For a book that seemed so utterly different from a typical Austen marriage plot, Romance of the Forest has a very similar ending to many Austen novels. Much of the goings-on in Radcliffe's novel would never have been in an Austen novel and yet as many hardships and mishaps Adeline encountered in her life she finds her happy ending much like Austen's Elizabeth Bennet or Emma Woodhouse.
Poor Adeline has been pursued by the most villainous men throughout the novel and has been completely dependent upon others. Yet, by the end of the novel she sees her enemies fall, obtains a fortune and gets her man. Though Austen's novels lack Radcliffe's extremely malicious villains readers can still read Pride and Prejudice and be satisfied that Wickham ended up poor and married to an insipid young girl while Elizabeth has Darcy and Pemberley.
Where the endings of Austen's novels and Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest differ, is in Radcliffe's creation of truly horrible villains in pursuit of a very innocent young girl. Austen creates some vindictive characters but they lack the same malice as Radcliffe's villains. This made seeing the Marquis fail, in Romance of the Forest, much more satisfying. Austen also usually has her heroines obtain their good fortune and happiness through marriage while Radcliffe gave Adeline her happy ending through the fall of another character.
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