Both Catherine and Anne are also markedly different with regards to their personality and nature. Catherine is portrayed as a naïve, good-natured young woman whose education in the way the world works only truly begins when she arrives as Bath. Her innocence/naivety sometimes becomes a problem when she allows it to cloud her judgment and blur the lines of what is fact and what is fiction. Her expectations of Northanger Abbey were heavily influenced by her passion for Gothic novels; because an abbey is a common backdrop in the Gothic novels of the times, her naivety leads her to believe that what happened in her Gothic novels would also happen to her. While her naivety and her innocence caused her some problems, like mistakenly suspecting…show more content… This is not surprising considering Jane Austen’s ties with the place. She enjoyed social events, and in her youth she often frequented Bath for dances and balls. From the year 1801 to 1806, she took up residence in Bath due to her elderly father’s wish to retire there. Interesting are the very different portrayals of Bath in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and the very different picture of society that we receive from them both. Catherine Morland speaks with extreme delight of Bath, declaring that “’I really believe I shall always be talking of Bath, when I am at home again—I do like it so very much. If I could but have Papa and Mamma, and the rest of them here, I suppose I should be too happy! . . . Oh! Who can ever be tired of Bath?’” (Northanger Abbey 53). This rosy perspective is said to recall Austen’s youthful excursions to Bath, where she would “shop and sample the delights of town and stay with Aunt Leigh Perrot” and just have a good time in general (Aiken). Austen’s presentation of society in Northanger Abbey as a generally pleasant and unthreatening place can be viewed through the treatment Catherine receives in Bath, and also as an extension of her initial goodwill towards Bath. Catherine Morland is a free woman who has the time of her life in Bath and fears nothing, because she sees only the good in people and not the bad. For the most part,…show more content… The social critique of Northanger Abbey can be seen in the analysis of certain characters that reveal the detriments of blindly adhering to social conventions. These characters have their own motives for following these conventions, but the values of these conventions are never questioned. This blind obedience of conventions can sometimes lead them to do horrible things in the name of duty, of which the outcome is extremely unpleasant. One such social convention that is critiqued by Austen is the act of young women marrying for the sake of money. By ardently pursuing her own interests (that is condoned by social convention) using whatever means available to her, Isabella Thorpe schemes and deceives her way through the novel, unnecessarily hurting those around her. Austen could be suggesting that some of her period’s social conventions might be more harmful than helpful and therefore, the conventions should at the very least be reflected upon before being followed blindly. The distance of the reader from the situation allows the reader to not only laugh at the folly of these characters, but to learn from them, which could be what Austen intended
