Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey dives into the life of a naive but different young girl named Catherine, whom has been declared an adventurous child growing up. When Catherine becomes of age and expected to act more like a lady, her adventurousness and naiveness is projected onto the Gothic themed books she reads. Catherine is very much captivated by these books that she lets her imagination run away from her, at times spilling over into her real life. Catherine is a close friend to Mrs. Allen, who is her neighbor and much older than she is, accompanies them to Bath, England for vacation. During her stay at Bath, Catherine is catapulted into the unknown territory of high society, meeting the likes of the Thorpe’s and her love interest Mr. Tilney and his family. Her naïve nature doesn’t allow her to see the Thorpe’s for their conniving and manipulative ways, seeking to gain financially from Catherine. The Thorpe’s created a rumor about Catherine implying that she is expected to gain a fortune through inheritance from the Allen’s, which is untrue but urges General Tilney to have Mr. Tilney invite Catherin over as a guest to Northanger Abbey. The readers can see that this invite is done anticipating that Catherine would marry Mr. Tilney, and its only because General Tilney believes his family would gain financially from that marriage. Catherine’s imagination runs rampant after learning Mrs. Tilney died at Northanger Abbey, and that MR. Tilney was not generally kind to her. Catherine submerged herself in her gothic novels ultimately speculating that General Tilney plotted to murder Mrs. Tilney in efforts to keep her wealth to himself, and it didn’t help that right at this moment General Tilney finds out that Catherine isn’t expected to inherit the Allen’s fortune. Catherine was asked to leave Northanger Abbey, and not as nicely as I am writing it. Catherine is left to figure out how to get home on her own, and that is an extremely dangerous journey, especially for women who are in a better financial situation than most. Catherine hides her heartbreak to her family when she returns, but Mr. Tilney defies his father and proposes to Catherine anyway, sacrificing his fortune.    

Jane Austen is known for using real life influences like her neighborhood, society, neighbors even family to write her novels. Austen included many political issues as well, like biases in class systems, and feminism. Austen was born December 16th, 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire, London to Rev. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh. When their father decides to retire, they moved to Bath England. In Bath, Jane Austen is proposed to by Harris Bigg-With where she declines his proposal and sets forth to revise Northanger Abbey at that time titled Susan.    

In the book A Memoir of Jane Austen: And Other Family Recollections, written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh and her niece Kathryn Sutherland shed light on how Rev. George Austen’s family made their wealth by owning a clothing business, they were known for having substantial societal influence, so much so that in elections whoever the Austen’s leaned towards would eventually be elected into office. During this time textiles were imported from other countries that were colonized by Britain. Those countries were exploited for their resources in order to continue the importation of sugar, cotton, tobacco, and spices. Although it is not specifically written that the Austen family had a hand in directly setting up a post to exploite colonized countries, they still benefited from their colonization and resources tremendously, in such a way that increased their social standing.

In the book Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen written by Sheila Johnson Kindred catalogues the life of Fanny Palmer Austen wife of Captain Charles John Austen through correspondence between her and Jane Austen. Jane Austen had a close bond with her brother; Captain Charles John Austen who was in the Navy. Captain Austen was posted to the Royal Navy’s North American Station. At his station where he spent long periods of time protecting Britain’s trade route, guiding fleets and transferring troops between Britain and American colonies. Fanny often times traveled with Captain Austen to and from Bermuda, including Halifax, Nova Scotia but primarily residing where she was born in Bermuda. Her father was Attorney General of St. George Bermuda and she grew up wealthy as Ms. Palmers family had servants as well as enslaved people working in the home, directly benefiting from colonization and the enslavement of people. The islands enslaved population equaled to that of the enslaver’s population.

Jane Austen’s family has benefited from colonization, and its trade routes, from her father’s family who financial gained from the imports of the trade route, her brothers position and duty in the navy enforcing and protecting the trade route and the colonies, including his marriage to Fanny Palmer whose family directly took part in the enslavement of people. In Northanger Abbey, Jane references to General Tilney’s family wealth but does not directly disclose how they received their wealth. She does the same with Mrs. Tilney and although it is clear that Mrs. Tilney brought much wealth with her when marrying General Tilney, the source of it is never disclosed. Based on the way Jane writes her novels, she is very critical of high society, and their actions that clashes with her feminist nature, she often uses her novels to shed light on the disgusting way high society behaves, especially towards women. Jane doesn’t use this same approach on the way high society benefited financially off of colonialism in Northanger Abbey, she leaves those details out of her this particular novel. It is evident that the reason behind that is because her family benefited from the result of the British Empires plan of Expansion through colonization, their immoral use of enslave people, the transatlantic slave trade route, and the exploitation of goods from countries they brutally colonized.

Work Cited

Austen-Leigh, James Edward, and Kathryn Sutherland. A Memoir of Jane Austen : And Other Family Recollections. Oxford University Press, 2002. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=100287&site=ehost-live.

Sheila Johnson Kindred. Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister : The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1609072&site=ehost-live.