Elements of Fear in Jane Austen's Novels
Subtle Horror is One of Jane Austen’s Specialties
Oct 19, 2009
Fear is present in every human’s life, to some degree or another, and Jane Austen was skilled at getting to the heart of those fears in her precise character sketches.
Most examples of fear in Jane Austen’s writings are subtle, brought about by a character’s self-created circumstances or societal rules. However, in one novel, Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen writes freely about possible classic, “Gothic” fears, whilst in two others, she writes about the more subtle sort.
Perhaps she is gently laughing at herself and society, but the subtle elements of fear in Jane Austen’s novels are also a haunting reminder to all humans of the nature of life and its ever-present passing.
Northanger Abbey
Catherine Morland, the "unromantic" heroine of Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen’s ode to as well as satire of the Gothic novels of her day, faced fear when thrown unprepared socially into the whirl of Bath. Catherine managed to distinguish herself by her disingenuousness, so her fears of not belonging were dispelled rather quickly.
Next she must face the building and people of Northanger Abbey, where Catherine is invited as a guest.
- General Tilney, the patriarch of the family, arouses Catherine’s nervous suspicions as a nefarious character believed to have committed nefarious deeds of some sort.
- There were mysterious apartments to be explored in the dark of night, if only Catherine could stay awake.
- Then there was her wild tumble of feelings regarding Henry Tilney, the “unromantic” hero of the novel. And as anyone who has ever fallen in love knows, that, perhaps, is the most terrifying event that can befall a human.
Mansfield Park
The idea of being held captive and held back from one’s own life would anger and perhaps even terrify many professionally-minded, fiercely independent people today. In Jane Austen’s day, however, those with little or no money had few choices in life. And so it was with Fanny Price, the heroine in Mansfield Park.
- Sent to live at her wealthy relatives’ estate when she was just a child, she was forced to live little better than a slave.
- She watched as life went by, but was denied participation in it. Fanny’s fears that life was passing her by nibbled away at her like mice after a piece of cheese.
- Fanny Price vented her anger and fears in her writing and storytelling, perhaps echoing a bit of the character of Jane Austen herself.
Persuasion
Like Fanny Price, Anne Elliot, the heroine of Persuasion, watched her life slipping away, but she could blame no one else for her situation, since she had listened to others, and followed their advice rather than her own heart.
- The fear of watching hope and love slip away due to one’s own words weighed on Anne nightly, so that when her former fiancee returned, he said he would not have known her.
- As she grew to hope again for his love, and to be around him, her looks improved, as her father noted, but then fear again fell on her as he began to grow attached to an in-law of her sister’s.
- Her fears and anguish came pouring out in these famous words: “All the privilege I claim for my own sex… is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
Jane Austen did not write horror novels. But elements of fear were present, whether imagined, or subtly real. Often, the battles took place within the characters’ own minds, their fears brought about by the strictures of society or, even worse, by their own actions.
Jane Austen’s books were careful character studies, precise and delightful in their depictions, yet also frightening because she was able to catch those ephemeral, internal fears that plague most people and put them on paper.
Jane Austen perhaps wrote out her own fears toward the end of her life, holding her family close and smiling with them, but in her dark moments, putting those fears on the page, as her last finished novel, Persuasion, demonstrates. Jane Austen was, after all, only human.
Sources:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen, Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen, J.M. Dent, 1998.
Persuasion, by Jane Austen, Oxford University Press, 1990.
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