I found that in "The Castle
of Otranto", I was really intrigued by the characteristics of the women in the
novel. Mostly uniform with the attributes of female characters displayed in
literature both prior to and in the 18th century, the women are
portrayed mainly as obedient and kept individuals who lack independence in
thought, choices, and identity. However, two of the female characters do
display moments of uncharacteristic and surprising behavior. Firstly, there is
Isabella, who despite her initial role as simply a bargaining tool, becomes the
only character to attempt to control her own fate. While her hope to escape is
entirely in response to the actions of Manfred, she escapes and saves herself from what would have been a future of compliance and submission. The other main example of defiance of the typical female
character is Matilda, in that she releases Theodore from prison, completely and
entirely knowingly defying her father. I found it very interesting to see quite
strong instances of self aware and defiant behavior in two women from a time of
passive, obedient, and disinteresting female literary characters.
I agree with your post on female characterization. It was ironic to me that the most influential female character should die though? Perhaps that was a warning for women to not go out side the ideal framework of society for the time period, where women were conditioned to be dependent on men.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed the defiant behavior of these two particular female characters in this novel. However, I do not feel that the the death of Matilda was necessarily to warn readers that women acting outside of the ideal framework of society for the time period will result in their demise. But rather that women must be cautious when deciding to act outside of what is expected because there may be consequences, and in this case the consequence was death for Matilda.
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