When Catherine first arrives at the Abby, she traps herself into her own fictional delusion. In our discussions in class and on the blog, many people point to this scene as proof of Catherine's idiocy. However, it is important to realize that Catherine's thoughts and actions followed rational expectation theory, and thus we should not be so quick to write her off as stupid.
Prior to arriving at the Abby, Catherine's only information on such places is from novels - particularly Gothic novels that describe mysteries and murders in such places. While novels are by no means a credible source, the credibility of the information is irrelevant. What is important to rational expectation theory is that Catherine uses all available information to her before making a future forecast or expectation. Because Catherine's only information on castles and abbys are through novels, she is still being rational by expecting the Northanger Abby to have similar properties to those she has read about.
Furthermore, when Catherine is on the carriage ride to Northanger Abby, Henry gives her more information on what the abby is like. He tricks her into thinking it is a spooky and dark place. Catherine takes this information into account, as evidence of the fact she searched for the things Henry described as soon as she arrived into her room. When Catherine finds a dresser that matches the description of the one given by Henry, she assumes his information to be credible and in par with every other peice of information she knows about abbys. She then comes to the conclusion that something dangerous is happening and gets super suspicious. Once she realizes that thee is nothing of interest in the abby, she sees her error and becomes so embarrassed and chills out. Was what she did stupid? yes. Irrational? no.
ps does anything happen in this book?
Catherine Fell into the Tolstoy Trap
ReplyDeleteI respectfully want to add this as a revised title for your piece. I agree completely with you that Catherine did what we can expect of her, but that does not mean that she isn't a bit slow-witted. She did use the information in front of her, but not all of it. She didn't, for example, as we are always taught, think about the source of information (a horror novel). Nor did she bother to realize that Henry and Isabella, the two most cultured and intellectual people she knows have lived in the abbey for their entire lives. It is unlikely that they turned out so nicely growing up around murderers and skeletons.
This is where Catherine's naivety shows itself most clearly. she isn't stupid, per se, she is simply trusting as a four-year-old. If you tell her that all abbey's are filled with ghosts, murderers, and supernatural events, she will believe. The girl's seventeen. That seems a little silly, in my opinion.
So Catherine isn't stupid, as you say, but she has a large fault that many extremely intelligent people have as well. She refuses to see the information provided her that doesn't support the theory she wants to believe. She doesn't think outside the box.
Oh, and nothing happens in this book. That's part of the satirical element. Things are always happening, often to the point of ridicule, in Gothic novels. This book is exactly the opposite.