Written in 1764 by Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto made the list of Literature books for West African Senior Secondary School Examination (WASSCE) 2016 – 2022.
It is a gripping tale of the sorrows of cupidity laced with horror and mystery.
The young prince of Otranto, Conrad, is mysteriously crushed to death on the morning of his wedding.
His father, Prince Manfred, in a frantic effort to counter the prophecy of elimination of his lineage hanging over his family, decides to divorce his wife and marry his son’s bride himself.
This, in order to birth an heir who will continue his lineage since his wife, Hippolita, can no longer bear children.
The bride on learning this, runs away; a strange peasant boy appears on the scene; inanimate objects move, apparitions appear; mysterious knights arrive to claim the castle and things totally fall apart!
In this artfully sculptured story, Walpole limns an expository of the dark and treacherous background of the Prince of Otranto, Manfred, that brought his lineage to the ownership of Otranto.
Ricardo, chamberlain to Alfonso, the Good, slayed his lord and with a false will that named him as heir to the principality of Otranto, usurped the position.
Ricardo severely haunted by his crimes prayed to St. Nicholas, vowing to build a church and two convents if he, Nicholas would lead him safely to Otranto from the holy land where he committed the crime.
His vow was accepted on the condition that he and his descendants would only enjoy Otranto until a true heir of Alfonso emerges. All these happened before the story opens, two generations before Manfred, Prince of Otranto, the usurper.
As Manfred bemoans himself, his father and his grandfather paid no price for the crimes. But, in his days, he loses two children, the principality of Otranto amidst untold horrors despite all his efforts to preserve the estate.
The Castle of Otranto has been compared to three of Shakespeare’s plays: Hamlet, Macbeth and Henry Viii. We see such resemblances to these Shakespearian tragedies in the areas of the goings on in the novel, like ghosts appearing, as in when Frederic encounters the ghost of the holy hermit in Hippolita’s bed chamber just like Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father; like the moving of the fatal helmet; sighing portrait; bloody tears from statues, etc.
Then, the similarity of Manfred’s desire to divorce his wife because of her ‘fruitlessness’ just like King Henry Viii’s decision to divorce Queen Katherine because of her fruitlessness and marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn.
The quest for position which bothers on cupidity which leads Manfred to many sorrows is also identified in Macbeth.
There’s also the thematic resemblance of The Castle of Otranto to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. Walpole explores how far desperate mortals can go in trying to counter evil prophecies like the futile efforts seen in Oedipus Rex/Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame.
The desperation to counter evil prophecy makes King Adewale (Laius) and his queen, Ojuola (Jocasta), discard their baby son to be killed after they learned that the child will grow up to kill his father and marry his mother!
The same desperation makes Odewole to run away from the man he thinks his father to another land, killing a stubborn stranger on the way and arriving at Kutuje to deliver the people and marry their queen. Alas, it turns out he has killed his father and the woman he lives with turns out to be his mother.
Just as the evil prophecy in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame/Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex could not be countered by men, Manfred, the Prince of Otranto fails in countering the evil prophecy hanging over his lineage.
His heir dies, his daughter dies, the peasant boy turns out to be the rightful heir to the estate of Otranto and Manfred and his wife, Hippolita, go into religious reclusion.
The Castle of Otranto is a gothic (meaning it is filled with mystery and horror) novel. It has a religious undertone mingled with superstition. This gives the novel its eerie ghoulish strength.
Hippolita and her daughter, Matilda are very pious, very virtuous. They constantly seek God, visiting the church, praying always. The family has a holy friar like in today’s world we can have a family doctor or lawyer.
Of course the most glaring strength of this novel is its storyline – who marries his own son’s bride?!
Another strength of the novel, is language. As one critic puts it, it’s poetic and visionary; it is heightened language with stock imagery. It is a language of the elite: language employed in serious matters.
Characterization is another plus. There’s the avaricious determined Manfred, the amorous Fredrick who can’t miss a pretty face and it is this weakness in Fredrick that Manfred exploits in trying to merge the houses of Alfonso, the Good with his own house by unashamedly offering Fredrick his daughter, Matilda and asking for Isabela in exchange.
There’s the virtuous Hippolita who is out-of-this-world good to the extent of agreeing that she be divorced and her husband marry Isabela! There are class distinctions – the servants and the nobles. And from the servants’ stable we get some comic interlude with Bianca.
Fear is a leveler – both the nobles and the commoners, fear the unknown, the mysterious. Yet, fear bows in the face of determination – Isabela shuns the horror of the night and runs away from the castle because she cannot bear to marry Manfred; Manfred disdains the mysteries and horrors of moving objects and statues with bloody tears in his quest to secure his lineage, etc.
At the end, all is vanity.
Hippolita says to her husband: “My lord, behold the vanity of human greatness. Conrad is gone. Matilda is no more. In Theodore we view the true prince of Otranto…”
And it is here that Manfred gives up and appreciates his virtuous wife saying, “Thou guiltless but unhappy woman! Unhappy by my crimes. My heart at last is open to thy devote admonitions.”
The setting is definitely gothic – eerie mansion with unlived parts and trapdoors, large halls, different floors, etc. Beside the castle is a church/convent and in between them the tomb of Alfonso. At hindsight, you see Manfred’s grandfather, Ricardo, built them, including Alfonso’s statue to appease the gods.
I wonder what kind of prayers Hippolita and her daughter do when they visit the church or the tomb of Alphonso since they know of the evil prediction over their family.
Are their prayers for mercy or a resignation to fate? This is part of the book’s weaknesses. Religion or prayer is either inappropriately used or reflects how it’s employed at that time. Today’s worshippers of God employ religion/prayer to counter evil.
Walpole also mixes up religion and superstition – superstitious beliefs limned in the book, like the moon being in full, etc., are bandied about by Christians!
Still on weaknesses of the book, Conrad isn’t buried; Matilda isn’t buried and the story continues. Although Theodore is to be starved, but how can Isabela continue for long without food?
I also found it ridiculous how grown men cannot face their misfortunes squarely? We see Friar Jerome confessing to have become a monk when he lost all; then Manfred and his wife, Hippolita choosing spiritual reclusion too.
Part of the strength of the story, are the love triangles – Fredrick/Matilda/Theodore; Matilda/Theodore/Isabela; Manfred/Isabela/Theodore (as perceived by Manfred).
Nonetheless, in all, the book tells a good story that promotes virtuousness (Hippolita and her daughter), humility (he that is down fears no fall) and quality love (being true in love as Hippolita is to her husband and Theodore is to Matilda).
The story also promotes the notion that those who serve God have peace as seen in the characters of Hippolita and Matilda, while those who don’t are haunted like Manfred.
