Introduction:
Horace Walpole’s novel The Castle of Otranto is widely considered to be the first gothic novel. Walpole was a Whig politician. The Whigs were an English anti-monarchist party, who were opposed to royal excess. Walpole’s political stance can be seen through his writing and how he uses characters to subvert the eighteenth-century notions of the family. In this essay I shall explore how he successfully does this, particularly focusing on the relationship of – a dominant father and his children. /the role of women and marriage/incest and inheritance.
Main Body:
Manfred’s relationship with his family – dominant father:
Manfred, the illegitimate King of Otranto, is a cruel and tyrannical ruler over his family. He believes and enforces that children are meant to obey and adore their parents. There is a clear hierarchy in the novel, Manfred commands his family to do exactly as he desires, he states that ‘a child ought to have no ears or eyes but as…show more content… Throughout the novel, women are employed as specific plot devices as a means of exaggerating any wrongdoing perpetrated by male characters. An illustration of this can be seen through Manfred and Matilda’s relationship. The character of Matilda is devised as a direct contrast of Manfred, she is pure and innocent whereas he is selfish and manipulative. Matilda’s death cannot reflect her own morality or behaviour because she never does anything punishable aside from falling in love with a man whom she cannot marry, Theodore. Her death is used as a plot device to irrevocably damage Manfred’s character in the eye of the reader. Despite him instantly regretting the murder shown through the use of the exclamatory, ‘Oh! Matilda–I cannot utter it–canst thou forgive the blindness of my rage?’ He is at the extreme height of insanity and we now see him as truly evil – worthy of