Northanger Abbery Blog 2

"Northanger Abbey!- These were thrilling words, and wound up Catherine's feelings to the highest point of extasy. Her grateful and gratified heart could hardly restrain its expressions within the language of tolerable calmness. To receive so flattering an invitation! To have company so warmly solicited! Every thing honourable and soothing, every present enjoyment and every future hope was contained in it; and her acceptance, with only the saving clause of papa and mamma's approbation was eagerly given. -"I will write home directly," she said, "and if they do not object, as I dare say they will not"- (pg. 132-133)

This passage, although not directly spoken or thought of by Catherine, does an excellent job of explaining just how elated she was to receive an invitation to a real abbey. The punctuation is what caught my eye the most while reading this passage as the exclamation points and hyphens emulate the frantic excitedness Catherine feels, and can barely contain. The passage makes it feel like Catherine's head is actually spinning with excitement as all her preconceived notions about abbeys flood her mind, from the various gothic novels she has read. This raises an interesting question: is she more excited to see the abbey or Henry? Prior to the invitation, Catherine had learned that the Tilneys would be leaving Bath soon and she became very upset. At first glance, I thought that Catherine was extremely excited because she would get to see Henry again, which seems reasonable. Then I got to thinking that maybe she was more excited to see the abbey than him, which also seems possible. I still don't know where I stand with what she was more excited for but I'm leaning a little more towards the abbey side because later on, Catherine snoops around the abbey and risks her relationship with the Tilneys because she finds it more important to snoop. What do you think? Also, please enjoy this undoctored footage of Catherine trying to contain her excitement after the invitation