Characterism In Horace Walpole's 'The Castle Of Otranto'

The genre of Gothic became one of the most popular of the late 18th and early 19th century, and the novel usually regarded as the first Gothic novel is Horace Walpole 's The Castle of Otranto, first published in 1764.1 The first great practitioner of the Gothic novel, as well as the most popular novelist of the eighteenth century in England, was Ann Radcliffe.2 She added suspense, painted evocative landscapes and moods or atmosphere, portrayed increasingly complex, fascinatingly-horrifying, evil villains, and focused on the heroine and her struggle with the male tyrant. Her work The Italian (1797) have the ability to thrill and enthrall readers. Inspired by Radcliffe, a more sensational type of Gothic romance, exploiting horror and violence, flourished in Germany and was

She is represented as an object of lust, and this is shown through her description. We see references to her sexual maturity throughout and it becomes the focus of her entire identity, in particular her beginnings as a ‘hole in the snow’ that is ‘filled with blood’. Clearly, this could be a reference to female menstruation, symbolic of sexual maturity. This is furthered by the fact that she is presented to the Count completely naked; which could be interpreted as a symbol of her birth, or simply the result of an instantaneous manifestation of the Count’s lust. After her creation she is lifted up and ‘sat in front’ of the Count; she has no means of escape. She is also never given a name or permitted to speak which leaves her open to psychoanalytical readings. We find ourselves asking whether or not her thoughts were motivated towards pleasing the count, or whether she would have escaped given the chance. In other Carter stories, ‘The Bloody Chamber’ for example, the victim is rescued from the male protagonist. The fact that the Snow Child is killed by the Countess could reflect the fleeting nature of youth and