The Plots Of Deception In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

The notion that a young woman must be either engaged or pursuing an engagement was a common standard for women in the 19th century. Women looking for an engagement, must uphold high standards with strong morals as well as being wholly pure of both body and mind. Jane Austen depicts the main characters of her novels as being strong individuals in the midst of these societal standards. These significant morals in Northanger Abbey, influence the characters, such as Catherine and Isabella, in how they make their decisions. Additionally, the main character Catherine Morland, a young lady, learns the ways of presenting herself in the best light possible. Plots of deception from Isabella, to assumptions made by General Tilney, establishes the wavering relationships amongst the

and Miss Tilney develop with good intentions, yet her immaturity change the dynamics to become more of a doting relationship. In both instances when Catherine meets the Tilneys for the first time, she is polite and conversational, but Catherine also “was desirous of being acquainted with [Miss Tilney]” (Austen 50). In Catherine’s meeting of the Tilneys, she possesses an element of her immaturity, as her emotions and attention scatter back and forth between the Tilneys and the Thorpes. Her attachments to both women, Isabella Thorpe and Miss Tilney, display Catherine’s childlike admiration and naive adoration. In the argument of the argument of Waldo Glock, he refers Catherine to have an “impressionable mind occasionally interpret[ing] scenes at Bath in the light of her reading of Gothic romance" (Glock 33). Her books influence her character and actions, as she makes decisions based on what she has read in her gothic novels. Like a child, her stories influence her day to day experiences which establish her immaturity, in looking for role models to mirror her life