The Castle of Otranto

Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto is regarded as the first supernatural or Gothic work of English fiction, beginning a long legacy of this genre. The novel’s first two chapters successfully establish many of the generic tropes that will feature in Gothic literature for centuries to come.

One such genre staple is the novella’s setting—a gloomy and mysterious castle full of hidden passageways, evil dangers, and secrets. Castles in Gothic literature symbolize decay and ruin and are often inhabited by formerly wealthy, powerful families who have fallen out of prosperity. In The Castle of Otranto, the grand rooms where Manfred holds court and exercises his power are juxtaposed with the tunnels that cut through the building, promising the possibility of escape from Manfred’s control. However, even these release valves are of questionable safety:

The lower part of the castle was hollowed into several intricate cloisters; and it was not easy for one under so much anxiety to find the door that opened into the cavern. An awful silence reigned throughout those subterraneous regions, except now and then some blasts of wind that shook the doors she had passed, and which, grating on the rusty hinges, were re-echoed through that long labyrinth of darkness. (16)

Walpole loads his descriptions of the castle with words that connote fear: Instead of inspiring admiration for Manfred’s family power, the edifice fills those inside with “anxiety,” and its interiors are “awful.” The imagery also emphasizes the castle’s darkness and decrepit state, as “rusty hinges” make horrible noises in the tunnel maze. In contrast to the castle’s nightmarish architecture is the Church of St. Nicholas, which offers sanctuary to those who seek refuge.

Another key Gothic element is supernatural terror. The novella opens with the ancient prophecy that drives Manfred’s actions—“that the castle and lordship of Otranto ‘should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it’” (6). The vague and confusing nature of prophecy is part of its terror: The narrator points out that “It was difficult to make any sense of this prophecy” (6), which partly explains the extremes Manfred goes to in order to avoid whatever this omen means. Conrad’s death suggests that the prophecy is about to come true. Manfred is filled with dread at the idea of losing Otranto, while the bizarreness of the death (the young man is squashed by an enormous helmet from a far-away statue) induces fear: “The servant […] came running back breathless, in a frantic manner, his eyes staring, and foaming at the mouth. […] The company were struck with terror and amazement” (6-7). Soon, the novella ratchets up the fear and confusion once more, as the assembled hear “a confused noise of shrieks, horror, and surprise” (7).

One more element common to later Gothic fiction is the motif of the damsel in distress—an innocent, pure young woman whose physical, and often sexual, safety is threatened by a malevolent older male character. Here, in a bid to sire another heir, Manfred decides that he must marry Conrad’s intended bride, Isabella, and makes advances toward her. This danger becomes an intersection of all the novella’s Gothic tropes: Isabella flees through the castle’s secret passageways in the dark; she is a justly terrified as “Every suggestion that horror could inspire rushed into her mind” (17); and supernatural elements interfere in the chase, as the portrait of Manfred’s grandfather comes to life and leads him away from his pursuit of Isabella.