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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Volume 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Ironic Mockery:
In Northanger Abbey, the narrator subjects every character to ironic mockery. But in the first and last lines of the novel, readers must question whether they are the true target of such mockery. The narrator's first and last words comprise parallel instances of situational irony. For instance, in Volume 1, Chapter 1, the narrator says:
No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.
Related Themes:
Volume 1, Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Isabella's Love:
Austen employs dramatic irony in Northanger Abbey to highlight Catherine's ignorance about Isabella. She has no idea that Isabella makes friends with her simply to develop a relationship with her brother, but the reader knows about it. In Volume 1, Chapter 6, Isabella says: "[...] there is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."
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Volume 1, Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Ironic Humor :
Northanger Abbey brims with verbal irony, as the narrator often says one thing while meaning another. For instance, in Volume 1, Chapter 14, the narrator states that imbecility enhances a woman's charms:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of a sister author;—and to her treatment of the subject I will only add in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire any thing more in woman than ignorance.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Catherine and The General:
The relationship between Catherine and the General is a great example of situational irony. Situational irony occurs when something happens that is the opposite of what is expected to happen. Based on her Gothic fantasies, Catherine expects the General to be a murderer. And based on Catherine's interactions with Henry, the General expects her to be an heiress whose fortune will save the abbey. However, they both turn out to be incorrect. The General is not a murderer; he is simply not a good person. And Catherine is not an heiress; she is an ordinary woman in love with Henry.
Catherine's ridiculous assumption is made clear by the narrator's use of understatement. In Volume 2, Chapter 10, the narrator says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But in the central part of England there was surely some security for the existence even of a wife not beloved, in the laws of the land, and the manners of the age. Murder was not tolerated, servants were not slaves, and neither poison nor sleeping potions to be procured, like rhubarb, from every druggist.
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Volume 2, Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Ironic Mockery:
In Northanger Abbey, the narrator subjects every character to ironic mockery. But in the first and last lines of the novel, readers must question whether they are the true target of such mockery. The narrator's first and last words comprise parallel instances of situational irony. For instance, in Volume 1, Chapter 1, the narrator says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.
Related Themes:
