Stephen Donner
Dr. R. Brittenham
English E303
Close Reading Two
January 24, 2006
Merriam-Webster (m-w.com) in its 3rd definition of romance defines it as such: “an emotional attraction or aura belonging to an especially heroic era, adventure, or activity.”
A pivotal chapter of Catherine’s character development in Northanger Abbey, Chapter 10 opens with a taut sentence, but in my mind, one that also holds a dual meaning: “The visions of romance were over” (157). Ostensibly, of course, this sentence and its accompanying paragraph concern themselves with Catherine’s emotional response to Henry’s rebuff of her suspicions of General Tilney, and the implications that this has on the budding romance between the two.
The language, however, I feel additionally supports Catherine’s conscious dissolution of the fanciful mindset which had brought her to this point. The term “visions” potentially evokes the Gothic, surreal, mental images or happenings that she imagines (conjured up from her Gothic novel readings) and later on rescinds. Here, Webster’s definition fits—albeit not precisely—Austen’s use of “romance” since Catherine indeed invests “emotional attraction” in the “mysteries” of Northanger Abbey; she was enough of a heroine to seek out the “truth” of Mr. Tilney’s supposed evils—via her “heroic activities”: exploration of the Abbey.
In accordance with this language of “visions of romance,” the narrator says of Catherine that she was “completely awakened,” which also implies an emergence from a dream-like state, and even larger parallels with her being immersed in the Gothic mindset. Although Catherine had earlier proven wrong most of her imaginative, runaway notions firsthand, it wasn’t until Henry’s rebuff which “had more thoroughly opened her eyes to the extravagance of her late fancies than all their several disappointments had done” that she is able to fully come to terms with the magnitude of her fancies and their ramifications (157).
Left alone, Catherine would likely have continued unabashedly in her flights of fancy were it not for Henry’s redress, point for point, of her fanciful notions. Henry, then, in addition to being her romantic interest, in this case represents an embodiment of rational thought, and it is he who “breaks the spell,” as it were of Catherine’s “romantic,” Gothic visions. Indeed, “the visions of romance were over”.
WORKS CITED
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. Ed. Marilyn Gaull. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2005.
"romance." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006.