“Teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing”: The Lover-Mentor Relationship in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Emma
Summary
The lover–mentor relationship is a figure often employed in female-oriented coming-of-age novels, or Bildungsromane. This figure consists of a usually somewhat older male character who teaches and guides the protagonist, and eventually marries her. However, female characters in these coming-of-age novels often only learn to submit to their mentors’ principles and judgement, instead of learning to judge for themselves. This thesis explores how the lover–mentor figure is represented in Jane Austen’s novels, focusing on Northanger Abbey and Emma. It can be seen that Northanger Abbey is similar to traditional female-oriented coming-of-age novels, as Catherine accepts her mentor’s judgement as superior to her own. In Emma, the female protagonist initially rebels against her mentor, but learns that he is right on many points. However, Emma learns not to blindly accept Mr. Knightley’s views, but to think more rationally for herself. Thus, Emma is ultimately unlike a traditional female Bildungsroman, because its heroine undergoes actual moral growth through self-assessment and reflection, without direct instruction from her lover–mentor.