Social Realism in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey

Abstract

This research looks into Austen’s Northanger Abbey from the perceptive of Social Realism. Realities regarding political as well as social history of the eighteenth century AD England appear implicitly and tacitly in the novel. The victory of England in the Napoleonic war opens a new platform in which many youths got various opportunities to boost their economic foundation. Henry Tilney, who was once rejected by Catherine, gets the promotion to captainship and twenty five thousand pounds as a prize from the government for his valorous deed of besieging singlehandedly the port of French navy.

After his positions, both social and economic, increase, Catherine is tempted to renew and reexamine her feelings for Henry Tilney. Status and prosperity appear to be the ruling force of society. This realistic concern is implied by the choices and rejection of various characters. The rise of the middle class and the fall of gentry were the most important social phenomena of the eighteenth century English society. The gradual pauperization of Captain Tilney and George Tilney is an indicator of how the gentry gradually yielded to the emerging middle class. The assertiveness of Catherine and Isabella is a harbinger of how girls ask for freedom in the spheres where their personal choices matter a lot.