Q. How do minor characters contribute to the plot and enhance the important themes in the novel?
Jane Austen is an eighteenth century author whose works are based upon her observations of her society of that time. 'Northanger Abbey' is her first novel and it can not be considered dated as handles many important themes that can be noticed in the modern world as well. She enhances such important themes through minor characters in the novel that resemble people in real life.
Austen has depicted minor characters that are seen to contribute to Catherine's personal progression. The most prominent are perhaps the Thorpe siblings. Isabella and John Thorpe both embody the typical superficial and self-obsessed characters we meet in Austen's books. Catherine, lacking experience in social matters is unable to read them immediately. She sees Isabella as a loving friend hough she often finds it hard to keep up with her chatter. When Isabella calls two young me out for staring at them and then suggests pursuing them. Catherine is confused, she realises Isabella says something and does something else, thus begins her contemplation of their friendship.
Through Isabella Catherine learns social conduct, indulges in more Gothic fiction and believes what Isabella says; which further disrupts her ability to judge on her own and to differentiate reality from fiction. Although Catherine's first impression of John is not very pleasant, she forgets it all when he asks her to dance with him which shows the readers how naive and gullible she is. Later on we see how Isabella tries to use Catherine to have James propose to her, it doesn't work because Catherine does not catch on to her subtle hinting. When John and Isabella lie to her about having seen Henry Tilney in a carriage when he was meant to go on a walk with her she believes them, later realising that they had lied. Next time the Thorpes try to manipulate her plans, she knows better than to listen to them, 'If I can not be persuaded into doing what I think wrong, then I certainly wouldn't be tricked into doing it.' This marks the first progress in Catherine's journey towards maturity and Isabella and John contribute their fair share.
Austen depicts the second stage of Catherine's progression when she introduces James Morland and Captain Tilney. Isabella is disappointed that James is not as wealthy as she thought, although she tries to hide it from Catherine, to the readers her disdain is clear. She can, thus, be said to be a gold-digger, yet Catherine does not realise this without the guidance of Henry and Eleanor later on in the novel. While James is gone and Captain Tilney is in Bath, Isabella flirts with him and dances with him; what seemed like friendly attitude at first soon becomes concerning to Catherine. When she rejects Johns's proposal and rejects ever having led him on, Isabella remarks: 'Women flirt... Circumstances change, Opinions alter.' Catherine fails to realise that Isabella is forming a parallel between herself and Catherine as well as making her feel guilty so that when later on she breaks her engagement with James, Catherine will have no bases for complaint, having committed the same sin herself in Isabella's perspective. Catherine realises her schemes only after James and Isabella's engagement breaks off and then when Captain Tilney leaves Isabella, she writes to Catherine to ask James to take her back. It is such clear manipulation that with her newfound experience and Henry and Eleanor's guidance she is able to see right through it and cuts her beds with Isabella for good. Thus readers get a further sense of Catherine's character development and realise John Thorpe, Isabella Thorpe, James Morland, Eleanor Tilney and Captain Tilney have a large hand in keeping the story in motion.
John Thorpe's role does not end there. Austen depicts him having conversations with General Tilney that contribute to the events that occur after the Tilneys decide to move out of Bath. Impressed by the stories of Catherine's wealth thatJohn weaves, the General invites her to stay with the Tilneys at Northanger Abbey and even tries to flaunt his son's good fortune to her so that they'd get married. Everything seems to be working in Catherine's favour until two major occurrences; blinded by there fantasies of Gothic novels she builds an imaginary story of General Tilney having murdered or imprisoned his wife, and the second occurrence is being sent home suddenly because John Thorpe exaggerates to General Tilney Catherine's 'poor roots' and being the gullible man he is General Tilney, enraged by the lies of Catherine's wealth sends her back home, unattended and without saying goodbye to Henry which also makes the General fall in the eyes of the reader. Catherine is chastised by Henry over her delusional fantasies, she feel ashamed and vows never to allow her imagination to overact again. This marks another progress of maturity and helps her realise that not all people are black and white, good and bad like in Gothic novels, some good people can have bad traits as. This also further opens her eyes to the materialistic people in society and how being gullible can get one into trouble as it has caused General Tilney by first inviting her into his house and then losing his son's respect. Thus the readers realise that Catherine has gotten over the source of most of her inaccurate judgments of people: Gothic novels, and it is much thanks to the behaviour General Tilney exhibits.
By displays of such minor characters Austen has brought forward the thee of Catherine's innocence, which most people take wrong advantage of. She has presented manipulation, lies, superficial attitude, and has developed Catherine to speak for herself, learn to differentiate between what is wrong and what is right and to be able to read people accurately. Through her journey Austen has taught her readers lesson as well. She teaches us not to get too wrapped up in fantasies that it starts affecting our real life decisions , she teaches us not to be gullible and superficial through the failed relationships of Isabella and James, and General Tilney and his children. She teaches us not to fool someone so much that they stop taking us seriously like how Catherine loses her respect and trust in John. She teaches us not to be easily impressed by wealth as General Tilney and Isabella are. Furthermore, all the lessons can be applied to the modern world making them timeless wisdom.
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English Literature 9695
Non-FictionThis is a compilation of all the essays and notes I wrote while I was in ALevels. It must be noted that not all of of these are A* material (though none goes lower than a grade B) so they aren't meant to be copy pasted for your school assignments. U...
