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Northanger Abbey Enrichment Pack

Contents

Northanger Abbey-The Story

3 Characters

4 Synopsis

6 Themes

7 Historical and Cultural Context

9 The Direct Address

10 Adaptations

Theatre Royal’s Northanger Abbey

11 Northanger Abbey-The Play

12 Introduction from Karen Simpson, Director

13 Q and A with playwright Tim Luscombe

16 Dawn Allsop talks Set and Costume

18 The Cast Talk

20 Enrichment Activities

24 Etiquette in Regency Society

3

Characters

Catherine Morland The protagonist of the novel

Henry Tilney The object of Catherine’s

affection

General Tilney The despotic father of

Henry Tilney, Eleanor Tilney

and Captain Tilney

Eleanor Tilney Henry’s sister, Miss Tilney is

also a loyal and devoted friend

to Catherine

John Thorpe Isabella’s brother

Isabella Thorpe An ambitious young woman

who befriends Catherine in

Bath

Cap. Frederick Tilney The oldest child of the Tilney

family

James Morland Catherine’s brother

Mrs Thorpe Isabella’s mother

Mr & Mrs Allen A wealthy, childless older

couple who host Catherine at

Bath

Emily St Aubert Character from the novel

The Mysteries of Udolpho

Mr & Mrs Morland

and family

Valancourt Character from the novel The

Mysteries of Udolpho

Count Morano Character from the novel

The Mysteries of Udolpho

St Aubert Character from the novel

The Mysteries of Udolpho

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Synopsis

A heroine...

Catherine, the eldest daughter of a clergyman and one of a large family, is

invited by a kind neighbour, Mrs Allen, to accompany her and her husband on a

six week trip to Bath; Mr Allen has been sent there by his doctor ‘to take the

waters' to cure his gout. Catherine is delighted and off they go.

She is soon introduced to Henry Tilney and, after dancing and talking with him,

starts to have romantic feelings for him. She also soon becomes very close

friends with Isabella, the beautiful and confident daughter of Mrs Allen’s old

friend, Mrs Thorpe. The two young ladies soon become inseparable and discover

that their brothers know each other at Oxford. Mr Tilney, in the meantime,

seems to have disappeared. Catherine watches out for him over the next few

days. She doesn't spot him and her admiration for him grows all the more.

The Gothic novel

Catherine is greatly in awe of Isabella, who introduces

her to The Mysteries of Udolpho, a novel in the

romantic and dramatic Gothic style which is popular at

this time. The two young ladies spend their time

alternately discussing novels and looking out for

suitable young men.

Their respective elder brothers arrive in Bath.

Isabella is particularly struck with the charms of

James Morland, but Catherine is less keen on John

Thorpe, who is an arrogant bore and seems to talk of

nothing but horses.

Mr Tilney reappears with his sister at a dance, which

overwhelms Catherine, though she has to decline his

invitation to dance, as she had been previously

engaged to dance with John Thorpe. She is highly

indignant when Mr Thorpe only emerges from the card

room long after the dance has started and becomes

determined to know Henry and his sister better.

Miss Morland and the Tilneys

To fulfil their own selfish objectives, both John Thorpe and Isabella do their

utmost to prevent Catherine from meeting with the Tilneys. Nevertheless, she

succeeds at getting closer to them and they invite her to go with them to their

home, Northanger Abbey. With romantic visions of eerie rooms and haunted

passageways, Catherine excitedly accepts the invitation.

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An engagement

James Morland proposes to Isabella Thorpe and is accepted. He obtains his father's consent to their marriage, but it cannot take place until he takes orders as a priest in two years' time. The lovers settle down to wait; meanwhile, Captain Tilney, Henry Tilney's elder brother, arrives in Bath and starts flirting with Isabella. When Catherine arrives at Northanger Abbey, having been teased by Henry into thinking it would be as gloomy and as gothic as she had imagined, she is disappointed to learn that it had been modernised. However, determined to have her imagination run wild, she begins to suspect the General, to have murdered his wife, or imprisoned her in some remote attic. Henry discovers what she is thinking, and puts a stop to such nonsense. She soon learns this is not the case. Isabella's true colours Catherine receives an upsetting letter from her brother James, to say that his engagement to Isabella is over, and that she is now engaged to Captain Tilney. What is more, even though the General has made some very clear hints that he should like her to marry his son, Henry himself does not seem that way inclined. Catherine then receives a letter from Isabella, which gives the news that Captain Tilney has left Bath and they are not engaged. Isabella entreats Catherine for help, but she ignores the request. The Tilneys are relieved that their brother is not to marry Isabella, but Catherine is still regretful that she ever made a friend of Isabella. The General General Tilney goes away to London and on his return orders for Catherine to return directly to her home. Catherine is distraught, not knowing what she has done to offend the General, and but she has no choice and leaves as instructed. Two days later, Henry arrives at Catherine's home. He declares his love for her and asks her to marry him; she joyfully accepts. The General's fury at Catherine is explained; he had been led to believe, by John Thorpe, that she was an heiress to a considera-ble fortune, so he encouraged Henry to court her. It has now been made clear to him that this is not the case, so he has ordered Henry not to think of her again. Henry takes no notice and promptly takes himself to propose to Catherine. Everyone is made happy The General refuses his consent to the marriage of Henry and Catherine, and Catherine's parents will not give theirs until his is obtained. Then Eleanor announc-es her engagement to a Viscount, and the General is so delighted by her marriage to a man she not only loves, but who is titled, landed and rich, he relents and gives Henry and Catherine his consent. Henry and Catherine are married; the General discovers her family were not as poor or as objectionable as he thought they were, and everyone is happy.

Synopsis Continued...

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Northanger Abbey was written over

two hundred years ago and yet many

of the themes in the novel are still very

relevant to us today.

The boring rules and regulations of

social life.

Rigid gender roles and stereotypes.

The decision to marry for love rather

than marry for money.

Young people wanting or believing that

life should be as dramatic and romantic

as a fiction and the dangers of pursuing

such a life.

Growing up, the loss of naivety,

learning to be single-minded,

independent and not to be

deceived by appearances.

So, we’ve really not changed that much then over the centuries!

The Themes

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Marriage and Gender Roles

Northanger Abbey deftly illustrates how questions of land ownership and inheritance are

closely interlinked with courtship and marriage. In the late 18th century, English

conceptions of family and the role of women began to change, as British culture became

increasingly focused on the accumulation and concentration of wealth within the family.

One way for families to rapidly accumulate capital was through advantageous

marriages. As a result, the position of daughters within the family changed, as they

became the means through which a family could attain greater wealth. Familial

aspirations, coupled with women’s increased dependence on marriage for financial

survival, made courtship a central focus of women’s lives.

At the same time, the late 18th century also witnessed a transformation in the

conception of women’s rights following the publication of Mary

Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. In the Vindication,

Wollstonecraft argues, in the language of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, that

women should be treated as the rational equals of men. Elizabeth Bennett serves as a

paradigmatic example of the conflicting transformations in women’s roles that occurred

in the late eighteenth century. Disinherited of her father’s property, Elizabeth is not

financially independent and, in fact, depends upon an advantageous marriage for her

future survival. Yet, throughout the novel, she asserts an intellectual and moral

independence that reflects a Wollstonecraftian conception of gender politics.

Historical and Cultural Context

Late Eighteenth-Century Britain and the Regency Period

Jane Austen’s brief life and writing career overlapped with one of the most transformative

eras in British history, marked by revolution abroad and unrest at home. For two

decades, Britain was engaged, almost without cease, in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic

Wars of 1793 to 1815, one of the most significant conflicts in British history. Among the

effects of England’s foreign wars during this period was great financial instability and

monetary volatility. The precariousness of the late 18th century was followed in the

1810s and 1820s by what is known as the Regency period. The Regency officially began

in 1811, when King George III went permanently insane and his son George, Prince of

Wales, was sanctioned to rule England in his place as Regent. The political Regency

lasted until 1820, when George IV was crowned. However, the Regency period has also

come to refer more generally to the early decades of the 19th century before the start of

Victoria’s reign in 1837, during which the Prince Regent provided a great deal of support

for the development of the arts and sciences that flourished during this period. Austen

would have witnessed, moreover, the beginning of industrialisation in England, though

the growth of the factory system would not reach its peak until the middle of the 19th

century. Outside of the genteel world we see in Northanger Abbey, a third of the

country’s population lived on the verge of starvation, spurring food riots across the

countryside. This unrest was compounded by Luddite protestors who attacked new

industrial machinery (a practice called “machine breaking”) in demonstrations that were

a precursor to labour strikes. As these demonstrations spread fear of a revolution in

England, the government responded with repressive measures that sharply curtailed

freedom of speech.

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Print Culture and the Novel in Austen’s Time

Literacy and print culture in England greatly expanded in Austen’s lifetime. By

1800, almost everyone in the middle classes and above could read and literacy

rates for the rest of the population rose steadily thereafter. At the same time,

from 1780 onwards there was a fairly steady rise in the number of new novels

being published, so that by the end of Austen’s life, the novel was the dominant

form of literature in England. The rise of the novel was, in part, spurred on by

new forms of printing and marketing, which made books less expensive and

expanded their readership. Smaller format books were more portable, and

therefore easier to consume. Similarly, novels became more readily accessible

through the expansion of various modes of access, including circulating and

subscription libraries as well as periodicals, which made literature affordable in a

time when books were often prohibitively expensive. Nevertheless, novels of

the kind Austen published would have been an unaffordable luxury for a great

deal of the population. This was particularly true in the earlier part of the 19th

century, when “taxes on knowledge” raised prices on paper, newspapers,

advertisements and other texts. These taxes were, in fact, at their height

during Austen’s career. This was in part because of a desire to limit access to

information for the lower classes in response to the revolution in France and

upheaval at home. Though the late 18th and early 19th centuries marked an

explosion in novel reading and the production of the novels themselves, the

widely affordable novel would not become ubiquitous until the middle of the 19th

century.

The rise of the novel has historically been linked to the rise of the middle class

in England from the 18th century onwards, because this expanding social class

(and middle class women in particular) had both the income and the leisure-

time available to consume them. Although novels were widely read, throughout

the late 18th and early 19th centuries, they were largely considered unserious,

frivolous and, even, irrelevant — a merely ‘popular’ genre.

CONTINUED…

9

The Direct Address

Austen addresses the reader directly in parts, particularly at the end of

Chapter 5, where she gives a lengthy opinion of the value of novels and the

contemporary social prejudice against them in favour of drier historical works

and newspapers. In discussions featuring Isabella, the Thorpe sisters,

Eleanor and Henry, and by Catherine perusing the library of the General, and

her mother's books on instructions on behaviours, the reader gains

further insights into Austen's various perspectives on novels in contrast with

other popular literature of the time (especially the Gothic novel). Eleanor

even praises history books and, while Catherine points out the obvious fiction

of the speeches given to important historical characters, Eleanor enjoys them

for what they are.

The directness with which Austen addresses the reader, especially at the end

of the story, gives a unique insight into Austen's thoughts at the time, which

is particularly important due to the fact that a large portion of her letters

were burned, at her request, by her sister upon her death.

The important passage in Chapter 5 is the narrator's direct defence of

novel-reading. At the time in England when Austen was writing, novels had a

negative connotation for many people, particularly people belonging to the

higher classes. The horrific events featured in Gothic novels and the lurid

details of books such as Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders and Samuel

Richardson's Pamela caused the novel, as a form, to gain a poor reputation.

Novels were considered a diversion for the lower class. By the late 1790s,

this opinion was beginning to change but novelists, especially female

novelists, were still scorned. When Austen began Northanger Abbey, the

most famous woman author was Anne Radcliffe, writer of the Gothic horror

novels people so disparaged. Here the narrator issues a call to arms, asking

us to ignore the snide opinions of the reviewers and listing the merits of the

novel.

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Adaptations

Jane Austen’s work is frequently

adapted for stage and screen.

Why do you think that is?

Here are just a few depictions of

the characters from

Northanger Abbey.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The BBC released the television adaptation

of Northanger Abbey in 1986.

An adaptation of Northanger Abbey with a

screenplay by Andrew Davies, was shown

on ITV on 25 March 2007 as part of their "Jane

Austen Season". This adaptation aired in the

United States as part of the "Complete Jane

Austen" on Masterpiece Classic in January

2008. It starred Felicity Jones as Catherine

Morland, Carey Mulligan as Isabella Thorpe

and JJ Feild as Henry Tilney.

A stage adaptation of Northanger Abbey by

Tim Luscombe was produced by Salisbury

Playhouse in 2009. It was revived in Chicago

in 2013 at the Remy Bumppo Theatre before

coming to Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds in

2017.

A theatrical adaptation by Michael Napier

Brown was performed at the Royal

Theatre in Northampton in 1998 "Pup Fiction"

– an episode of Wishbone featuring the plot

and characters of Austen's Northanger Abbey.

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Northanger Abbey: The Play

Playwright Tim Luscombe talks about his responsibility to keep faithful

to the original text whilst focusing on Catherine’s ’teenage angst’ and

the central love story in order to draw in dramatic tension.

From chapter II of the novel….

After some time they received an offer of tea from one

of their neighbours; it was thankfully accepted, and this

introduced a light conversation with the gentleman who

offered it, which was the only time that anybody spoke to

them during the evening, till they were discovered and

joined by Mr. Allen when the dance was over.

“Well, Miss Morland,” said he, directly, “I hope you

have had an agreeable ball.”

“Very agreeable indeed,” she replied, vainly endeav-

ouring to hide a great yawn.

“I wish she had been able to dance,” said his wife; “I wish we could have got a partner for her”.

From the Dramatic Adaptation

Catherine What shall we do? It’s very awkward to have no party to join.

Mrs Allen And no acquaintance to claim.

Catherine Or no gentleman to assist us.

Mrs Allen Aye, it’s very disagreeable to have nobody to speak to except each other. I wish we

had a large acquaintance here.

Catherine I wish we had any – it’d be somebody to go to.

Mrs Allen How is my head, my dear? Somebody gave me a push that has hurt it, I’m afraid.

Catherine No, indeed, it looks very nice.

Mrs Allen There goes a strange looking woman! What an odd gown she’s got on!

Catherine (After stifling a yawn) We shall do better another evening, I hope.

Mrs Allen If only you could dance. If only we could get a partner for you. Oh, I long for a large

acquaintance! (Exits)

Isabella (Appearing magically, with her book) The man staggered and groaned pitifully. St Au-

bert’s horror may be imagined, when in the next instant he thought he heard the faint voice of

Valancourt! It was Valancourt!

(Catherine remains onstage, wearied by Mrs Allen’s protestations and the lack of a partner. Val-

ancourt, now wounded, staggers on, and collapses to his knees in front of Catherine but una-

ware of her. The dancers disperse. Catherine’s desire for a partner, along with the influence

exerted on her by the books she reads, allows her to conjure up a romantic hero in the middle

of a Ball in this way!)

Isabella Valancourt! The handsome stranger they had met on their travels! He had been riding

towards them to warn them of the dangers that lay ahead. Valancourt: who had given the book

of poetry to Emily; who had walked with her in the forest, and charmed her at every step. How

brave! How noble! How altogether pleasing is Valancourt!

(The Bath public re-enter as the Pump Room fills up the next morning, and Catherine’s day-

dream of the wounded Valancourt comes to an abrupt end. Valancourt exits. Catherine is

alone. She looks at every new face, dejected and ignored. Mrs Allen brings up the rear.)

Here we learn of Catherine’s disappointment to not have interacted with Bath society during the ball or to have being invited to dance by a young gentleman. Notice, if we compare this excerpt from the novel to the corresponding excerpt from the script, we are offered up the unique insight into Catherine’s gothic, dramatic imagination, as the heroic character from one of her favourite novels comes alive to brighten her evening.

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Theatre Royal’s Northanger Abbey

2017 marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death and I couldn’t let the year pass

without celebrating her legacy and brilliance as a writer and this production of Northanger

Abbey aims to do just that.

Tim Luscombe’s innovative adaption of the novel is a really playful, creative script that

retains the wit and social satire that forms the backbone of Austen’s novel. The shows

works really well as an ensemble piece and I’ve tried to evoke a sense of the whole com-

pany of actors being a part of the action and storytelling throughout the performance

even if their character doesn’t appear in that part of the story.

That playfulness continues in Dawn Allsopp’s wonderful creative set designs. Her ideas

include dinner chairs transforming to become horse carriages, park benches morphing in-

to beds and a front room carpet becoming flooring tiles in a church. All of this has been

done to enhance the ensemble feel of the show (and it’s also very useful for a widely

touring show!)

Producing a show and getting it out on the road is always a team effort and my thanks

goes to a wonderful cast and crew who have all worked incredibly hard on creating

Northanger Abbey.

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds is the only example of a working Regency Theatre left in the world, it’s a unique place and the opportunity to produce a piece of work by a well-loved Regency writer, seems like the perfect marriage for 2017. Karen Simpson, Director.

Set and Costume designs, Northanger Abbey,

TRBSE 2017

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How is the adaptation different from the original work?

As I began to write the piece I realised that no

theatre company could ever produce what I was

writing as there were about 30 characters and that

I'd better face the fact that I had two big

parameters to write within, not one. The new

question was: how to get the story into two-and-a-

half hours of stage time with only about 8 actors at

most needed to tell it. That was when I had to face

hard challenges like which characters to sacrifice.

Mr Allen had to go. Mr Morland had to go. Countless

others.

York Theatre Royal, who produced the initial production and for whom I wrote the

play, insisted that 2 hours 15 minutes and 8 actors were the obstacles I had to

negotiate. They were unmoveable red lines. Members of the audience had to be

able to catch the last bus home. The theatre company couldn't afford more than

8 actors. And that was that. (I had to learn to love my obstacles, and I kind of did!

After all, art that's made with no obstacles is nearly always boring and self-

indulgent).

In adapting work for the stage, do you feel your responsibility is to keep

faithful to the narrative structure and content of the novel or to make a

play which is viable for a live audience?

You have to do both.

I do feel a loyalty to the original. I love Jane Austen. That's why I want to work on

her books and spend time exploring her mind. So it is hard to cut and change

things she wrote. Not only is it hard, but it’s dangerous too, because she knew

what she was doing. She is a master in the art of storytelling. She understands

character. And so you alter stuff at your peril. BUT. There are things that counted

then to a person and in the world that don't count now. Sensibilities that we don't

worry about in 2016 might drive a late 18th century man or woman mad with worry.

To an extent, that's what’s interesting. It’s fascinating getting to understand how

society functioned when a woman could never go unaccompanied to a dance. When

Isabella wants to look at a hat in a shop, the assumption is another person will have

to go with her. There’s no discussion or thought about it. If she can't find a

companion, she can't go shopping. But if my play spent too long negotiating these

18th century niceties and morals, an audience watching it might feel it was in a

museum or a history lesson, so I wanted to put Catherine’s teenage angst in the

forefront and make it as much of a love story as I could. And I wanted to lose none

of the comedy.

Q and A with Playwright Tim Luscombe

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Can anything be adapted for the stage?

Yes. Why not? Given that the theatre’s speciality is transformation, I don't see why

something set entirely in your head or on the moon or in twelfth century Japan

can't be reimagined for the stage. Look at Shakespeare’s plays. He doesn't seem

to be inhibited by notions of realism or literalism. We’re at sea – because one of

the characters says so. Now we’re in a hut. Now we’re on a London street. Sure,

why not? Audiences will willingly suspend their disbelief because they long to dive

head first into a good story. It has to be good to work, though! And theatre

companies like Complicité or Kneehigh or the way Robert Lepage created work to

show that theatre can deal with any kind of material from classic to ultra

contemporary.

What were your challenges getting Northanger Abbey onto its feet?

How to translate Catherine’s inner monologues onto the stage.

To solve this problem, I came up with the notion that it might be useful to

incorporate parts of The Mysteries of Udolpho (her favourite book) into the action to

dramatise her fears and fantasies. Because Catherine has no-one to talk to, I

mean no one to be really honest with, there couldn't be scenes where she sat down

and discussed her longings and worries and fears. This is partly a reflection of the

period and a woman’s role in it. It’s also partly because Catherine is really a classic

18th century heroine to the extent that she's surrounded by fools and devils, with

no confidante in sight. And, when she eventually gets together with Henry and

Eleanor, who are neither foolish nor devilish, it’s too late for Catherine – she's

already worked out her survival strategy, ie to go into her head and conjure up

Gothic horror. Or, rather, it’s almost too late. Yet we want to know what's going

on in her head. So that’s how the little Udolpho snippets came to be.

CONTINUED…

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Were you conscious of pushing certain themes through in order to

make the piece more pertinent to a modern audience?

Apart from putting the love story first and central, I also wanted to

explore as fully as possible two other things that the book handles so

well. Both are really crucial and as relevant today as at any other time.

The first is that Austen seems to be saying that, if you have your head

too deep into literature – romance, fantasy, thriller, horror – and fail to

also examine the world as it really is, rather than as it is in novels, then

you'll draw horrible conclusions and get into trouble. Young people today

who live in a world of fashion, football, films or fiction might fail to

recognise that the world isn't a fantasy in which good perennially

triumphs and you always get what you want or even deserve. The world

has to be lived in and understood and accepted. Then real lives can get

lived and things can be changed. Escapism is fun but, if it excludes a

good dose of reality, it is dangerous because it’s delusional.

The other theme is that of education. It is a very big theme in Jane

Austen’s books. Specifically, a young woman’s education in

understanding the extent to which she can affect the lives of others.

(This is relatable to the point above about fantasy, as it is about our

place in the world and in society). Anyway, in Northanger Abbey Henry

takes on the job of helping Catherine understand that she cannot control

(or even know) other people, that she can't know what they're thinking,

that we’re all independent beings who must ultimately be responsible for

ourselves and recognise that the only person you can really change is

yourself. Put your own oxygen mask on first. Henry also educates

Catherine about female equality, no small thing!

The theme of education and personal change/influence can be seen in

various similar but interestingly variegated shades in Mansfield Park,

where Fanny has to be taught some important and similar life lessons, in

Persuasion where Ann’s, the heroine, entire journey is to find a way to

undo the damage inflicted on her by another person having meddled in

her life and, most obviously, in Emma where Emma thinks it her role in

life to fix up the lovel ives of others. She learns better. We don't know

what’s in the heart or mind of others and we’d better not guess.

CONTINUED…

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Dawn Allsop talks set and costumes

What were your challenges when

putting costume together for

Northanger Abbey? Northanger Abbey

is set in 1794 and it is a challenging play to

costume as all the characters move seam-

lessly from one scene to another and re-

quire one outfit onto which all other ele-

ments like coats and hats will be added.

The final costumes which end up on stage

will have been found from many different

sources and carefully chosen to sit

together well and complement each other.

When designing with the knowledge you will be doing a lot of hiring, I tend to stay very open minded about colours.

It is very important to have a range of choices for each actor and for them to feel they are right for their character. So colours can stay quite fluid and then slowly, as we finalise our choices it becomes clearer what the over all colour pallet is for the show and what each individual character's colours are.

My job is to make sure all the costumes work well together on stage even though they will have been drawn together from many places.

For the set, what was the original brief you were given from the director?

I think we talked about it having a simple period feel. That we wanted to create a striking piece of design which allowed for the necessary fluidity of movement be-tween the many scenes.

I took my inspiration from architecture and iron metal work of the period. I want-ed to create a sense of the curved terraces of Bath but in a darker, more gothic finish.

The frames are also light boxes and at significant times will light up to reveal the gothic fret work within them.

What were the challenges?

There are various challenges. We always work to a budget and getting every-thing you want, within a budget takes careful planning a thought. There is the added challenge here that the play will then tour and the venues differ in size. The staging and floor would therefore need to be flexible enough to accommo-date this crucial requirement.

What do you like about the set?

It's simplicity is it's strength and it will look beautiful when lit by Mark Dymock.

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Northanger Abbey: Catherine Moorland’s bedroom.

A large bed is created and covered in a sumptuous bedspread.

Eleanor Tilney’s wedding day: An archway of flowers is introduced, along with a tiled floor area to give a suggestion of the church.

Dawn Allsop talks set and costumes

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The Cast talk

What, if any, is the difference between acting out a

contemporary story and a classic one?

The fashion at the moment in film and TV adaptations of ‘classics’ is to not be truly historical or accurate and I feel this is a real mistake. It’s done under the guise of making the narrative accessible but unless we as an audience truly understand the environment those characters were existing in, the etiquette, the pressures, the expectations, we’ll never really understand or empathise with any of them.

What would you say your character needs to learn, face or overcome within the narrative?

General Tilney is an arrogant, stubborn man and he has to has to learn to overcome this through the help of his children, who themselves have gone through a transition within the story. They help him recognise the truth. He’s very much like a child, growing throughout this narrative.

If you or your character could rewrite one bit of the

original Northanger Abbey narrative, what would it be?

Initially I wanted Eleanor to speak up more from the

beginning, defend her stance and not allow herself to get

pushed around. Now, I see there is a journey she has to go

through in order to learn more about herself and others. If

she’s have spoken up from the beginning, her story wouldn’t

have been nearly so interesting.

We asked the cast to talk

a little bit about their

character, the story of

Northanger Abbey and

the production. Here’s

what they had to say….

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How close do you think you are to your character in terms of personality traits?

I’m also a deep thinker and find a lot of the social interactions at parties and

gatherings hard work and tedious. We have a lot in common, with one

large exception; he is a clergyman and I do not believe in God.

Interestingly, however, even though Henry is a devout Christian, he tells

Catherine ‘You must use your own head, your own observations, not Mrs

Radcliffe’s not anyone else's’. To me that illustrates he considers people to

be capable of making good decisions without moral guidance from above.

What other character do you think you would enjoy playing if

you could?

My character has quite a dark super objective; to be rich at any cost.

He’s arrogant and self-interested. It would be good to play a character

like Henry, who’s decent and honest and has integrity, the other side of

the coin.

What do you think your challenges are as an actor in terms of

either your role or within this production.

As part of an ensemble, you have to be mindful of everyone’s individual

stories so that you know where you fit and when; you become part of a

complete picture. If you perform in a vacuum, your energy might be

wrong for the overall piece, you might trample all over someone else's

journey!

What other character do you think you’d enjoy playing if you could?

I like the general because he’s clearly had quite a life and the part is quite

complex. He appears in one way a military man-assertive, authoritative-

but moments in the script seem to suggest he’s hiding something. Little

things he says, the language he uses, it’s a language of regret.

CONTINUED…

How close do you think you are to your character in terms of personality traits?

I instantly felt close to Catherine and felt I would like her very much if she were real. She seems to be all over the place, in terms of discovering who she is and finding her place in the world and equally at times, com-pletely grounded and sure of herself. I think, probably like most people, I too have times of feeling both at ease with the path I am on and also moments of slight mess and uncertainty.

20

English

Comprehension

Answer the following questions

1 What was Catherine Morland’s family situation like?

2 Why did Mrs Allen want to take Catherine to Bath?

3 What were Catherine’s first opinions of John Thorpe and Henry Tilney?

4 What did John Thorpe do to make Catherine angry?

5 What did John Thorpe tell General Tilney about Catherine and why did he do

it?

6 Why was Catherine so excited about going to Northanger Abbey?

7 Why did Catherine suspect General Tilney of doing to his wife?

8 Why did Isabella break off her engagement to James?

9 Why did General Tilney send Catherine away from Northanger Abbey?

10 How did Henry and Catherine finally get the General’s consent to marry?

Creative Writing

Alternative Ending

Write an alternative ending to Northanger Abbey.

Gothic Short Story

Write a short story in the style of a Gothic novel.

The Mysteries of Udolpho

Research the novel The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe.

Love letter

Write a love letter from Henry to Catherine. Try your best to use the common

language of the time.

Northanger Abbey – Enrichment Activities

21

Drama

1 Jane Austen’s novels are frequently reworked into contemporary settings,

illustrating the timelessness of her stories.

Devise a contemporary scene, using your favourite moment from Northanger

Abbey as stimulus. Modernise the dialogue, the mannerisms, clothing and

cultural references.

Consider this:

Reflect: In modernising the scene, do you find the attitudes of the characters

or the etiquette has changes or is it just the same?

2 Within a middle-class environment during the time of Regency England, the

way an individual behaved or the things they said often belied their true

feelings. Perfectly civil conversations could be taking place amidst

overwhelming feelings of anger, fear, sadness, or adoration. The meaning

beneath the dialogue is often referred to as ’subtext’; what lies underneath

the text.

Select a scene from the novel that you feel has the potential for ‘subtext’

between the characters speaking. In groups, re-enact the scene twice, the

first time ‘straight’, with just the dialogue being played out simply, and the

second time with two members of the group pausing the action to provide

the inner thoughts or subtext within the scene, with two performers speaking

the characters’ thoughts aloud as the action takes place.

Reflect: Does this add further tension, humour or atmosphere to the scene?

CONTINUED…

22

PSHE

Etiquette has changed quite a lot over the last few hundred years. Take a look

at Appendix 1, Rules and Etiquette in Regency Society. There are actually many

more rules that are not listed in this abridged document.

What does this amount of formulated social rules suggest to you?

Are any of those rules still applicable today?

Count how many rules and practices of etiquette refer purely to women.

How many are there compared to other sects of society, including children, men

and servants?

What do you think this indicates?

1 Write an account of what you think it would feel like as a middle-class

young woman in that era?

2 Create your own Rules and Etiquette document for the modern era.

History

In order to understand the characters depicted in Northanger Abbey it is useful

to put them into context of their time and location.

Create a newspaper article from 1817, carefully documenting the news and

events around the time that Northanger Abbey was written.

Art and Textiles

Research the popular fashion of the time period in which "Northanger Abbey" is

set. Design and create a dress that would have been worn by Catherine to one

of the many balls she attends in the story.

CONTINUED…

23

Marketing

To misquote Jane Austen ‘it’s a truth universally acknowledged that audiences in

different parts of the United Kingdom respond to marketing in a different ways’.

The 2017 tour of Northanger Abbey is scheduled to visit towns and cities from

Ipswich to Basingstoke. But how do you go about creating awareness of the play

in such a broad spread of places? And how do you make sure that your

marketing is appropriate to each venue and to each audience?

Research details of Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, where Northanger Abbey will

be commencing its run before going on tour. Can you tell, from the wider

programme, what the Theatre is offering, which sort of audience the Theatre is

marketing to? Is it clear from the recent and future programming, who is most

likely to be the core audience? Is there anything else on the venue’s website that

gives you a clue? When thinking about all of this, consider style and language,

as well as content.

1 In groups create two separate marketing campaigns that reflect the style of

this venue. One campaign should be for a younger audience, such as

yourselves, and the other should be for an older demographic. In both cases,

your task is to market the tour of Northanger Abbey.

- Are the two different audiences looking for different things?

- How can both age ranges be hooked in?

- Where are you going to place the marketing materials?

- Which publications?

- Which platforms?

2 From this, create a marketing

campaign. For this, you can use

the images that have been

created or this production of

Northanger Abbey (Appendix 2),

or your own images, drawings or

designs, to create a coherent

and targeted campaign for the

two different audiences.

You may also wish to use some quotes from some of the reviews of other TRBSE

productions, to highlight the critical response, if you think that this would be

likely to persuade members of our audience to buy tickets.

Finally, compare the campaigns for the two different audiences – how are they

similar and how are they different? How successful do you feel each one will be

in reaching the audiences that they have targeted?

CONTINUED…

You should consider:

• a poster for the venue to display

• an advertisement for the side of a local bus or

other venues

• a website homepage specific to this play in their

town

• an advertisement for a local newspaper or

magazine that is read by their target audience.

24

Appendix 1

Etiquette in Regency Society Social connections were usually formed through a series of meetings, usually beginning with calls to the homes of those in fashionable society. A gentleman calling on a family asked for the mistress of the house if the visit was a social one and the master if it was a business call. A card was left if the lady of the house was indisposed or not at home. It was acceptable for a gentleman to call on a daughter of the house if she were well above marriageable age or a longstanding friend. Callers were received by men in their business room or library and by women in the morning room or in their drawing room. A lady, either married or single, did not call at a gentleman’s lodgings. For a lady, it was acceptable to go out riding or driving with a man as long as a groom or other chaperone was in attendance, unless he was a relative of a close family friend, in which case no chaperone was necessary. Servants were spoken to with exactly the right degree of civility and never with casual informality. Neither a lady nor a gentleman discussed private business in the presence of servants. Servants were generally ignored at mealtimes. It was essential to dress for dinner. When going in to dinner, the gentleman of the house always escorted the highest-ranking lady present. The remaining dinner guests also paired up and entered the dining room in order of rank. At a formal dinner one did not talk across the dinner table but confined conversation to those on one’s left and right. Ladies were expected to retire to the withdrawing room after dinner, leaving the gentlemen to their port and their ‘male’ talk. Overt displays of emotion were generally considered ill bred. Children always bowed or curtsied on meeting their parents for the first time each day. To be thought ‘fast’ or to show a want of conduct was the worst possible social stigma. A wife was expected to be blind to her husband’s affairs. A married woman could take a lover once she had presented her husband with an heir and so long as she was discreet about her extramarital relationships. A lady did not engage in any activity that might give rise to gossip. When out socially a lady did not wear a shawl for warmth no matter how cold the weather. A gentleman was expected to immediately pay his gambling debts, or any debt of honour. A female did not engage in finance or commerce if she had a man, such as a husband, father or brother, to do it for her. Extremes of emotion and public outbursts were unacceptable. A well bred person maintained an elegance of manners and deportment. From Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester (2008)