Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland, an "accidental feminist"

 Last week I had the awesome privilege to teach a class of graduate students at Fergusson College in Pune, India. Although I couldn’t see the 38 students, I could view their names and we could interact. Even though we tested the technology ahead of time, there were still some glitches: I couldn’t access the chat and my PowerPoint presentation didn’t work in full screen. All of us who teach online or remotely know we need to be flexible. So we soldiered on, overcame the technical deficiencies, and had a wonderful class!

Not being able to use the chat turned out to be a blessing. The questions I would have put in the chat I simply asked aloud, and I got great responses from the students. I was a bit surprised to hear several male voices—either there were a lot of males in the class, or they were just more vocal! Either way, I smiled as I listened to apt interpretations of Northanger Abbey from both the males and females.

To begin I covered the genre of the novel—covering aspects like length, plots and sub-plots, complex characters with inner lives, and entertainment value. I did an elevator speech on Jane Austen—that could take several lectures in itself. Then we took a glance at the theories of literary criticism: Formalism, New Historicism, Psychological (Freudian), Feminist, Archetypal/Mythological, Marxist. I tend to take a New Historicist approach, wanting to know as much as possible about the author and the time period in which she wrote.

                                     Catherine Morland, played by Felicity Jones, from the 2007 

                                        production of  Northanger Abbey directed by Jon Jones

Then we spent the second hour of the class discussing Northanger Abbey in some depth. I asked the class, “Is Catherine Morland a feminist?” Catherine is honest, direct, turns down, and accepts marriage proposals; she speaks her mind to her peers, Isabel Thorpe, and her ‘betters,’ General Tilney. But do these qualities make her a feminist? One of the students offered a brilliant answer to the question. She called Catherine Morland an “accidental feminist.” Maybe she didn’t intend to be a feminist or strive to be a feminist, but for her time period, she really was a feminist!

Catherine Morland was not a feminist in terms of the modern definition of belief and advocacy for equal social, political, and economic status. And she might not have met the standards of Mary Wollstonecraft, though both would agree that a wife is more of a ‘companion’ than an ornament or servant.

What do you think? Was Catherine Morland a feminist? Was she ahead of her time? Please let me know your thoughts by commenting below.

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