Repetition as a Foundation of the Uncanny and Strange

Linking the past, present and future is a key theme of ‘The Castle of Otranto’- but it is the recurrent use of time and human emotion as a link between the characters and their determined fates that presents itself as repetitive, and therefore, uncanny.

Human experience places a sense of superstition and unease around anything that repeats, mirrors, doubles or seems too coincidental to be natural. We see this in our fears and fascination regarding doppelgängers, mirrors (as bad luck), or twins as elements of potential horror plots. It all creeps us out, often at a very basic or unconscious level. Theodore seems to be a doppelgänger to Alfonso the Good, the true heir (as seen in the portrait in the castle) and causes a panic in Manfred upon sight.

At a basic narrative level the novel employs repetitive use of exclamations and shouts of terror or understanding. “The prince! The prince! The helmet! The helmet!” (18) is shouted by Manfred’s domestics upon their discovery of the young Conrad’s mysterious demise. Repetition of “the hand! the giant! the hand!” (90) on Manfred’s part also adds to the sense of something uncanny and overly strange at the end of the novel, bringing things full circle and repeating the link of past and present.  
     Readers can also regard the castle itself as a remnant from the past, and something that links the histories of two fated families. The mysterious prophecy presented at the beginning of the novel invokes a sense of determined fate, and creates a link between past and future. These recurring repetitions alongside uncanny coincidences and parallels, as well as the overall sense of the cyclical nature of past/present/future all lend toward the creation of what we call the ‘Gothic’ novel.