Comparing Journeys In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey And Thomas Cole
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Composers have demonstrated that journeys lead to a greater understanding on different mediums. A comparative study of Jane Austen’s novel, Northanger Abbey and Thomas Cole’s series of paintings, Voyage of Life emphasises journey as an integral part to maturity and growth. Such mediums offer varying perspectives and representations of journeys to allow greater understanding in imaginative and inner growth. While Austen employs a variety of characters to demonstrate various stages of development throughout Catherine’s personality, Cole manipulates painting materials and imagery to convey that greater understanding is achieved through experience. In discussing various views of journey in mortality and knowledge, composers simultaneously correlate…show more content… As seen in Austen’s use of repetition, “…after a few moments’ reflection…To say the truth, though I am hurt and grieved, that I cannot still love her, that I am never to hear from her, perhaps never to see her again, I do not feel so very, very much afflicted as one would have thought”, embodies how Catherine does not feel as aggrieved as one would be by such loss. This forces audiences to reflect upon her statement and consider if such friends are worth having in life, agreeing that some friends are better losing than keeping. Such conflicts enlighten audiences of the naïve nature of Catherine’s mind and emphasises the realisation of her mistakes. With this sense of realisation, Catherine demonstrates greater understanding through her inner journey into…show more content… In the final painting, Voyage of life: Old Age, Cole demonstrates that faith has sustained him through his journey in life. Cole takes advantage of the direction of lines and tone to create a pathway for the light to illuminate the angel approaching the voyager representing the promise of salvation. Looking at the framework of the background, the waters are calm and the hourglass and figurehead are missing. The deliberate elimination of the landscape and elements in the painting demonstrates how the withered voyager has reached the end of mortality. Faith is presented to sustain the journey through life of which greater understanding is comprehended in the