] In establishing right away that Catherine is ordinary, and by continually contrasting her with "an heroine," JA forces us to spend the rest of the novel figuring out why Catherine is its heroine. Perhaps JA is making a point about true heroines...not found in an unlikely combination of beauty, brains, and accomplishment, but in the girl next door who is honorable, honest, and friendly?

I think JA is also establishing her characters as people more likely to be encountered in everyday life, as opposed to the extraordinary people one encounters in more melodramatic works. She describes Catherine (and others) as not having the manners and characteristics one "expects," (ie. that would be found in a straightforward Gothic novel) and in doing so shows them to be full-blooded, realistic people.