Jane Austen is universally known for her unique, intimate and precise descriptions of everyday life in late 18th and early 19th century England, and Her plots often center on the humorous adventures of women attempting to navigate the structures of polite society. Although Austen's first novel, Northanger Abbey (1803), did not amass the same cultural following as some of her others, the text is nevertheless noteworthy as an introduction to Austen's distinctively "realist" writing style. The story closely follows the exploits of Catherine Moreland, whose attempts to navigate English society are often made entertaining by her imaginative vision of reality, deeply influenced by Gothic novels. In many ways, Northanger Abbey is notable for its distinctly "Austenian" sense of humor, something that is most evident in the way Austen parodies the popular Gothic novels of her time. However, the novel functions as a parody of the Gothic novel to illuminate the true stylistic essence of the novel: realism. Austen experiments with the developing literary trends of the Romantic period (particularly Gothic writing) to help establish a new novelistic style focused on ordinary experiences, making Northanger Abbey a definitive text of early literary realism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To discuss the ways in which genre operates within Austen's text, it is necessary to understand the theories of realism and gothic as specific genres. While the name “realism” implies that novels of this type are based on the description of “real people” and their “real experiences,” Richard Chase expands this concept in the following statement: “The aim of the English [realist] novel is to give the 'impression of fidelity to human experience' (12). Austen's work exemplifies an early style of realism that simply focuses on the minute details of certain characters' experiences during a specific segment of that character's life. It is not representative of a universal human experience, but of a specific human experience, and therefore every reality illustrated in each of Austen's books is determined by how the protagonist interprets that reality. However, the Romantic period (from which Austen's novels come) is one that gave even more credence to the rise of the Gothic genre, which describes novels focused on horror, death, and the supernatural (Hogle and Smith 2). It goes without saying that the Gothic novel proposes a sense of reality that is entirely fictional, and works of this genre directly juxtapose the non-fictional realities presented by realist fiction. While the realism of Northanger Abbey is evident throughout the text, Austen's way of parodying Gothic fiction only comes into direct focus in the novel's second and final volume. This final part of the story follows Catherine as she is invited to stay with the Tilney family at their historic country home, a former convent called Northanger Abbey. In a series of amusing exchanges and experiences, Catherine's vision of Northanger Abbey as a place out of her Gothic novels is repeatedly usurped by a non-fictional reality, where Northanger Abbey is just like any other house in early England. end of the 18th century. While Austen parodies the Gothic novel through Catherine's dashed expectations, she creates the basis for a realist novel by juxtaposing Gothic elements with entirely realistic and entirely non-fictional narrative elements. While the story is based on Catherine's anticipation of going to theestate, she is shown to imagine it as if it were a place she would find in one of her beloved Gothic novels. It describes in advance the “. . . the long, dank passages, the narrow cells, and the ruined chapel, must have been within her daily reach, and she could not quite tame the hope of some traditional legends, of some terrible memorials of a wounded and unfortunate nun” (147). Her excitement at visiting a "real Gothic house" increases further during a conversation with Henry Tilney, who uses his own knowledge of Gothic novels to concoct a frightening description of the house for Catherine (167). In Catherine's excitement over visiting Northanger Abbey, she gives up any non-fictional sense of reality and creates an imaginary reality from her Gothic-influenced imagination. Thus, his arrival on the estate is marked by a sense of unfulfilled expectations. It is said that “To pass between modern-looking lodges, to find oneself so easily in the very precincts of the abbey, and to drive so rapidly along a smooth, level road of fine gravel, without hindrance, alarm, or solemnity of any kind, seemed to her strange and inconsistent” (169). Instead of describing the ruins of a castle, Austen creates a place entirely characterized by the unexceptional and unremarkable. The humor of this moment is limited to the nature of the plot and the character's experience: the audience is amused by Catherine's unexpressed disappointment in the ordinariness of the estate. The significance of this moment is that it shows how Austen confronts Catherine with a reality that falls in direct contradiction to her considerably overactive imagination, ultimately revealing to Catherine (and therefore the audience) the truth of reality in this particular day and age. The second example of a comparison between Gothic fiction and non-fictional reality, Catherine is shown to be deeply intrigued by a manuscript found inside an "old-fashioned black cabinet" (177). However, in her attempt to open the cabinet and in the discovery of this manuscript, Austen writes in a way that makes Catherine seem as if she is imagining herself as nothing less than a gothic heroine. Even in his attempts to open the cabinet, the tension is increased by Catherine's description, “placing the candle very carefully on a chair, he grasped the key with a very trembling hand and tried to turn it” (178). While Catherine puts a lot of suspense into opening this mysterious object, the audience is encouraged to laugh at these efforts because of the reality of the situation: the opening of a locker. In this way, the novel's parodic elements are not evident in the direct satire of specific Gothic tropes or characteristics; rather, the humor is found in how Catherine interprets and reacts to a "gothic" reality. Catherine's humorous image of herself as a Gothic heroine is only encouraged when, after obtaining the manuscript, she blows out her own candle and pretends that the wind has risen. the flame extinguished. Having created this Gothic atmosphere for herself, Catherine is seized with a sense of self-induced terror: "Alas! She was blown out and extinguished at one blow. A lamp could not have expired with more terrible effect. Catherine, for a few moments, is she was motionless with horror. All was accomplished; not a remnant of light in the wick could give hope to the rekindled breath. The impenetrable and motionless darkness filled the room. The rest of this scene focuses on Catherine's "terror" of imagining herself as a gothic heroine, and the chapter ends with the frightened protagonist having trouble sleeping. In truth, the suspenseful and mysterious scene that Austen is writing is never meant to be taken seriously, what.