Characterization, Identities, and the Supernatural in Otranto Essay

The Divided Self Characterization, Identities, and the SupernaturalA cursory first reading of Horace Walpoles Otranto might proceeds an impression that its graphemes are thoroughly superficial, shallow, and suave, almost to the point of being laughably so. A single font mold seems to have been applied to all(prenominal) 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 ca st.There is some debate over the substitution of flat characters for tied(p) 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 ill-informed as an author and consequently, was unable to write well. Another suggestion is that Walpoles 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 go on a quick-moving plot? Or perhaps Walpole decided to systematically sacrifice characters to other, more highly valued aspects of narrative such as moral and plot (Napier 34) wi... ...f boundaries in the midst of characterizations, identities, the psychological, and the supernatural, is not only ambiguous and incongruous, but unstable, contingent, baseless, mysterious, and haunting.Works CitedFreud, Sigmund. Fr agment 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.