What Impressions Of Bath In 1800 Does Jane Austen Create In The First Eight Chapters Of Northanger Abbey?

The beginning of chapter two says Catherine is "About to be launched into all the difficulties and dangers of six weeks residence in Bath." This is another example of Jane Austen's sarcasm. Bath is not full of difficulties and dangers but is simply a change from how Catherine normally would spend her time and is a very new experience to her. Catherine's mother obviously expected her to meet new acquaintances during her time in Bath, and knew that she would, for the first time, be introduced to men that she may end up having some sort of relationship with. It talks about Mrs. Morland worrying about her daughter and warning her about the "Violence of such noblemen and baronets as delight in forcing young ladies away to some remote farm-house." Following this it shows the sort of rules she had set for Catherine. "You will always wrap yourself up very warm about the throat, when you come back from Rooms at night; and I wish you would try to keep some account of the money you spend; - I will give you this little book on purpose." Mrs. Morland is obviously very concerned about the sort of things her daughter is going to be getting up to as she is setting rules and giving a lot of advice to her about how to behave and how to stay safe. Her asking Catherine to keep account of how much money she is spending suggests that the Morlands aren't very well off. She may also have said this because Bath could be quite an expensive place to stay.

Etiquette appears to be very important there and the majority of people visiting seem to have good manners. One character however, Mr. Thorpe, is very self obsessed and appears to care more about himself and bragging about things he has done in the past than anything else, as well as being extremely materialistic and at times quite rude. He comes across as having a lot of money as he talks about his horses and carriages, how high a standard his possessions are and how much they're worth. He also tells stories about various things he does in his spare time which are all fairly upper class hobbies. He talks of shooting parties, racing and describes, "some fabulous day's sport, with the fox-hounds, in which his foresight and skill in directing the dogs had repaired the mistakes of the most experienced huntsman." However, apart from Mr. Thorpe and a few other characters, most of the people in Bath seem very polite, friendly and well brought up.

I get the impression that Bath was quite a popular place to go in the 1800s and quite popular with younger and more upper class people. Things like going out and meeting new people were common occurrences during their stay there. At the beginning of chapter three it talks about the sort of things Catherine would do in Bath. "Every morning now brought its regular duties; - shops were to be visited; some new part of the town to be looked at; and the Pump-room to be attended, where they paraded up and down for an hour, looking at everybody and talking to no-one." This shows that Catherine had begun to do more 'girly' things such as shopping as opposed to staying in to read her beloved novels. The description of the Pump-room sounds as though it was a room where you would go, purely just to judge other people and to try and show yourself off to the others there. In the book it comes across as quite a fashionable place to spend time and quite popular with the younger and more fashion conscious people visiting.