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Rebekah Hess
English 311 A
Dr. Andrew Lee
1 December 2005
Brown’s Wieland and Austen’s Northanger Abbey
Charles Brockden Brown introduced the Gothic novel to the United States in a purely
American form. His novel Wieland, published in 1798, reveals his adherence to the
gothic style and form. Gothic novels such as Wieland inspired the writing of Northanger
Abbey, Jane Austen’s witty satire of all that Brown, as well as other novelists, attempted
to portray. At a first reading, the heroines of both these narratives are very dissimilar, but
closer examination reveals that the characters and their responses to various situations are
similar despite the very different purposes of the authors. The protagonists struggle
between reason and emotion, and fall under the influence of language and books. Brown
and Austen effectively use the structure of the gothic novel in developing the characters
of Clara Wieland and Catherine Moreland as they battle their fears.
Brown was the first to introduce purely American fiction and as a result was rather
extravagant in his novels (McCowan). He used the general guide lines of Gothicism to
place his heroine, Clara Wieland, in seemingly preposterous situations. He supplied all of
the correct ingredients to create a half-baked, semi-plausible disaster, that rarely reaches
plausibility (Blake). Brown begins with the ideal setting. He introduces the peaceful
country family who experience no sorrow or conflict. Austen’s protagonist, Catherine
Moreland, is place in a similar situation. Their rational and orderly lives are interrupted
by an outside source that brings confusion and mental chaos. The intrusion of Carwin and
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his exceptional talent as a ventriloquist destroys the close-knit contented group of
Wielands, and Catherine Moreland’s life is changed by gothic novels and a trip to Bath.
Both authors supply their characters with the ideal settings to achieve their purposes.
Clara battles her fears in lofty temples, deserted summer-houses, and darkened closets,
and Catherine feeds her fears and growing imagination in a less than ideal Abbey that she
attempts to make more mystifying. The introduction of mysterious characters increases
the tension and confusion of the heroines. Carwin and his voice shake Clara’s foundation
of reason and, while she tended to doubt supernatural influence, it eventually led her to
believe in it. General Tilney, an ordinary but taciturn man, provides fuel for Catherine’s
yearning for adventure and imagination. Her belief that he murdered his wife and
remained undetected through the years is discovered by Henry Tilney. Her resulting
embarrassment allows Catherine to be “completely awakened” (Austen 187) to the folly
of her imagination. Her mind would have been satisfied with the gruesome scenes of
death, the unexplainable lights, the mysterious voices, a brother’s madness, and the rest
of “the black catalogue of stratagems” witnessed by Clara (Brown 237). Scenes, that as a
gothic heroine, Clara took in stride for a majority of the narrative.
These stories of “violence, portents, trap-doors, and shrieking women,” place an
emphasis on emotionalism (Blake). The characters battle themselves more than anyone
else. Just as “every man discriminates between the voluntary acts of his mind and his
involuntary perceptions,” so does Clara (Kreyling). Brown surprisingly reveals a feminist
tendency in that his heroine is a strong, rational creatures, while the men in her life are
prone to emotional unrest. Her male relatives and friends and Clara’s primary influence
in her education and mental development, yet they fall short and are unable to rescue her
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from her fears. Clara’s struggle against those that would murder her is secondary to her
fight with and eventual triumph over fear. As the narrative continues her struggle
increases and she desperately fights to regain the rationality that she formerly possessed.
While Brown takes these ideas very seriously, “Jane Austen [is] busily burlesquing the
vulgar machinery of horror (Blake). Catherine, on the other hand, is introduced to the
reader as a young girl with a wild imagination. Her struggle is to learn to not see
supernatural and mysterious meaning in commonplace events.
Language plays a key role in the fall and eventual triumph of these heroines. Clara’s
faith in logic falters with her inability to reason with Wieland. His “fancy [began as] the
erosion of his vaunted logic,” and Clara could not persuade him to change his mind
(Kreyling). She is continually questioning the events that occur and her response to
them, but her queries are rhetorical, for no logical answer is available. Clara often falls
into an internal inquisition in the middle of her narration, and this reveals her mental
distress. On the other hand, Catherine affects this style of thought to provoke mystery
where there is none. Upon entering her room in the Abbey, she perceives a large chest. In
true gothic form she questions, “What can it hold? Why should it be placed here?”
(Austen 152). Her rapid questions of anticipation are ridiculous. As Austen tells us, the
chest is there for the purpose of storing clothing, and there is nothing supernatural in
every day objects. Catherine does not use reason to decipher things around her, but
allowed her emotions to run free.
Austen continues the commentary on language by a digressive passage on the
importance of books. She, as the narrator, warns against blind acceptance of the written
word, and encourages thought about it. Books such as Wieland, with their departures
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“from the realities of every-day life,” inspired her satirical narrative (Smith). Austen’s
point is emphasized by the influence that novels have on Catherine. They inspire almost
her every thought until she is brought to reality by Henry Tilney. Similarly, much of the
action in Wieland is inspired by the characters inferring deceitful motives from
something they have read or heard. Their flawed conclusions alter their characters and
relationships. At one point, Clara exclaims, “was I not likewise transformed from rational
and human into a creature of nameless and fearful attributes” (Brown 148). The logical
foundation of her beliefs was shattered and she was left with the language of fear.
Deception, falsehoods, and half-truths are the basis of the plot in Wieland. Good and
truth would wipe away the ambiguity and the legitimate meaning of truth would reveal
itself if only the characters would face each other. As the rationality of the characters
language slips away, they all experience a transformation. Wieland goes mad with the
desire to kill his family as a sacrifice to his deity (his defense of which is illogical and
emotional), Carwin is revealed to be a murderer and thief, and Clara begins to lose her
grip on reality. Previously, she had been courageous and bold, attempting to open the
closet door even though an unexplained voice ordered her to desist. Later she claims “by
this test was I now tried, and found to be cowardly and rash” (Brown 249). After the
death of her family, she seems to give up all together. She is content to be “perpetually
melancholy” and even entertained suicidal thoughts (Brown 263). Clara’s severe mental
trauma arose in the failure of her belief that “in the order of things, the order of things
will solve” (Kreyling).
As the narratives draw toward conclusion, the romantic aspect of these novels emerges.
Surprisingly, Brown avoids an extravagant love scene. That Clara mentions her marriage
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to Plyel in passing proves that she has returned to her former self, and is not the
emotional woman who desired “burning blushes” and “mounting raptures” (Brown 89).
Catherine’s maturity is revealed in her acceptance of a sudden and quiet proposal. When
Henry, in plain terms, told her that he believed “himself bound as much in honor as in
affection to Miss Moreland, and believing that heart to be,…no reversing degree of
unjustifiable anger could shake his fidelity,” she calmly accepted (Austen 235).
While the events in Wieland proved disastrous for Clara and those in Northanger
Abbey, embarrassing for Catherine, these women emerged stronger than before. Their
strength was forged in the testing of their minds and hearts and the conquering of their
fears through action and self-control. Both Austen and Brown desire their heroines to
have a balance of intellect and emotion and through these trials, they achieved it. The
pain and embarrassment they felt in the fire faded and their purified characters emerged.
The remembrance dimmed and “time…obliterat[ed] the deepest impressions” (Wieland
262). They were victorious over their fears and learned to resist them in the future.
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Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New York: Harcourt, 1962.
Blake, Warren Barton. “Brockden Brown and the Novel.” The Sewanee Review.
4(1910): 431-43.
Brockden Brown, Charles. Wieland. New York: Harcourt, 1928.
Kreyling, Michael. “Construing Brown’s Wieland: Ambiguity and Derridean Freeplay.”
Studies in the Novel. 14 (1982): 43-54.
McCowan, Jo S. “Our First Novelist.” The Sewanee Review. 4(1896): 174-80.
Smith, George Barnett. “Brockden Brown.” The Fortnightly Review. 24(1878): 399-421.