Narrative Voice in Northanger Abbey: Finding the Value of Novelistic Expression Katie Livingston College

Jane Austen ’s Northanger Abbey has been widely analyzed as satire of the gothic novel and, at first glance, it seems there is more than enough textual evidence to support this claim. Throughout the novel, Austen employs a sarcastic narrative voice, often condescending to the gothic tropes. However, the theory of the novel as pure satire falls apart once the reader considers some of the instances in the novel where Austen openly defends and pays homage to the very genre she otherwise derides. While a surface level reading of Northanger Abbey may lead the reader to believe that Austen is simply satirizing the gothic novel, a closer examination of the text revels that she is also upholding it as a valid form of art capable of mimicking real life and shedding light on human personality. Throughout the novel, Austen engages with herself in a complex discussion about novels and their usefulness, creating her own dialectic through her innovative use of narrative voice.

Taken at face value, the narrative voice in Northanger Abbey is predominately satirical. The novel opens with the narrator intentionally mocking the gothic novel and its logic. The first indication of this attitude occurs when the narrator begins discussing the...