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Jane Austen has been praise for her excellent control of language; her distinctive literary style depends on a combination of parody, burlesque, irony, free indirect speech, and a degree of realism. She often uses parody and burlesque for comic effect and to critique the portrayal of women in 18th-century sentimental. Macaulay, a famous British thinker，historian，uses the most precise language to compare Jane Austen to Shakespeare and pays tribute to her achievement in “creating a fictional world whose values have a real relevance to universally experienced human dilemma”(John Halperin ed,1975:2)．
To be the one of the most prominent figures in the literary arena，Northanger Abbey did not appear in print until 1818, the year after its author’s death when it appeared along with her last novel Persuasion, each of them occupying two volumes of a four-volume package. Literary chronologists have clarified Northanger Abbey as her“precursor to Austen’s superior mature works”(Sniader Lanser,1992:61)．Feminist critics concerned with the ways in which Austen’s “novels and characters negotiate authority”(Sniader Lanser,1992: 62) have always been interested in taking up Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility，Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Emma, as their target material while so far Northanger Abbey is often demoted as juvenilia or parody．
Although Northanger Abbey is an immature work and it is undeniable, before publishing the novel, Jane Austen has revised it for several times. Its theme and central interest prove that the final version has been shaped by an experienced writer. In Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland is special among Austen’s heroines in her naive, unaffected pursuit of the hero, who learns to care for her only because he cannot help perceiving that she prefers him：“Catherine violates conventional norms for female behavior even more radically and more successfully than Elizabeth Bennet”(Fergus,1991:95)．
In Northanger Abbey, Austin’s “gender ideology” (Sniader Lanser, 1992:69) is far-reaching and her assertion that literature as woman’s rightful sphere is remarkable. Her female stance is reflected in the first chapter of Northanger Abbey, “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine” (Jane Austen, 1993:1). Austen shows her anger as well as her education by making these great literary men involved in her joke and target of satire.文献综述
Not only does Austen openly criticize sexist bias in literary traditions, but also criticizes the sexist bias in social conventions. As Catherine eventually becomes a heroine, Jane Austen protests that the immoral and unjustified social conventions and literary conventions create feminity and distort the natural women.
In Northanger Abbey, Austen disapproves three male members, John Thorpe, Henry Tilney, and General Tilney. They refused to fulfill their promise to assign limited power to women and took actions to control the fate of women. Also, Isabella Thorpe and Eleanor Tilney are represented as the conventional construct distorted female role model in the novel. With the comparison of Isabella and Eleanor, Austen stresses that Catherine is the real heroine female model.
2. Literature Review
As the turning point of Austin and English literature, Northanger Abbey was the most special novel written by Jane Austin, because it was the first of Jane Austin’s six major novels to be completed for publication but did not publish until after her death. Literary chronologists have clarified Northanger Abbey as her “precursor to Austen’s superior mature works” (Sniader Lanser, 1992: 61).
Belonging to physiological and social factors, gender is one of important factors which influence the effects in college English learning. M. Mider finds that female’s language ability is superior to male in almost all cultural backgrounds. In this novel, feminist plays an important part, many aspects such as education and marriage, are all expressing the theme.