Characterization, Identities, and the Supernatural in Otranto Essay

"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 â€Å"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 â€Å"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 â€Å"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 â€Å"systematically sacrific[e characters] to other, more highly valued aspects of narrative such as moral and plot† (Napier 34) wi... ...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. â€Å"Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (â€Å"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.