The Castle of Otranto

Out of everything that I have read for this class so far I liked this book the best, since I thought “The Castle of Otranto” was a very easy read and was easy to figure out what was happening in the story.

At first, I thought that the giant pieces of armor that certain people were seeing was out of their own imagination, but when I read the end of the story  it made more since to me since the pieces of armor were signs that the prophecy was soon going to be fulfilled. I was glad that Theodore ended being the rightful heir to Otranto, since I thought he was a kind, thoughtful, and brave person that was willing to risk his life in order to help and protect others. Unlike Manfred who was mean, selfish, and only thought of what was best for himself. I was sad that Matilda died though, since I thought she was a very kind and generous person since she really cared about the people that were the closest to her. In a way wish that Matilda did not die and was able to live happily with Theodore as the prince, but sadly that could not be the case.

One thing that really bothers me about this time period, and is made evident in other British literary works that we have read, especially in “The Country Wife”, is that marriage is such an important deal. Since people only considered marrying others who were within their rank, were rich, royal and/or had a lot of land. In “The Castle of Otranto” this is displayed by Manfred, since he tries to get Isabella to marry him, even though she would have hated to do so, but she did not have a choice since her father agreed to it. Even though Manfred wanted to marry Isabella mainly because he wanted to remain the prince, he did not care about what she wanted and was only concerned about him. Also before everyone knew that Theodore was the rightful heir to Otranto, Matilda’s or Isabella’s parents would have never allowed either of them to marry Theodore since he was poor.         

Discussion Questions:

  

Is willing to give up your life and protect someone that you do not even know, like Theodore did, a bad thing?

If Matilda had never died, would Theodore and Matilda have found a way to be happy together, or would Matilda still respect her parent’s wish to not be with him, since the truth about Theodore would still have not came out?