Our extract (pg 114-115) was a conversation between Henry Tilney and Catherine, about their upcoming visit to Northanger Abbey. Catherine’s pretty much going on about how she thinks Northanger Abbey is going to be exactly like all all the abbeys she’s read in her gothic fiction novels. Henry just pretends to go along with it, in a mocking manner. He exaggerates about all the horrifying elements of his home like secret passages, dim-lighted hallways, creepy furniture and creepy servants. It turns out there are actually a lot of intertextual references to The Mysteries of Udolpho, in what Henry was saying. Catherine doesn’t really seem to pick up on the fact that Henry is making fun of her rampant imagination. Which is strange because she’s read The Mysteries of Udolpho and doesn’t seem to realise that he’s just stating things from that book. She even keeps telling Henry to continue about the house, until he can’t because he’s just laughing too much. This is how Northanger Abbey can be viewed as a satire based novel, it just pokes fun at lots of tropes that are considered classic gothic fiction.