Blog Summary

After reading the blog this week the only one theme that I say commented on in more than one post was that of Catherine’s naïve mind. Both Robert and Ashley commented on how they felt that Catherine was naïve and maybe not the smartest person. While Ashley commented on her naivety in the context of how even in the face of General Tilney’s obvious allusions to marriage, Robert commented on how Catherine seemed to be the only character who does not see the true character of Isabella, who he also claims is a gold-digger. Contrasting these two blog posts, Julia and Jasmine commented on Catherine’s attributes and how we should give her a break. Jasmine made an interesting point by saying that Catherine is young and may be acting as naïve as she is based on the fact that she has not experienced much of world or of society. Then in a sort of middle ground between thinking that Catherine is stupid and that she is awesome we have Ryan. Ryan posted saying that while how Catherine acts may seem stupid to us, based on all the relevant information she had she is making correct assumptions. Another blog post I found interesting and insightful was Madolyn’s post pointing out Catherine’s incongruence and the two extremes of her actions at different times in the book.
Also both Maria and Holly posted on the subject of narration. Holly posted expanding on our discussion on Wednesday about point of view, saying that the narration is Northanger Abbey is that of a third person limited where the narrator is focusing on Catherine’s thoughts. Maria posted on a different aspect of narration saying that maybe the narrator makes Catherine so average and plan in order for her to be easier to relate to for the audience. Abby posted a close reading of a paragraph from page 137 comparing Catherine’s newfound appreciation for the hyacinth to her newfound understanding of relationships and love. While on the other hand her under appreciation for the rose might stem from the fact that one cannot learn to love but has to discover it themselves rather than learn to love. Tate discusses the definition of a heroine and how Catherine does not fit the conventional definition of this term. He also mentions that there is not an opportunity presented in the book for Catherine to step up and become a heroine or “save the day.” Last but not least, Kristel discusses how every book we have read up to this point, including Northanger Abbey, have been coming of age stories. She compares Northanger Abbey to high school and how Catherine’s life seems like a coming of age high school story.