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Austen's Northanger Abbey Chapters 11-21 (How is desire illustrated in…
Austen's
Northanger Abbey
Chapters 11-21
Mr Thorpe: we don't like him
egotistical, awful, hurts his animals; makes up that Catherine cancels
sets up conventions/expectations of antagonist
creating fantasy : "you received his advances in the kindest way" (chapter 18, pg 149). also shows Catherine's obliviousness: "His attentions were such as a child would have noticed"
this is boring/not interesting/repetitive/banal
How is desire illustrated in this text:
polyamorous desires: the insistence on being "sisters" and Isabella's match making and intimacies;
third person getting in the way
the pressures of social acceptance and money: "Young men and women in carriages!" (118)'' "if I had known it to be improper"
the pressures of the social construct of virginity (esp as it relates to women's social/monetary value). Catherine's ignorance allows us to critique the social standards (like the social contestedness of "virginity') especially because we, like Catherine, are on the outside looking in. Alienating normativities provides a form of critique
also makes heterosexuality/cross-sex desire foreign/alien: can't see how flirting works. "Unconsciously it must be, for Isabella's attachment to James was as certain and acknowledged as her engagement" (chp 18 153)
"it is the woman only who can make it a torment" --supports women as trophy wives, puts responsibility on women bc of course men have no control: maybe early modern victim blamaing (the ideology that naturalizes blaming women)
desire for castles: "ecstasy" (chp 19)
highlights Catherine's inability to sustain thought
Chapter 20 exchange between Henry and Catherine"explore our way into the hall." "lodged apart from the rest of the family" (161)
"a door with no lock": fear of anyone coming into the bedroom (no security/sexual security)
meta-fiction: "Just like I read in a book!": maybe shows the appeal of the fantasy of living out liberation narratives; appeals to her sense of excitement to shake off the tedious parts of life
reading as erotic acts (fanfiction)
"Catherine, in recollecting herself, grew ashamed of her eagerness" (163): highlights the confines of propriety
Austen's use of intertextuality
Otranto and Matilda in Chapter 20: scaring Catherine; Henry sets up atmosphere (and expectations AND TROPES) setting up expectations of the genre; by extension, questions of gendered power (Manfred)