Northanger Abbey, chapter 21: Looking For Trouble
Right?
Well, what if you’re distracted right away by a heavy chest in your room as you’re unpacking? Especially when you have just come away with the impression that your otherwise charming host watches the clock very carefully? The right thing to do would be to continue unpacking and get ready for dinner as quickly as possible.
… but if you’re Catherine, you melodramatically fixate on the mystery of the chest that you have just formed in your head: “I will look into it—cost me what it may, I will look into it—and directly too—by daylight.” After being startled by the maid, Cat does succeed in opening the heavy lid, only to reveal a folded-up piece of clothing. Eleanor, coming to fetch her, isn’t bothered by this exploration. The real alarm, Cat finds out, is when they run back out to meet an impatient General Tilney, who is yelling for dinner to be served right TF now.
At dinner, Cat “[sits] pale and breathless, in a most humble mood, concerned for [Gen. Tilney’s] children, and detesting old chests.” The general makes her feel even worse when he “scold[s] his daughter for so foolishly hurrying her fair friend … when there was not the least occasion for hurry in the world.” I know last time I drew some similarities between Mr. Collins’s hypocritical and pompous style and General Tilney’s, but I think here, General Tilney’s behavior echoes that of Thorpe’s from earlier in the novel. In trying to make Cat feel welcome, he blames his own daughter for anxiety directly caused by his own actions. And when he is charming, it’s when Cat compliments him on the size of the room and when he reflects on the luxuries of his home (not dissimilar to when Thorpe brags about his carriage’s expensive features). Cat may have left the Thorpes in Bath, but in spirit they haven’t quite left her.
Neither has the spirit of Udolpho. As an actual dark and stormy night descends on Northanger Abbey, the atmosphere suggests “a countless variety of dreadful situations and horrid scenes, which such buildings had witnessed, and such storms ushered in.” And though she feels safe—though she understands that Henry’s Gothic Y/N fanfic* was only in jest—she can’t decide whether or not she’d prefer to keep the light on. And then she finds another old piece of mysterious (citation needed) furniture that brings her right back into main character mode: “Henry’s words, his description of the ebony cabinet which was to escape her observation at first, immediately rushed across her; and though there could be nothing really in it, there was something whimsical, it was certainly a very remarkable coincidence!”
… or he was taking inspiration for his story from random furniture in his own house, Cat. Just a thought.
Even more intriguingly, this cabinet has a key sitting in its lock—which is very tempting! A key in its lock is almost like an invitation (which also suggests that there’s nothing significant inside the cabinet, as that key would not be waiting for a stranger’s hand to turn it). The wind whips up, the rain beats down on the windowpanes, and Cat feels compelled to unlock the door (“sleep must be impossible with the consciousness of a cabinet so mysteriously closed in her immediate vicinity”). Comically, after she opens and checks the drawers, there is an inner lock awaiting her, which she at last opens and then seizes upon a piece of paper—a “striking exemplification of what Henry had foretold.” (Oh, Cat.) Alas, she cannot re-light her candle to properly read the writing on the paper, which means she has to wait until morning. But how can she sleep knowing that a mystery has awakened in her own room? Why, that paper could have an important message on it—and are those “[m]urmurs” and “distant moans” she hears coming from the halls?
This is her first night in this house. Austen, give me strength!
The Shapard Shelf: This abbey is furnished with wallpaper and carpeting, which would have been expensive (and which bolsters General Tilney’s pride in his estate’s luxury). Eleanor, being “the mistress of the house,” was probably the person who decided to put the older furniture in the guest room Cat uses. Finally, Shapard points out how Austen uses “detailed description of Catherine’s physical actions and the items around her” in order to evoke the style and atmosphere of Cat’s favorite book, and consequently, is an “unusual” writing choice in Austen’s oeuvre.
*For those who may not know, Y/N stands for your name in a fanfic that is told in second person point of view, which allows the reader to ship themselves with a main character.
Comments
Post a Comment