The Castle of Otranto

by Horace Walpole

The extraordinary literary effects that Walpole pioneered and which thrilled his readers in the 1760s have either been overworked in the hands of generations of his followers and so become clichés, or have been superseded as effectively failed literary experiments.

Miracles, visions, necromancy, dreams, and other preternatural events, are exploded now even from romances. That was not the case when our author wrote; much less when the story itself is supposed to have happened. Belief in every kind of prodigy was so established in those dark ages, that an author would not be faithful to the manners of the times who should omit all mention of them. He is not bound to believe them himself, but he must represent his actors as believing them.

Some persons may perhaps think the characters of the domestics too little serious for the general cast of the story; but besides their opposition to the principal personages, the art of the author is very observable in his conduct of the subalterns. They discover many passages essential to the story, which could not well be brought to light but by their naïveté and simplicity: in particular, the womanish terror and foibles of Bianca, in the last chapter, conduce* essentially towards advancing the catastrophe.

that the sins of fathers are visited on their children to the third and fourth generation.

The very impatience which a reader feels, while delayed by the coarse pleasantries of vulgar actors from arriving at the knowledge of the important catastrophe he expects, perhaps heightens, certainly proves that he has been artfully interested in, the depending event.

Suspence

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.

Prophecy

portent

observed that the miraculous helmet was exactly like that on the figure in black marble of Alfonso the Good, one of their former princes, in the church of St. Nicholas.* Villain!

manly

Lol ironic

gentle violence

Juxtaposition

yes, cruel fate, and I have lost the hopes of my race!—But Conrad was not worthy of your beauty.—

Father of the year

At that instant the portrait of his grandfather, which hung over the bench where they had been sitting, uttered a deep sigh

Scooby do vibes

when he saw it quit its pannel,* and descend on the floor with a grave and melancholy air. Do I dream?*

Common gothic trope: doubt of one’s own senses and perception

impetuosity

Say it one more time

Oh how convenient

secret passage.

Trope

which had thus exposed her to his rage in a place where her cries were not likely to draw any body to her assistance.—

IS THIS LITERALLY THE DUMB GIRL IN A HORROR MOVIE TROPE BEING BORN

instead of Isabella, the light of the torches discovered to him the young peasant, whom he thought confined under the fatal helmet! Traitor! said

casque had forced its way through the pavement of the court,

The curse is what allowed her escape

Why didst thou shut the trapdoor before

Manfred is an actual idiot

Manfred was not one of those savage tyrants who wanton in cruelty unprovoked. The circumstances of his fortune had given an asperity to his temper, which was naturally humane; and his virtues were always ready to operate, when his passion did not obscure his reason.

Sarcasm

Satan himself I believe is in the great chamber next to the gallery.—

end*—it is a giant, I believe; he is all clad in armour, for I saw his foot and part of his leg,* and they are as large as the helmet below in the court. As

is a giant, I believe; he is all clad in armour, for I saw his foot and part of his leg,*

What the servants saw in the gallery

Isabella shall wait your orders in the morning. What, then you know where she is?

Nope that’s not what she said

a young hero resembling the picture of the good Alfonso in the gallery, which you sit and gaze at for hours together.—Do not speak lightly of that picture, interrupted Matilda sighing: I know the adoration with which I look at that picture is uncommon—but I am not in love with a coloured pannel.

The character of that virtuous prince, the veneration with which my mother has inspired me for his memory, the orisons* which I know not why she has enjoined me to pour forth at his tomb, all have concurred to persuade me that somehow or other my destiny is linked with something relating to him.—

This castle is certainly haunted!*—Peace! said Matilda, and listen! I did think I heard a voice—but it must be fancy; your terrors I suppose have infected me. Indeed! indeed! madam, said Bianca, half-weeping with agony, I am sure I heard a voice. Does any body lie in the chamber beneath?

Is any body below? said the princess: if there is, speak. Yes, said an unknown voice. Who is it? said Matilda. A stranger, replied the voice. What stranger? said she; and how didst thou come there at this unusual hour, when all the gates of the castle are locked?

Lopez told me, that all the servants believe this young fellow contrived my lady Isabella’s escape

I am persuaded, said she to Bianca, that whatever be the cause of Isabella’s flight, it had no unworthy motive.

If this stranger was accessary to it, she must be satisfied of his fidelity and worth. I observed, did not you, Bianca? that his words were tinctured with an uncommon infusion of piety. It was no ruffian’s speech: his phrases were becoming a man of gentle birth. I

But first, my lord, I must interrogate the princess,

His plan could be leaked

whom she shall always respect as parents:

Lol

and that young villain, who was at least the accomplice of her flight, if not the cause of it—The cause! interrupted Jerome: was a young man the cause?

Calling him out

Heaven mocks the short-sighted views of man.

The sceptre, which passed from the race of Alfonso to thine, cannot be preserved by a match which the church will never allow.

Hippolita is related to me in the fourth degree*—

Bullshit

The well-meaning priest suffered him to deceive himself, fully determined to traverse his views,* instead of seconding them.

Well that didnt take long

With this unhappy policy, he answered in a manner to confirm Manfred in the belief of some connection between Isabella and the youth.

care. Heavens! Bianca, said the princess softly, do I dream? or is not that youth the exact resemblance of Alfonso’s picture in the gallery?

Matilda fainted at hearing those words.

The undaunted youth received the bitter sentence with a resignation that touched every heart but Manfred’s.

As he stooped, his shirt flipped down below his shoulder, and discovered the mark of a bloody arrow.* Gracious heaven! cried the holy man starting, what do I see? It is my child! my Theodore!

Oh for the love of

the castle, was suddenly sounded. At the same instant the

plumes on the enchanted helmet, which still remained at the other end of the court, were tempestuously agitated, and nodded thrice, as if bowed by some invisible wearer.

If I have offended—[the

YES U R OFFENSIVE

heaven will not be trifled with: you see

usurper

LOL