Scenes from a play based on Northanger Abbey (an extension)

Catherine Morland: the main character

Henry Tilney: the love of Catherine

John Thorpe: Catherine’s acquaintance

Mr. and Mrs. Allen: Catherine’s warmhearted neighbors

Northanger Abbey

(It’s half past eleven in the Northanger Abbey, all the servants are sound asleep, the sound of the clock seems to be musing Catherine’s ears providing a soothing effect as if assuring her that time will change, so will her present circumstances)

A shadow appears in the horror of night luring towards the dungeon

Catherine: Who is it? Henry?

John: Hushhhh, the servants are asleep, I’ve sedated the guards on duty.

Catherine: John! what on earth are you doing here?! How did you get here!?

John: I’ve come to save you from this treacherous monster, you need not be afraid Catherine

Catherine: Heavens John! You shouldn’t be here Henry will kill you

John: You need not afraid, he is far from England on a business trip, come with me, I shall save you from this heinous creature

Catherine: No! I would prefer the darkness of this castle rather than the freedom with you, Henry may be a monster, but I cannot break the vows I made

John: My dear Catherine! you did not vow to live with a monster!

Catherine: Please leave John, I do not want your blood on the floor of this castle

Henry: what on earth is this impropriety! How dare you enter my adobe in my absence!

John: You! This is impossible, I heard you’d out of England

Henry: John Thorpe, why am I not surprised, is this the significance of your vows my dear Catherine? the moment I turn my eyes, you are ready to elope with this greedy man! Well, I shall set an example out of this!

(Henry draws John up in the air forcefully, strangling him, ignoring his struggles to free himself, and eventually when all life has drained out of him, he is released, John lies lifeless on the floor)

(Catherine watches in horror, the next minute, the prison has vanished, she is now the one strangled by Henry)

Catherine: Hhennryy…

Henry: hahaha! Wake up my dear

Catherine: what?

Mr. and Mrs. Allen’s residence

(Someone is shaking her)

Mrs. Allen: Wake up my dear! did you have a bad dream?

(Catherine gets up and realizes it was just a dream)

Catherine: Yes Mrs. Allen

Mrs. Allen: It’s alright my dear, fix yourself and come down for breakfast, Oh and Mr. Allen was back from London last night.

Catherine: I thought we weren’t expecting him till Friday? Alright Mrs. Allen, I’ll be down in a moment.

The dining rooms

(Catherine is joined by Mr. and Mrs. Allen for breakfast, Mr. Allen has returned last night from London)

Mr. Allen: Morning my dears

Catherine: how was your trip Mr. Allen? I wasn’t expecting you back last night

Mr. Allen: It was all fine child, although I should’ve stayed for another night, the carriage got all muddy, the weather last night was dreadful, the driver almost lost control of the horses. I hear you’ve been taking good care of Mrs. Allen in my absence.

(Catherine drifts into imagining what might have happened if the carriage had in fact met a tragedy)

Catherine: It’s no trouble, none at all, I always like to have company of Mrs. Allen.

Mrs. Allen: So sweet of you my dear Catherine, old age is an uncurable disease, and this silent house haunts me. I’m so glad you decided to come.

Mr. Allen: Did you receive any letter from Mr. Tilney?

Catherine: Yes, he’s coming to Fullerton next week.

Mr. Allen: What a wonderful young lad, pity your other sisters didn’t get to marry such fine men.

Mrs. Allen: Mr. Allen! You must not speak like that!

Mr. Allen: But Surely my dear pardon my words, Uh, my lovelies, Mr. Dunkin has invited us to the ball next week

Mrs. Allen: Oh yes! my dear Catherine, I would like you to come with me, I know the right muslin gowns to wear

Catherine: Yes Mrs. Allen, I would love to accompany you to the ball

Mrs. Allen: But surely, you’ll have to dress more eloquently now that you’re engaged to Mr. Tilney, how’ll that white dress of yours do?

Catherine: I left it at home for Anna, she had a ball to attend to

Mrs. Allen: Yes, Anna, the third one. Don’t worry my dear, we’ll figure something out. Your sisters are growing so fast, your parents must be worried for you girls.

Mr. Allen: Ahem, I will be leaving off, there is some business in town to attend to, pardon me my lovelies.

(Mr. Allen leaves the room)

Mrs. Allen: I forgot to mention my dear, back in London, I met Miss Thorpe! She’s married to Mr. Harrison, a famous lawyer, although twice her age and a widow, how unexpected! She’s changed so much I could hardly recognize her!

Catherine: Isabella! the ungenerous and selfish girl, regardless to anything but her own gratification, the opposite of Eleanor

(Catherine pretending to be unaffected by this news, felt deeply for her brother)

Catherine: And what has become of her brother and Mrs. Thorpe

Mrs. Allen: Last I heard Mr. Thorpe was married to Miss Elena Cartop, the whole family has left for London for residence along with his sisters and Mrs. Thorpe

Catherine: The only child of Mr. Cartop? as rich as Jew-is not he?

Mrs. Allen: Yes, I believe, he is very rich.

Catherine: No wonder! Some eligible woman had to be his bait

Mrs. Allen: Oh! I believe he was after your fortune as well!

Catherine: Oh no not mine, Mr. Allen’s!

Mrs. Allen: Mr. Allen’s! Oh! how insipid! And what on earth gave him the thought!?

Catherine: I believe he assumed this on his own, even confessed to General Tilney, God the pain we have suffered on account of the Isabella and her brother

Mrs. Allen: Oh yes! Poor James! He must have lost faith in love!

Catherine: Yes, indeed he has

The housekeeper: Miss Morland, you have a visitor, I believe she is Miss Tilney from Northanger Abbey

Catherine: Oh Eleanor! please do seat her in the drawing room, I’ll be there shortly!

The housekeeper: Yes ma’am!

 

 

 

 

Explanation

What is the significance of one’s economic class?

Jane Austen’s writings reflect various social issues in a realistic yet amusing way that makes the reader reach the end of the book. One of the questions I have found to be more dominating than others in her writings is the significant effect one’s socioeconomic class can have on one’s life, and the way it can affect the approach of people towards you, their ways of thinking, and the views they set forth about you. People make opinions about you based on your financial status rather than on your moral character. The importance of socioeconomic class and status depicted in the novels of Jane Austen cannot be ignored. However, she boldly mocked characters who were obsessed with economic status.

 

One may ask the extent to which an economic class determines one’s character and destinies, and to answer that, let us consider our very own Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe. Poverty is the worst punishment. A lady such as Isabella Thorpe, orphaned at a young age, the eldest sister, and no fortune, has probably spent a great deal facing the challenges of hunger, she possesses no moral or character, no sense of mortification, and does not mind going after a man irrespective of the feelings of love she may possess for another, or perhaps, she is unable to love, for the poverty she faced in her life left her emotions and feelings barren. The only thing that matters in her life is money, for it provides her with a sense of security, and the satisfaction to achieve anything she wants, but happiness for one, cannot be bought. Ladies with a character like of Miss Thorpe place a question in the minds of fortunate men that should they trust women of the lower economic class? And indeed, they shouldn’t. But where does this place the heroine of the book Catherine?

 

Perhaps Catherine was not as poor and in dire need of money as Miss Thorpe. She may lack the presence of jewels but had not suffered the extent of hunger. Or perhaps despite the low socioeconomic status she was enriched with the gift of emotions, innocence, and character, something so scarce these days, much like the character of Jane Austen who preferred to live by her pen rather than with someone she does not love.

 

The support and love of Catherine for Mr. Tilney in the end when he reveals the possibility of losing his inheritance and fortune shows the purity of her emotions, and the strength of her moral character. Her indifference to money and fortune reveals that despite her moderate economic status and ordinary life, her heart has no worth for jewels or fortune, and she does not care for status.

 

So, by analyzing the examples of Miss Thorpe and Miss Morland, we may conclude that low economic status does not always leave the character of an individual devoid of morality, humanity and ethics. The upbringing of a person proves to be significantly influential in building of one’s character.

This is probably the reason why a character like Miss Thorpe would never be the heroine of a book, no writer would write hundreds of pages on Miss Thorpe. It is the strength of character, the presence of emotions, the ability to feel, an agreeable countenance, purity of heart, the unconventional and wild nature, and charming beauty of Catherine Morland, her indifference to economic status that has made her the heroine of this book. These qualities can be found in other heroines of Jane Austen’s books as well.

 

So to sum up, the economic status of a person defines their importance in the eyes of society, but the real riches and jewels a person can have in life are pureness of heart, strength of character and most importantly a fate that binds you with your loved one.

A Reflection of The Play

A play is one of the most entertaining and musing forms of literary work as audience sees the drama happening before their eyes, and instead of explaining everything to the audience, they are left to comprehend events on their own, which engages them a great deal. In so many ways a play dominates a novel, which is why I picked my adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey to be a play rather than any other forms of mentionable literary work.

This adaptation is solely based on Northanger Abbey. To give a brief introduction, Catherine Morland falls in love with a fortunate clergyman who returns her love, but his father who is a General and a man of materialistic approach is against this marriage. However, in the end the happy couple reunites after facing the atrocities of General Tilney and the evil schemes of the Thorpe.

 

But like all the other writings of Jane Austen, the pain and longings of the hero and heroine eventually abate, and they live a happy ending. I personally find this to be an unrealistic approach to always giving everything to the characters.

 

In this play, Catherine is invited by Mrs. Allen to stay at her house in Fullerton as Mr. Allen is going to town to attend personal affairs, and the loneliness of the house haunts Mrs. Allen. In her letter she also mentions to Catherine her falling health and wishes to enjoy her company.

Starting with the scene, we find ourselves in an unbelievable, horrid situation where Catherine is held imprisoned in Northanger Abbey, the dungeon is like the one she had imagined for Mrs. Tilney, her horrible doubts about the Abbey are reached with absolute affirmation. The restrictions imposed by General Tilney to wander about the areas of the Abbey was to hide the secret that haunts the Abbey, the death of his wife.

Catherine’s’ firm belief in Gothic stories, and the haunted nature of Abbeys leads her to having a nightmare in which she finds herself imprisoned in a quiet dungeon, John Thorpe who is a rival of Henry Tilney comes to rescue her but is met with Catherine’s disapproval to be recused. Meanwhile Henry appears and finding his rival with his wife (they are married in the dream) becomes infuriated and strangles him to death after which he attempts to strangle Catherine. This moment her dream is ended by the shaking attempt of Mrs. Allen who finds Catherine shivering in her sleep. This dream is a possible outcome of three events, her still desirable habit of reading gothic novels and imagining herself in those situations, secondly her subconscious mind still believes the haunted nature of Northanger Abbey in which she is to live her life after marriage, and thirdly the letter of John Thorpe she just received filled with apologies, regret and his unrequited love for Catherine.

In the next scene she is seated in the dining rooms with and Mr. and Mrs. Allen for breakfast. Mr. Allen has just reached home the night before.

 

Breakfast leads to a pleasant conversation in which Mr. Allen enquires about the arrival of Henry in Fullerton. Catherine responds that his letter had just arrived in which he had informed about his coming the following week. Henry Tilney is in Bristol on a business trip. He still lives in Northanger Abbey and plans to move Catherine there after marriage which is scheduled in four months after the marriage of Eleanor.

In this conversation, I have tried to rise the issues of the Morland family, their finances, worry of the parents for their abundant young daughters, the subconscious fear of Catherine as she is about to become a part of gentry with no etiquettes as to which spoon to use for soup, and which for her dessert.

 

The younger sister of Catherine Ana (I’ve added her in this adaptation, she is a year younger than Catherine) is facing financial problems as her husband is not as fortunate as Mr. Tilney and is the eldest of eleven. But she is happy, because she loves him, it’s as they say,

Love does not fill your stomach, but it fills your soul.