This assignment is a
feminist reading of Jane Austen’s ‘Northanger
Abbey’ using the radical view of feminism. A brief description of the
feminist principle will be given, followed by examples of how the narrator or
characters comment upon or implement female oppression and/or repression. The
conclusion will then discuss what is gained when reading the novel from a
feminist perspective.
Radical feminists believe that the inequality of women in society
is due to a patriarchal system; they are not anti-men they simply oppose the
view that men are dominant. During the time that Jane Austen wrote this novel,
women were dependant on fathers and husbands for their financial security;
women had limited power in society and were at the mercy of making advantageous
marriages. When looking at the novel from a radical feminist view, numerous
comments and events take place which are ...
