My view of Gothic with The Castle of Otranto

The word Gothic itself has hundreds of definitions. As for me, it defines as being different,    unthinkable and an individual’s most bizarre but creative thoughts. As for what we spoke about in class, Gothic can bring life to ideas that tempers with a person’s morality in the manner of how rules in certain societies, cultures, religions and so forth can be broken to create an ideology which is considered taboo. In relation to Gothic, the biggest example of medieval time Gothic is The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. The antagonist, Manfred reveals various different aspects that break a dominant ideology of a structural society in many different ways. Manfred alone shows greed and neglect towards his own family to make sure he stays in power. The sudden death of his only son Conrad changes Manfred’s entire personality keeping in mind that the family curse can only be dismissed if there was a male prince to keep his legacy going. Therefore, Manfred decides to marry his son’s fiancé Isabella. This action taken by Manfred shows a queer ideology where it suddenly feels like an incest because Isabella was considered to be Manfred’s daughter-in-law at one point and now he wants to marry her in order to have children with her and to continue his bloodline. Another uncanny ideology that shows Manfred’s lust for power is when he decides to divorce his wife Hippolita instantly due to the fact that she couldn’t bear him a health son. However, the twist to the story comes along when Hippolita doesn’t confront Manfred upon a serious issue which could permanently ruin and fatally end their relationship. This particular action clearly showed that women during the era had no power to withstand for their right. Women are showed to as vulnerable mannequins with no power and they need to obey the law to survive and avoid execution. In terms of a Gothic perspective in The Castle of Otranto, I believe that the author portrayed a women’s character to be insubstantial where women are objectified and they need to follow directions or are used for someone else’s benefit whenever its needed to be.