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generally took imperfect characters for her novels which makes the whole story more natural and realistic. We will experience this in almost every character but above all in the character of the heroine. At that times the heroes and heroines were generally described as nearly god-like creatures with endless beauty and delicate character. Austen took the other direction by taking a heroine which is in so many ways imperfect that it’s almost impossible to use the definition of heroine for her. A heroine with which the reader can identify his self. A character like Catherine Morland.

Catherine and Isabella

Catherine Morland is a pretty girl at the age of seventeen. At the first chapter of then book we get to know that she was always more like a boy than a girl. She was always rather fond of boys-games and had not the tastes girl were expected to have. She wasn’t particularly fond of gardens or drawing and her abilities were not the strongest in the world. She couldn’t learn anything before she was taught; and sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive, and occasionally stupid.(NB,37) She’s also described as having an awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features.(NB,37) But with the time Catherine’s appearances change. She grows more and more beautiful and gradually more fond of girls things . she begins to dress and style like a girl and she grows even considerably smart. But there are other character traits of Catherine that are even more important. These character traits are not the ones she gained with time, for they are also mentioned in the first chapter. She is described as having neither a bad heart nor a bad temper; was seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome and very kind to little ones, with few interruptions of tyranny (NB,37). Although after this characterization of her the rather bad parts of her character are described, they don’t seem to be of much importance as she loses them with the time anyway. But these positive character traits are the ones that are important for my analysis.

I formerly mentioned that she’s at the age of seventeen a considerably pretty girl. Just in this year her neighbours Mr. And Mrs. Allen propose to take her to Bath with them. Catherine is allowed to go with them as her parents are generally very easy about that kind of things. In fact this is the first time that Catherine comes out of her town to see the rest of the world, for to a young girl Bath was in fact the rest of the world at

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these times. It is Bath that much of Catherine’s character is revealed, because there she meets with Isabella Thorpe, a character so completely the opposite of her own.

The Thorpes are old acquaintances of Mrs .Allen, and it is for both sides a pleasure to have come across each-other. Mrs. Thorpe has come to Bath with her daughters and had apparently the same problem as Mrs. Allen. Both were looking for some friends with which they could spend the time there. For Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Thorpe it is a most welcome occurrence and for Catherine and Isabella it is the start of a friendship. A kind of friendship that is usual for girls at that age. The beginning of a real deep attachment. But as the story goes on we get the impression that the two characters are so unlike each-other that it seems impossible that they were able to form something like a friendship at all.

Miss Thorpe is described as very beautiful and graceful and as having a fashionable air of figure and dress(NB, 54). In fact these are the things one is to observe at first in the other, so Catherine notices these things at an instant. As she is herself fond of beauty and grace she admires these virtues of Isabella. She is sure to have found a friend that is so much like herself but that is actually a point on which Catherine is clearly mistaken. Although she is a very agreeable and nice person (particularly in her behaviours towards Catherine) there are some things about her that attracted my attention as a reader. The first thing is that she is constantly exaggerating everything which we can observe at the statement she makes at meeting Catherine at the pump room. I’ve been waiting for you at least this age(NB,60), whereas she was actually just waiting for five minutes. And this was just one example of many. Another thing is that she’s apparently very selfloving and conceited and at the same time somehow paranoid. This we can refer from her feeling watched or even followed by the young men in the pump room. Here she clearly shows one of her most important character traits. She acts in direct contrast to what she says. First she pretends to be disturbed by the men’s looks but it soon becomes clear that she wants to be recognised by them, as they are described as handsome young men. She likes the idea of being admired by them and apparently even the idea of being followed by them, because she imagines they would follow her just because they leave the pump room at the same time they do. When she notices that the men are not as interested in her as she imagined or even wished them to be( because they weren’t following her, but taking the other direction) she decides to make them interested. She makes up some odd reasons just to walk in the same direction as they do. She says that

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she doesn’t want to show them the respect of waiting until they are out if sight, but reality she betrays her self-respect by following them.

Here we can clearly observe the innocent feelings of Catherine. She doesn’t understand the real purpose of Isabella but rather admires her because of her ideas about men. That Catherine is rather innocent compared with Isabella becomes clear from the way she thinks about men or rather from the way she doesn’t. She doesn’t constantly think about what the men would think of her. In fact she has no clear ideas about men in her mind whereas Isabella seems to have build her ideal type of men in hers.

The two characters also differ in the constancy of their feelings. Catherine falls in love with Henry Tilney, a young man whom she meets at a dance. He is a charming young man with excellent manners. The first evening they meet, Catherine feels that she won’t forget him that easily, and actually we see that she doesn’t watch out for other men. She’s not constantly thinking of men but when she does she thinks about Henry Tilney, whereas Isabella is not ready to be satisfied with the admiration of just one man. She’s constantly trying to be the most beautiful, the most charming creature, just to attract the attention of the others. Throughout the novel she plays a dangerous game. She’s neither faithful to herself, nor to the others. That she’s not faithful and constant in her feelings at all we can see at her playing with the feelings of James Morland, Catherine’s brother. Although she appears to be deeply in love and attached to James, it becomes clear that this is just one of her usual games. She’s clearly aware of her attractions and decided to use them in every possible way. That as I mentioned before we can see at her betraying James with Captain Tilney, the brother of Henry. But we will come to the characterizations of James and Captain Tilney later on. Isabella’s intention in trying to make Captain Tilney marry her is very clear. She knows that he’s very wealthy and she wants to gain a comfortable life through him, because she knows that or rather gets to know that James is not as wealthy as she used to think. Here again we can see how innocent and even naïve our heroine is, for “determined to find nothing but fidelity in Isabella, Catherine simply overlooks such facts as her friendships irritation on learning that James is not rich or her subsequent flirtation with Captain Tilney” ³ It is clear that Isabella betrays James because of money but that she’s not the only one in her family that likes the idea of being wealthy we can experience in her brother John, who’s at the same time a friend of Catherine’s brother James.

³ Howard S Babb Jane Austen’s Novels: The Fabric of Dialogue( Ohio: Ohio State University Pres,1967)

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