Ignorance and unintelligence are often used synonymously, but Austen chooses carefully when deciding between the two very different words. The narrator of Northanger Abbey believes that women should not be ashamed of their ignorance, but should use it to their advantage. Ignorance can be a tool to appeal to others’ vanity as a request to accept what the other has to offer intellectually. However, while ignorance may play to her advantage, a lack of intelligence can be troublesome. Intelligence in the novel means being able to gain knowledge from instruction or conversation, but not necessarily having previous knowledge to offer. Ignorance can be seen as an innocent or sweet sentiment, or associated with the desire to learn, while unintelligence depicts a distaste of gaining knowledge and displaying self-centered superficiality.
Mrs. Allen is a prime example of a character whose unintelligence reflects on her self-absorbed nature and concern for superficial matters. In a conversation with Mrs. Thorpe, Mrs. Allen “gave intelligence” as to her family. Both women are speaking of the accomplishments and achievements of people with whom they are concerned, but the “intelligence” is falling on deaf ears. While it is being given, neither party is gaining any knowledge of the other, thus no intelligence is shared.
Further into the novel there are two separate occasions where Mrs. Allen has “no real intelligence to give.” It is not due to her never having heard the information she was being asked for, but rather because when she was given it in previous conversations she had absorbed nothing. Even on this superficial topic, the whereabouts of the Tilneys, Mrs. Allen was unable to transfer the information because it did not directly concern her.
From the very beginning, Catherine is described as unintelligent, not ignorant. Ignorance would have been more beneficial; her unintelligence prohibited her from learning. Like Mrs. Allen, Catherine is “often inattentive.” This idea is not bypassed or sugarcoated for it is directly followed by a statement that Catherine is “occasionally stupid.” This comment is not placed behind her slow learning or her love of “boys” games because it is her only quality that prevents her from gaining any knowledge.
Catherine herself shows her unintelligence in the pages before the narrator’s lesson on ignorance. In a conversation she is having with Mr. Tilney she uses the words “torment” and “instruct” synonymously. Her blatant abhorrence to instruction clashes violently with Tilney’s belief that every child should be instructed. This exemplifies why the narrator’s statement of using ignorance to appeal to someone cannot substitute unintelligence. Tilney, the man Catherine desires, is not attracted by her abhorrence to learning.
The word “intelligence” is also used not as an adjective of Catherine, but in connection to where she believes she is gaining knowledge. Even in this manner it is with a negative connotation because the knowledge she believes she is gaining which would improve her intelligence proves to be false. When Catherine arrives at Northanger Abbey, the storm that is instigating Catherine’s imaginations “seemed fraught with awful intelligence.” With each blast of thunder, her suspicions of mystery rise, but without fact or reason to justify her beliefs. While, unlike Mrs. Allen, she is gaining something from the intelligence placed in front of her, albeit a storm, what she is gaining holds no truth in its value. Another example occurs when General Tilney is discussing his deceased wife; Catherine believes the words “conveyed pages of intelligence.” The intelligence Catherine is speaking of was of the General murdering his wife. This is later proved entirely false, therefore everything she thought she gained was entirely misconstrued and branded her unintelligent.
Ignorance is used when the person is not entirely at fault for their lack of knowledge. For example, when Catherine is journeying away from Northanger Abbey, she is described as being “ignorant as to the route.” However, a post master gave her instructions and she eventually found her way. Had she not been able to find her way after instructions had been given to her, she would have been unintelligent. But after hearing the correct way she was able to apply her newfound knowledge and gain intelligence, making her merely ignorant on the matter previously.
In a conversation Catherine is engaged in with Isabella, she displays a look of “wondering ignorance.” This is another occasion where Austen was particular in her wording. Proceeded by “wondering,” the ignorance aspect of the phrase holds less meaning as to the lack of intelligence because Catherine is hopeful towards knowledge.
Catherine’s lack of desire to learn is what makes her unintelligent, not ignorant. There are a few occasions when she is ashamed of her ignorance, but openly states that she hates the idea of being forced to learn something that she distastes so adamantly. In the scene with Mr. Tilney, she is “heartily ashamed of her ignorance” because she does not know as much about art as he and his sister. Nowhere in the novel does Austen ever make claim that she is ashamed of her lack of intelligence because that would display a desire to learn.
