Gothic romance novels are mysterious, romantic, and dark works of literature. Authors who write in this genre typically follow a clear-cut formula when doing so. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, a gothic romance film, follows that typical formula when constructing the gothic heroine onscreen. While Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey parodies gothic romances such as Rebecca, she does so purposefully. By rewriting the gothic heroine role Austen suggests women should aspire to be more natural than heroic.
While the birth of the heroine may not be narrated, the author tells readers where she comes from and her family background. Typical of a gothic romance, the heroine is often orphaned, young and naive left to face the real world on her own. This increases her powerlessness on her journey to the uncanny which is another major theme of a gothic romance. Hitchcock’s heroine in the film Rebecca fits the mold of the gothic heroine as such. Viewers initially meet the heroine as a personal helper to Mrs. VanHopper, a wealthy American woman. The heroine gets this job to earn a living after the passing of her remaining parent, her father. While working for Mrs. VanHopper she the powerful and wealthy Maxim DeWinter. The heroine becomes “Mrs. DeWinter,” mistress of Manderley after he spontaneously asks her to marry him. Her young view of life and love challenges her in her journey to Manderley where she eventually becomes a realized woman and wife.
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The heroine of Northanger Abbey is constructed differently. While her journey to the uncanny of Bath and Northanger Abbey presented her with challenges, one can hardly argue it was due to her life’s circumstances or upbringing. Catherine’s parents are both alive and well when she ventures off to Bath. She receives their blessing to go on with the Allens. Catherine was never abandoned by her parents or the Allens. While her character is still inexperienced, it is due to her infatuation with gothic novels and living her life as if were a fantasy. Austen even says that she is “occasionally stupid,” (Austen 2). This is evident when Catherine is clueless about Isabella liking her brother and unsure about Henry’s feelings toward her. By creating a character whose birth and upbringing are quite normal Austen suggests that you do not have to come from a broken place or family to eventually become a realized woman in your own right like Catherine. In other words, girls who come from normal homes are not exempt from flaws and that is reality.
Aside from where the gothic heroine comes from, she is always undeniably gorgeous and unknowingly the object of desire. While her physical looks prove to be impressive, innocence and timidity are also attributed to her character. Hitchcock’s heroine in Rebecca is just that. Maxim, her male counterpart, finds himself immediately attracted to her. Although the heroine is much younger and wishes she could dress more ladylike, he is taken by her good looks.
Jane Austen’s heroine of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, is hardly expected to be the heroine in the novel because of her plain physical appearance, “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine” (Austen 1). Her mediocre features were described by Austen as “a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without color, dark lank hair, and strong features,” (Austen 1). Catherine was primarily portrayed as common, which only slightly changed when she was credited by the author to be better looking once she began curling her hair. Austen also detailed that she was very much a tomboy in her younger years. While Catherine lacked the physical attractiveness Rebecca’s heroine had, it was meaningful. Jane Austen challenges the craft of a gothic heroine through Catherine which makes a point that realistic women are often common and plain.
While beauty and innocence are hallmarks of the gothic heroine, the characters around her and how they are built also influence her plot line. Aside from the gothic romance heroine are other characters that are important to the genre. These characters also follow a specific rubric. The male hero and villain are essential roles in the genre. The male hero is perceived as handsome and mysterious. Due to some secret, the heroine tends to suspect, the eventual male hero can provoke fear in her. The male counterpart becomes the hero when the big mystery is uncovered, generating a sense of relief in the heroine, and thus allowing her to open herself to him and become a realized woman. The villain of a gothic romance stirs up trouble with the heroine and becomes a barrier between her and the hero. The suspense and eeriness of the gothic romance would not be the same without the villain.
Both the male hero and villain are clear-cut in Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Maxim is the powerful, handsome, mysterious man the heroine falls for. She is noticeably uncomfortable and nervous around such a mysterious man whom she cannot seem to read. The heroine is initially timid in making conversation with Maxim. The curiosity he instills in her is also typical of a gothic romance. Her apparent fear over her lack of understanding of him is expected from a gothic heroine. While the chemistry between the two is evident, the heroine herself is slow to realize it because of her innocence. When he takes her to Manderley she gets the feeling there is something he has not told her. After a long time, he reveals he killed his ex-wife Rebecca. He also tells her the “love” others saw between them was false. The heroine is relieved his coldness was not due to her lack of experience as his mistress. Maxim’s revelation sparks the transition in her character from a naive girl to a validated woman. The villain who once challenged Maxim and the heroine’s relationship was Mrs. Danvers, the head housemaid. Mrs. Danvers was oddly obsessed with Maxim’s ex even after her passing. She made every effort to make the heroine uncomfortable by mentioning Rebecca and her ways. She went on about how loved she was by Manderley which made the heroine feel inferior. While Rebecca seemed to be the competition to live up to, Mrs. Danvers was the living threat. She acted in place of Rebecca, likely because the power Rebecca had over Maxim motivated her to take advantage of her position at Manderley to gain control over the new Mrs. DeWinter. Mrs. Danvers made it almost impossible for the heroine to shine in her light by constantly making her feel insufficient. The heroine’s story and transition into becoming a realized woman are molded by her experiences with these characters. The heroine seeks validation from a man and she feels relieved when she finally receives it. Without such a man and his love, she likely would not have made such a drastically mature transition. The man who saved her as his love was what motivated her even through the villain’s challenges.
Jane Austen’s heroine, Catherine, experiences the male hero and villain differently. The hero is Henry Tilney, whom Catherine eventually receives approval to marry. Henry, however, did not have such a strong presence as Maxim did in Rebecca. Henry is presumably powerful because he comes from a wealthy family. He is also mysterious but only in the sense that Catherine does not fully understand how he speaks to her. Austen manages to parody the gothic romance hero with Henry. Although wealthy and powerful through his name, Henry is not in the slightest a threat to the heroine. Catherine assumes his father, General Tilney, to be the mysteriously dangerous one. She has no romantic attraction to him, but the mysteriousness given off by a character other than the hero was strategic of Austen, as was that of the villain. The villain in Northanger Abbey might have been expected to be General Tilney after Catherine’s efforts to unveil a dark secret he was hiding from his own family. When her suspicions proved to be exaggerations of her gothic romance readings, the villain role would arguably be that of Isabella Thorpe. Isabella manipulated and used Catherine to gain closeness to James Morland and Frederick Tilney, both powerful bachelors in Isabella’s eyes. As a close friend of Catherine’s, it was evident to readers that she tried to work the marriage market by using Catherine herself. Jane Austen plays up the gothic hero and villain roles to demonstrate a woman’s reality again. The characters involved with the heroine are seen for their true colors once the heroine realizes gothic romance novels are not reflective of real life. She learns she cannot have the same expectations of people in real life as the characters in the gothic novels. In this way, Jane Austen suggests gothic novels are unrealistic and a woman should not have expectations mirrored by characters in books. Through Catherine’s friendship with Isabella, she exemplifies that villains/enemies in real life can be the people we perceive as close friends. Austen also uses Henry and Catherine’s romance to show that not all love stories start and end with a man because neither one of them needs the other’s validation to move on with their romance.
When Catherine begins to see the world and her experiences for what they are rather than the gothic thrills they lack, she becomes mature and self-aware. While Jane Austen narrates a gothic-like suspense story while Catherine visits the Tilney estate, it results in an underwhelming end that makes it clear General Tilney is no threat and neither is Northanger Abbey, The Abbey in itself was no more to her now than any other house. The painful remembrance of the folly it had helped to nourish and perfect, was the only emotion which could spring from a consideration of the building. (Austen 198)
This works in Austen’s favor as not only a parody of the gothic romance genre but purposefully rewrites the heroine’s role in the process. In doing so, Austen points out that people are realistically normal and not all revolve around romance or mystery. Through Catherine, Jane Austen makes a contrast between reality and fictional life as seen in Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Northanger Abbey does not have a sappy, princess-like ending. Sure, Catherine and Henry eventually marry but not as a result of Henry’s heroic character. Their love evolves over time and while Catherine learns how to adapt to life in Bath, one can hardly say it is entirely because of Henry. They are both intersubjective and Catherine is not the heroine who needs to be saved by a man. From the first page of the novel onward Austen illustrates the difference between how things might be expected in the world of a fictional heroine and how things truly are for a naturally flawed, young woman like Catherine. Austen successfully makes Catherine exemplary of what women should aspire to be, natural rather than heroic.
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