Catherine Morland is the heroine of

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

's 1817 novel ''

Northanger Abbey ''Northanger Abbey'' () is a coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the ...

''. A modest, kind-hearted

ingénue The ''ingénue'' (, , ) is a stock character in literature, film and a role type in the theater, generally a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. ''Ingénue'' may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such roles ...

, she is led by her reading of

Gothic literature Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

to misinterpret much of the social world she encounters.

Character

Catherine is barely out of the schoolroom when she enters the social whirl of Bath society, and the novel centres around her attempts, often laughable, to learn about life and social realities. Many of her problems stem from her excessive tendency to take people at their own evaluations; However, while socially naive, Catherine also has an underlying sense of reality to support her; and her honesty and strength eventually see her successfully through her troubles. Her confrontation at the Abbey itself with the novel's main

father figure A father figure is usually an older man, normally one with power, authority, or strength, with whom one can identify on a deeply psychological level and who generates emotions generally felt towards one's father. Despite the literal term "father ...

, General Tilney, brings matters to a head. Unable to see through his manipulations over her postulated inheritance, or to recognise him beneath his fine words as a domestic tyrant, Catherine turns to Gothic fantasy to explain her sense of unease, only to be embarrassed and humiliated when her imaginings of a gruesome murder are laid bare. Arguably, however, she has been both wrong and right in her preconscious judgement of the General, using her Gothic imaginings to articulate the gap between her experience of the General and his social facade.J. Nardin, ''Those Elegant Decorums'' (1973) p. 75=7

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Catherine Morland Catherine Morland is the heroine of Jane Austen's 1817 novel '' Northanger Abbey''. A modest, kind-hearted ingénue, she is led by her reading of Gothic literature to misinterpret much of the social world she encounters. Character Catherine ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morland, Catherine Northanger Abbey characters Literary characters introduced in 1817 Fictional gentry Female characters in literature

Character

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