"The Divided Self": Characterization, Identities, and the Supernatural
A cursory first reading of Horace Walpole's Otranto might yield an impression that its characters are thoroughly superficial, shallow, and flat, almost to the point of being laughably so. A single character mold seems to have been applied to each character: Manfred is the incestuous tyrant, Hippolita is the helplessly devoted wife, Matilda is the picture of “tenderness and duty” (38), and Theodore is the chivalrous protector of delicate young ladies. As some critics have pointed out, each character is described heavy-handedly, and the author provides no keys into the inner minds of the characters, relying instead of outward displays of excess emotion (Sedgwick 131). Consequently, Otranto becomes “theatrical” (Napier 33) because of its emphasis on dramatic action and visual display. To the reader, each character and his/her displays of emotion combine in Otranto to make what amounts to a thoroughly ludicrous cast.
There is some debate over the substitution of flat characters for even a single dynamic characters. Was this a deliberate choice on the part of the author? Some possibilities that may arise include the suggestion that Walpole was unskilled as an author and consequently, was unable to write “well.” Another suggestion is that Walpole's skill as an author is demonstrated in his intentional choice to write flat characters to achieve a higher purpose. Perhaps this purpose was to make his short novel a work of pure entertainment with mindless, fluffy characters? Or to maintain a quick-moving plot? Or perhaps Walpole decided to “systematically sacrific[e characters] to other, more highly valued aspects of narrative such as moral and plot” (Napier 34) wi...
... middle of paper ...
...f boundaries between characterizations, identities, the psychological, and the supernatural, is not only ambiguous and incongruous, but unstable, contingent, baseless, mysterious, and haunting.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. “Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (“Dora”).” The Freud Reader. Ed. Peter Gay. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Norton, 1995. 172-239.
Moglen, Helene. The Trauma of Gender: A Feminist Theory of the English Novel. Los Angeles, CA: U of California P, 2001.
Morris, David B. "Gothic Sublimity." New Literary History. 16.2 (Winter, 1985): 299-319.
Napier, Elizabeth R. The Failure of Gothic: Problems of Disjunction in an Eighteenth-Century Literary Form. New York: OUP, 1987.
Sedgwick, Eve K. Coherence of Gothic Conventions. New York and London: Methuen, 1986.
Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. New York: OUP, 1998.
Many aspects of our lives, including culture and religion, are fabricated on the basis of conjectures. Although these facts may remain unproven, little harm is inflicted from the possibility of misinformation. Contrarily, in the case of science, the smallest error can lead to severely misguided results and an inability to reach a solution. Dora An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria by Sigmund Freud exemplifies this situation, as Freud reveals an incomplete analysis relying on a slew of unjustified conjectures. During Dora’s time of treatment, Freud consistently ignores her denials and impresses his frequently outlandish theories on her, which ultimately leads to her early termination of treatment. Freud fails to cure Dora due to his flawed diagnosis upon unsupported conjectures and his embodiment of the patriarchal authoritativeness that lead to her hysteria.
Irigaray, Luce. "This Sex Which Is Not One." Feminism: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Ed. Robyn R. Warhol and Diane Price Herndle. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1991.
...ence more reasoning to the jealousy of the characters and the actions they take. With the changed setting come many differences: drugs and alcohol, peer pressure, violence, and different sources for jealousy and hatred. These issues are the dilemmas we, as teenagers in this new millennium, are faced with day to day. "O" addresses these new era evils without abandoning the original themes and major issues of Shakespeare's Othello. The audience can relate to a story written down hundreds of years ago and benefit from it.
Freud, Sigmund. 1953-74. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works. 24 vols, trans. James Stachey. London: Hogarth.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'" Women's Studies 12:2 (1986): 113-128.
Past Biography. 1995 ed. Freud, Sigmund. A General Introduction Of Psychoanalysis. New York: Boni and Liveright,
Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Ed. James Strachey. Trans. James Strachey. Standard. Vol. 22. London: Hogarth Press, 1964.
Snyder, Susan. "Beyond the Comedy: Othello" Modern Critical Interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987.
Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Literature. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, xi-xxiv. Print.
Freud, S., Strachey, J., Freud, A., Rothgeb, C., & Richards, A. (1953). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (1st ed.). London: Hogarth Press.
Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. "Un-Utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in The Awakening." Studies in American Fiction 24.1 (Spring 1996): 3-23. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 May 2014.
Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print. The. Bailey, Carol. "
In what follows, my research paper will rely on an article by Kathy Prendergast entitled “Introduction to The Gothic Tradition”. The significance of this article resides in helping to recapitulate the various features of the Gothic tradition. In this article the authoress argues that in order to overturn the Enlightenment and realistic literary mores, many of the eighteenth century novelists had recourse to traditional Romantic conventions in their works of fiction, like the Arthurian legendary tales (Prendergast).
Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. Women In Literature : Reading Through The Lens Of Gender..
William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello boasts quite a little list of abnormalities in both occurrences and personal behavior.