For hundreds of years, women have been among many in the world who have few or no rights. Subordinate to their husbands, they were not legally allowed to own property or even express their opinions in the community. Clearly, this had to change. In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen explores issues of women's rights in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While defending the novel throughout Northanger, Austen criticizes the society of the time and the unfair treatment of women by criticizing the more popular genre; the gothic novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay When Austin wrote Northanger, novels were seen as the lowest form of literature. Only women read novels while men devoted their time to other forms of literature such as poetry or historical readings. Austen writes, “I will not adopt that ungenerous and apolitical habit so common among novel writers,” to begin to explain the negative connotation that accompanies being the author of a novel (22). He goes on to state, “Whether through pride, ignorance, or fashion, our enemies are almost as many as our readers” (22). Austen realizes the hatred that accompanies the novel and does not want to feel as if her work is inferior to that of any man simply because it is classified as a novel. In Northanger Abbey, Austin uses his heroine Catherine to explain his views on the degradation of authors like her, who believes that novels are much more than what men seem to believe them to be. Austen also includes conversations with Catherine and her friends about novels to show how society truly views this form of literature. Criticism of the novels is first seen when Catherine converses with John Thorpe. To make conversation, he asks John if he has read Udolpho. John responds dramatically by stating, “Oh, Lord! not me; I never read novels; I have something else to do” (31). While it may seem like John is just a busy character, he goes on to explain that ""novels are all so full of nonsense and things like that... they're the silliest things in creation" (31). Austen then mocks John due to the lack of knowledge of the actual novel that Catherine is referring to, showing him that he really knows nothing about what he is talking about, and therefore proving that his point of view is invalid in the novel when Catherine talks to another male character, Henry Tilney uses this conversation to show how women are also affected by the degrading lifestyle in the novel. In this conversation, Catherine mentions the novel but immediately responds: “Because I'm not smart enough for you – gentlemen read better books” (72). Men were right, women were wrong, and novels would never be read by men because they were so much better than that. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when novels were despised, the most popular genre read by women was the Gothic novel. Gilbert and Gubar write, in their short essay “Shut Up in Prose,” that “The novel is a status-deprived genre, Austin suggests, because it is closely associated with a status-deprived genre” (281). Austen uses this genre almost mockingly to criticize the way the novel and the women surrounding it are treated. In Volume I, Austen begins her novel by explaining the simple life ofCatherine Moreland and how, although she didn't grow up with abusive parents, heavy secrets or ravenous villains, she was still a hero (5). Austen clearly targets the Gothic novel by starting hers this way, as it almost completely opposes a true Gothic story. It keeps the same theme of Gothic novel and historical period by having its two main female characters, Catherine and Isabella, be fans of this genre. Many times they are featured explaining their excitement about the latest book they found and how wonderful it has been so far. In the conversation, Catherine mentions Radcliffe several times. For this century, Austen's characters depict the perfect die-hard fans of the Gothic novel. Gilbert and Gubar state that "Austin rewrites the Gothic not because he disagrees with his sister writers about the confinement of women, but because he believes that women have been imprisoned more effectively by miseducation than by walls" (285). In Volume II, Austen fully maximizes her use of the Gothic novel by adding some of the most common themes found in any Gothic novel. This section of the novel is said to bear witness to the "disappointments created when girls internalize the ridiculous expectations and standards of Gothic fiction" (Gilbert and Gubar 290). While Catherine is riding in the open carriage alongside Henry, he begins to mock her belief in the Gothic, as well as planting the idea in her that they may actually be heading to a house with many secrets. He begins by asking Henry about the house they're going to by asking, "Isn't it a nice old place, just like the one you read about?" (107). Henry responds by answering her with a description of a Gothic scene, telling of an ancient governess, a gloomy chamber, and a funeral apparition (108). Catherine is all too excited by Henry's words, even as she states her fear, as is shown upon arriving in Northanger, that she truly hopes to find the gothic interior of their old home. Henry appears to mock Catherine's gullibility and love of the Gothic during this scene, and it is clear that he sees her as not having much intelligence or common sense to truly believe in and enjoy this type of entertainment. By mocking Catherine in this way, Henry seems to be criticizing the reader of the novel. Upon entering the Tilney home, Catherine discovered that her accommodation was very different from that described by Henry. Austen writes a scene where Catherine finds a heavy chest and her curiosity gets the better of her as she has to open it right then and there. Catherine’s dramatic response to the chest clearly shows her desire for the Gothic as she exclaims, “This is really strange! I didn't expect such a sigh! –An immense and heavy trunk! –What can it contain? –Why should it be put here? – Also pushed back, as if he wanted to be hidden!” (112). A few minutes later, after Catherine finds some plain bedspreads in the chest, Miss Tilney comes by and explains that she pushed the chest to the back of the room so that it would simply be out of the way. Austen provides a simple, domestic answer to the mysterious chest to mock the way these answers are explained away in truly Gothic novels. Gilbert and Gubar ask, "Could Austen be indicating the real threat to women's happiness when she describes her heroine finding a shopping list?" to demonstrate that, at this time, the domestication of women is as terrifying as what Catherine hoped to find in the trunk (285). While it may seem that these descriptions of Northanger and the constant talk of the Gothic novel are what is "Gothic" in this book, it seems that, in view of the world being described, Austen actually comes out with a perfectly acceptable interpretation. gothic monster: men. Not.