. She obeys and heads back home and thinks that her story is over and she has failed, “I bring back my heroine to her home in solitude and disgrace”(Austen 172). She finds out that General Tilney was only mad because she was, “less rich than he had supposed her to be”(Austen 181). So while her subordination was indeed real, it was a societal standard that forced her into that subordination. Ultimately, Henry Tilney asks for her hand in marriage and they get married and she lives in “perfect happiness” (Austen 186). Catherine demonstrated a number of ways she broke free from her gender stereotype, she was not completely free and ended up marrying the person she