Much can be said about the similarities between “Tabula Rasa” and Northanger Abbey. Some of these include the critique of female friendship as embodied by Isabella and Willow, the comparable sense of predictability combated by reaching conventional endings in unexpected ways, and the similar goal of redefining heroine archetypes. All of these comparisons are important examples of how “Tabula Rasa” and Northanger Abbey are complimentary texts that are fitting to read together. However, instead of focusing on just this episode in light of Austen’s novel, I’d like to compare the overarching structure of Buffy to that of Northanger Abbey.
I believe that one of the most gratifying qualities of both these texts is that they possess a sense of self-awareness. For Buffy, it is an understanding of Gothic texts, and for Northanger Abbey it is a knowledge of the form of eighteenth century novels. As George Levine says in his article “Translating the Monstrous: Northanger Abbey,” “parody always involves itself in certain contradictions, not only because the need for mockery is invariably a sign of respect for the power of the thing mocked, but also because the parody must exist in the medium of its predecessor” (337). Both texts play with the respective conventions of the Gothic and the novel in this way, and in doing so are able to be playful and entertaining.
A poignant example of such use of parody can be seen in the episode “Buffy vs. Dracula,” in which the Dracula mythos is turned on its head and satirized. Yet this humor is out of reverence, and is used to legitimize Buffy in the Gothic world in comparison to Stoker’s renowned Dracula. Similarly, and perhaps more consistently, Northanger Abbey satirizes the conventional expectations of the novel and the Gothic form. Austen continually uses narrative intrusion to point out how the story deviates from convention. For instance, in the opening paragraph of the book Austen writes of Catherine’s mother, “she had three sons before Catherine was born; and instead of dying in bringing the latter into the world, as anybody might expect, she still lived on” (15). This example illustrates how Northanger Abbey is aware of, and plays with, past literary traditions – here, that a heroine should be without a living mother as a role model. Similarly to Buffy, Northanger Abbey uses self-awareness and parody to create a new, legitimate, and elevated work of Gothic fiction that teaches its readers how to read anew.
I think that the use of self-awareness and parody in these texts is both successful and captivating. However, as we discussed in class, a less well-read audience member might miss much, if not all, of the satirical references in these texts. For example, when Henry jokes, unbeknownst to Catherine, about what her stay would be like at the Abbey if life were like a gothic novel, he references in content and near quotation the Mysteries of Udolpho, Romance of the Forest, Castles of Otranto, and The Recess. Only a reader with a substantial background in gothic literature would be able to discern these allusions. A less well-read viewer of Buffy would similarly not understand the significance of Xander’s behavior in “Buffy vs. Dracula.” Thus, to varying extents Buffy and Northanger Abbey are pleasing to two different audiences, one that is well-read and one that is more naïve. My only lingering curiosity is whether there is a third viewer category for Buffy: the portion of the audience who has seen the series in its entirety? Based off of the various discussions of Willow’s role in “Tabula Rasa,” – some advocating that she is a truly bad Isabella-like “friend” and others deeming that she is a kind-hearted sturdy companion throughout most of the series – I believe that this third category does indeed exist. As a result, though perhaps unintentionally, Buffy successfully manipulates the modern media sphere to augment the criteria of what makes a well-read viewer. In my opinion this feat, although technologically impossible in 1798, is comparable in importance to Northanger Abbey’s overall accomplishment of redefining the possibilities of fiction in the eighteenth century.
Levine, George. "Translating the Monstrous: Northanger Abbey." Nineteenth Century Fiction. (1975): 335-50. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New Chronology and Updated Further Reading Addition. London: Penguin Books, 2003. 15.
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