Aesthetic Flaw in Northanger Abbey
In an attempt to make as many satirical references to other Gothic-novels as possible many critics believe that Austen’s Northanger Abbey failed to make a consistent and unified sense of characterization and story line. But I saw Austen’s formation of the novel as a way to convey a deeper meaning in its many vague references to other Gothic novels and not just as a means of satire. Austen is pointing out the overly dramatic sense of other Gothic novels by making Northanger Abbey appear to possess the many aesthetic flaws critics say it has.
Although the novel as a whole or in just a dry read sounds a bit silly I felt within the true nature of novel’s Gothic parody, there’s an imbedded message Austen is trying to put across. The novel makes obvious mockery of other Gothic novels and characters but in doing so many critics are arguing that it lacked a sense of meaning because of its attempt to overreach from its expected theme which is a normal Gothic novel. I look up and found many critics who honestly believe that the novel is just too silly and unstructured to be anything more than just a failed attempt at satire. Before this class I’ve read the book at least twice and each time I read it I found a different way in looking at the many silly appearing sense of the book. So to prove my notion I looked up other critics that share my sentiment about the novel and I looked through ways they chose to prove this point. Many of the critics agreed on one thing when it came to the novel; they all believed in the lack of aesthetic unity in the story line and characterization but most defended this formation suggesting that it serves the purpose of parody, which is what the novel is. But at the same time more than half of the critics are defending the formation of the novel for more than just an attempt at parody.
Kearful is one of the critics who believe that because of Austen attempt to reflect a Gothic sense into the novel she...