Who is Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey and what is their importance?

Catherine Morland is the protagonist of the novel and by any standard the dominant character. At the opening of the novel, she is a seventeen-year-old girl belonging to a family with modest income. The Morlands are in nearly all respects a typical family of the era. They live in the rural town of Fullerton, in Hampshire, England. As a youth, Catherine pursued varied interests including piano-playing, cricket, and basic art.