Incongruous Corpus: Ambiguities in the Textual Body of The Castle of Otranto While the relationship of the Gothic to the Romantic is debatable, the persistent desire of some critics to see it as pre-Romantic should not disguise the possibility that the genre is “actually sending out very contradictory impulses about its own intentions, [and] adopting certain strategies that thwart the very perceptions it seems to be on the brink of achieving” (Napier, 4). This uncertainty in form and intent has produced imprecision and imbalances in Gothic novels that are partly the result of instability within the Gothic form. Although the Gothic achieves stability by repeating a certain pattern of accepted conventions, leading to remarkable coherence in …show more content…
This lack is energized by an intensification of pace that produces a disorienting and fragmenting effect. If there is no unified tone to hold the body of the text together, unity is achieved, at least, by keeping readers entertained. Walpole deliberately accelerated the novel’s pace: “Never is the reader’s attention relaxed,” he claimed in the first preface, “Terror, the author’s principle engine, prevents the story from ever languishing and it is so often contrasted by pity, that the mind is kept in a constant vicissitude of interesting passions” (6). In Thomas Macaulay’s opinion, Otranto “‘never flags for a single moment’” (qtd. in Napier, 88) and the absence of long speeches, detailed scenic descriptions, or digressions propels the action …show more content…
The reluctance and difficulty Walpole experienced in clarifying the tone of his novel did not settle the problems that future Gothic writers encountered. Walpole’s deliberate ambiguousness on stability and morality or instability fractured the body of the novel. Tone becomes discordant, and Walpole compensated, in part, by accelerating the pace. Acceleration creates problems of its own. A rapid pace precludes character development and produces a sense of fragmentation and instability. Meaning is deflected to surfaces and nothing about a character is truly known beyond what is necessary to further the plot. Nonetheless, despite all the structural incongruities within the body of Otranto, Walpole was successful in establishing a genre that later practitioners perfected. Works Cited Clery, E. J. Introduction. The Castle of Otranto. By Horace Walpole. New York: OUP, 1998. vii-xxxiii. Kiely, Robert. The Romantic Novel in England. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1972. Mowl, Tim. Horace Walpole: The Great Outsider. London: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.,
Literature of the English Restoration offers the example of a number of writers who wrote for a courtly audience: literary production, particularly in learned imitation of classical models, was part of the court culture of King Charles II. The fact of a shared model explains the remarkable similarities between “The Imperfect Enjoyment” by the Earl of Rochester and “The Disappointment” by Aphra Behn—remarkable only because readers are surprised to read one poem about male sexual impotence from the late seventeenth century, let alone two examples of this genre by well-known courtly writers. In fact, Richard Quaintance presents ten more examples by lesser-known poets as he defines the literary sub-genre of the neo-Classical “imperfect enjoyment poem,” written in imitation of Roman poems on the same subject, which is shared by Rochester and Behn (Quaintance 190). Since Rochester and Behn are working along such closely similar lines in terms of the artistic models that their own poems aim to imitate, it is therefore fair to ask the question: what are the main differences in their compositional technique within this tightly-defined literary sub-genre of the neo-Classical “imperfect enjoyment poem”? By examining features of each poem in turn—including form (including this sub-genre they share), but also narrative voice and tone—with some examination of the secondary critical literature on both Rochester and Behn, I hope to demonstrate that there are distinct differences in compositional technique which involve the difference in sex between these two writers. But my conclusion will attempt to problematize the very notion of an authorial sex difference by raising the concept of gender, and in particular the aspect of “performativity”—...
‘O is a modern spin on Othello that attempts to address issues that are relevant for a contemporary audience. However, ultimately the literary value of Othello is lost in this appropriation”
One of the corner stones in gothic literature is the characterization of female characters as weak and submissive. This notion can be tracked all the way back to 1764, when Horace Walpole wrote what many assume to be the first gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. When the sickly Conrad dies, his sister Matilda expresses her apprehension to her attendant Bianca over the increased scorn of Manfred. “No, Bianca; his heart was ever the stranger to me – but he is my father, and I must not complain,” (Pg. 37). Matilda understands what her role in the household is and accepts it, despite of Manfred’s increased scorn. Matilda, as well as the other female characters, exhibits no negative or evil traits or thoughts yet are treated with nothing but contempt. They are submissive for no real reason beside from that was how men expected women to be in the time of the novel. The purpose of this essay is to show that if the reader does not understand the feature of the
Many of the great Romantic authors wrote gothic literature at some point in their literary careers and some even created their literary legacies, perhaps unintentionally, with their tales of horror and suspense. One of the most notable authors during the Romantic period that is well known today for creating one of the greatest literary ...
Throughout the years, Gothic literature has developed to be a mirror representation of what the beliefs and thoughts of the time were. The Gothic has a tendency to express beliefs towards the socioeconomic, political and religious situations and grievances of the time. Many texts express this, some including Edgar Allen Poe’s The House of Usher and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to then allow for the general public – at least those who were literate – to, subconsciously, understand the environment around them without being too direct. This gave the writers of the time a new channel, through this ge...
Gothic as a literary term, most often brings to mind a type of novel – as well as a group of writers for a long time considered marginal - written between the second half of the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth. The contemporary use of the term Gothic retains an even larger number of meanings today. Expanding from architecture and the media, the term makes its way to many artistic contexts as well. Though Gothic has been known to deeply manifest itself in horror context, whether dealing with themes reminding us of the of 18th century Gothic fiction, or with the modern psychic horrors reflecting the fears and tensions of our contemporary world, what it functions mainly is to underline and bind two very different characteristics: the boundary between good and evil are drawn up early in such texts creating a basic binary opposition, only to put forth the idea of these boundaries always not being clearly defined.
The blending of terror and romance in Gothic Literature was used in a unique combination to attract and entice the reader into the story. The terror in the literature helps the reader explore their imagination and form their own picture setting of what is happening. Using romance in the story also keeps the reader's attention because of the unknown and the curiosity of what happens next. The Gothic writing became popular after the Romantic period because readers were still a...
May, Robert. “Lesson 6: The Early Modern Period.” English 110S Course Notes. Queen’s University. Kingston. Summer 2010. Course Manual.
Picture this- William Harold Shakespeare, the most coveted playwriter in the history of the world, sitting at his desk, perspicaciously pondering over what shall become his most prominant and delicated tragedy of yet. Of course, given what little is known about Shakespeere displays, such deepseated imagery cannot simply be accomplished without first the propriety of haste and vinction.And yet, his very own rhetorical vibe displays allows such a vague pictoration to be concieved. Throughout the whole of Othello, the great Shakespeare remarks through an astounding displays show of pronouns, allitteration, and cacophonous diction his own resentment of both the King of Italy and the poor conditions of the said novelist.
Word by word, gothic literature is bound to be an immaculate read. Examining this genre for what it is could be essential to understanding it. “Gothic” is relating to the extinct East Germanic language, people of which known as the Goths. “Literature” is defined as a written work, usually with lasting “artistic merit.” Together, gothic literature combines the use of horror, death, and sometimes romance. Edgar Allan Poe, often honored with being called the king of horror and gothic poetry, published “The Fall of House Usher” in September of 1839. This story, along with many other works produced by Poe, is a classic in gothic literature. In paragraph nine in this story, one of our main characters by the name of Roderick Usher,
“Gothic Archives” engages some important bodies of critical writing which take as their subject the theoretical possibilities of the Gothic novel. It is indebted to Robert Miles’s work, which goes beyond simply enumerating Gothic conventions and instead formulates a theory of Gothic epistemology. It is also obliged to Eve Sedgwick’s work, which links Gothic epistemologies—what she calls paranoid reading positions—to the practice of literary criticism. “Gothic Archives” augments this work with a theory of the way that archives function in the Gothic novel, supplementing the above theories of Gothic epistemology with an account of the archive’s role in the Gothic as both a literal and a symbolic repository of cultural feelings and affects.
Critics have acclaimed that the play, Othello, is nothing more than a play about a handkerchief and the domestic drama it entails. The handkerchief is, however, more than just a square of cloth; it means different things to different people and is an indicator of character, a test of relationships and a key symbol of major themes in the play. It is a very important part of the play and is crucial to the plot as a whole.
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.
Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Man." in Eighteenth-Century English Literature. Eds. Geoffrey Tillotson, Paul Fussell, Jr. and Marshall Waingrow. New York: Harcourt, 1969. 635-51.
Wolfson, S. & Manning, P. 2003. The Longman Anthology of English Literature Vol 2: The Romantics and their Contemporaries. London: Longman.