The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole was quite different than what I had expected for a “gothic” novel. I do think of gothic in the sense of the modern term, I did not find to the parts that were meant to be gothic to be scary or shocking but for the time it was released I can see how people would find it somewhat frightening and new to their genres. I do somewhat see how it laid out the pathway for further gothic novels, this seemed like a mild taste for further gothic writing, no one said the first story of a new genre had to be the best. It was hard to keep track of characters and their dialogue, it felt jumbled together and clunky at times. I keep referring it to Antigone and Oedipus in the sense of the irony that the prophecy came true, of course Otranto is not as severe of a story but they seem somewhat similar. I believe the quote, "A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it" fits the bill for this story and the character of Manfred.
That Jean de La Fontaine quote is a great quote to include in your reaction to the novel. I would say that is does fit the bill for the story. I admired the the novel - despite how hard it was to follow - for being such an innovative text of its time.
ReplyDeleteThat is an excellent quote to pair with the story. It's almost comical how true that really is. I also agree with your analysis of the reaction of the people at the time of this novel's release. The culture we have today is very desensitized to this type of "gothic horror" so I can see how it would be hard to view this novel by today's standard of "gothic."
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