Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (1817)

Extract

[...] Then, she's thinking of the Northanger Abbey, crying about Henry's reaction when he will see she's not here anymore. She's declining again. Finally, she's thinking about Fullerton, on what she will see there, and how she will be welcomed. She's sad, but her thoughts are so focused on her arriving that at some point, she forgets it. Somehow, Northanger Abbey, Woodston and Bass still are in her mind, but she's more interested in her newfound popularity in Fullerton than what she left behind. [...]

[...] Though she doesn't think about Bass, she's thinking about all the places she visited those last eleven weeks. In a way, she's living her story backwards. First, she mentions Woodston, which she was so happy to pass along ten days ago, but now, "every mile, as it brought her nearer Woodston, added to her sufferings." The second paragraph is her, remembering what happened in Woodston, ten days ago, a day when she was happy, because persuaded she will get married to Henry. She's declining. [...]

[...] She is "too wretched," tearing up, "her grief and agitation" being excessive. Catherine is sad about leaving Northanger Abbey where she was spending some time with Henry, the man she loves, and she does not know why she has to leave. During the entire novel, Catherine is living in a constant feeling of disappointment. We could say that her disappointment is gradually growing as the image of the Abbey is disappearing in the window. In this extract, while she is traveling back to Fullerton, she is being nostalgic of what she lived during the last weeks. [...]

[...] Northanger Abbey tells the story of Catherine Morland, a young woman who loves reading and seeks events to happen in her life. The entire story is following her steps from the day she leaves Fullerton, her town, to go to Bass where she is supposed to live a life of a young and beautiful woman, to the end of the story, where she is getting back to Fullerton after having spent some time in Northanger Abbey. The extract we will work on is from the Chapter 29, relating the moment when Catherine is getting back to Fullerton after she has been expelled from Northanger Abbey. [...]

[...] In fact, the chapter 29 is some sort of a conclusion to Catherine's story. She's leaving Northanger Abbey, travelling in a carriage back to her native town she left eleven weeks ago. There is a significant parallelism in this extract as in the fifth paragraph, we learn that she left for eleven weeks and in the next paragraph, we know that she travelled on for about eleven hours to go back to her town. Every hour could represent her, thinking and remembering one week. [...]