Influence of the Church

One of the interesting aspects of the story is how the influence of religion tries to give the some of characters more control over their emotions and convince them to do what is right. In one scene you have Isabella residing in a safe house in a church from Manfred. Towards the end of the story at the church setting, the image of the church becomes more of a conscience being that affects the fate of all the characters. These scenes are examples of how the aspect of the ideology of the church has a huge impact to all the social classes  of the characters. The church portrayed  in the story is more of a hospital or community service center, which is the role to aid its members. Because of this belief, if not most of the cast behaves according to what they perceive as who is the good guy and who is the bad guy  buy there belief system they hold.

Fatalism in The Castle of Otranto

The "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole revolves around fatalism such as the prophecy of the ruling families demise. Fatalism or determinalism tends to have a dark effect since as human beings we like to believe we have a will that is free. The events in the story are the mechanical workings of the higher power that operates the universe rightfully called both God and Nature. Superstitious elements enter into the story when God is given the characteristics of humanity; the will of God is quite human insofar as it concerns the morality of the human characters (punishment). Within the story, God is the effective cause of everything and even seems to be acting transiently or with abrupt and impulsive actions such is the case with the moaning statue as a reaction. By giving God human affections, Walpole creates a superstitious atmosphere, where we can and will be judged at any moment by an all powerful and vengeful God. The fatalism present within the story operates in a way that is contrary with our logic on some regards; however, the adaption of a higher power concerned with our actions conforms to our broken, egocentric logic. This I believe to be superstition.

Divine Providence

In "The Castle of Otranto", divine providence is a key theme throughout the story. Divine Providence is benevolent, as we see with the case of Theodore and Isabella being wed, and becoming the lord and lady of Castle Otranto. We also see divine providence as a more wicked, more dangerous force, as with Conrad, who is crushed to death by a giant helmet, and with Matilda, who is accidentally stabbed by her father. Manfred becomes mentally unhinged by some of the acts from divine providence. Divine providence is one of the main themes that is driving the story, hand in hand with the supernatural and darkness.

Small Instances of Atypical Female Behavior

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 18^th 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.

Prophecies and Destruction

I found it interesting that the central force behind this story was a prophecy. Prophecies seem to always be the subject’s self-destruction. This story is a perfect example of self-destruction based on a character’s fear of prophecy fulfillment.  The prophecy states, “the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it". In the beginning, Manfred fears his people’s whispers of the prophecy. It seems to loom over him. After the death of his only son, Manfred goes to extreme lengths to try and secure his lineage. He still has Matilda, but due to the perceived necessity of a male heir, he ends up killing his daughter and only other heir. This fulfills the prophecy he tried so incredibly hard to disprove. He made it true by trying too hard to disprove it and ended up losing his family over it.

Rightful Inheritance and the Supernatural

It's interesting to note that throughout  the story when a mysterious situation takes place, typically the supernatural elements correlate to one of the themes; one theme in particular being rightful inheritance. Conrad's death, resulting from the fallen helmet that resembles Alfonso's helmet, is an unnatural way to die. It puts emphasis on the supernatural aspect of the helmet killing Conrad, son of Manfred and it seems that the main focus is the importance of the helmet and Alfonso and what he reflected.  Alfonso reappears other times in mystical forms and alludes to rightful inheritance. Rightful inheritance that specifically doesn't belong to Manfred, but instead Theodore.

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.

Names

Something I noticed while reading the novel was that the names of most of the main cast of characters are entirely opposite of what they mean when it comes to nomenclature. For example Manfred traditionally comes from Germanic words meaning "Peace" or "strength", and can mean "Man of peace". Manfred is, as we see, a very violent and irrational man at times. Hippolita, his wife, gets her name from the Greek Queen of the Amazons; implying she would be a strong female character who is not so easily ruled by her husband. Conrad means "brave, bold ruler or counsel" and from the little glimpsed of Conrad, he seems not to have been the type to be brave or bold, or really given the chance to be so considering his sickly frame.

Why must you lie to us Horace?

Did anyone else find the "Preface To The First Edition" a bit strange? If you haven't read it, it is essentially Horace Walpole saying that this story was found, and that he translated it rather than wrote it. In fact, the original title was:

THE CASTLE of OTRANTO, A STORY.

Translated by WILLIAM MARSHAL, Gent. From the Original ITALIAN of ONUPHRIO MURALTO, CANON of the Church of St. NICHOLAS at OTRANTO.*

This meant that, originally, he didn’t even claim authorship for the work. Normally, pseudonyms and other deceptions were used when the author was writing something particularly controversial, or if said author was a controversial figure him or herself. However, there doesn’t really seem to be anything that controversial in the book, and the author was male and of the upper classes, so writing was completely acceptable for him. Any thoughts on this?

* Found at "http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004864584.0001.000/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext"