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The Castle of Otranto: The Prefaces and Chapter 1 (What feels modern…
The Castle of Otranto
:
The Prefaces and Chapter 1
What feels modern about this text?
Manfred blaming the peasant and the peasant's mob mentality (77)
pleasure in reading, but horrible to witness: "take care of Isabella"; pleasure in waiting in tension
shocker: men in power are terrifying (Hi, Manfred); the arbitrary exercises of power
him wanting sons; issues of reproduction and hereditary
horror seems to focus women's sexuality through the lens of men's access to women (rape culture, arranged marriages, crazy boyfriends)
damsel in distress trope
spooky prophecies
Genre: what do we call this?
PATRILINEALITY: Manfred's nightmare pride
works to secure able-bodied men through system (shows how ableism and sexism is intertwined)
ableism: a form of structural/systematic oppression that secures a protected place for abled subjects. Think buildings not being wheelchair accessible; books not available in braille or audio form; websites not being friendly for screen readers
makes women only worthy if they can make sons
end of chapter (Hippolita acquiese and obey to divorce_
"I've lost the hope of my race" (79)
"I will use the human means in my power of preserving my race" (81): emphasizes bloodlines, categorizing worthy humans
"I don't want a daughter" (78)
preface: 1) true event, a true found story in North England. The frame allows us to buy into it; creates a novelty/newness to it; creates a safety net for Walpole
merging of Shakespeare and Voltaire: afraid of backlash (pg 67)
"new species of romance" (70): one that is sensational--of the senses--you'll be feeling for/with the victims (see also the sonnet); it's about engaging the audience's body
"Seducing" Isabella scene (pg 79)
If this is about making readers
feel
then where is the horror of the text
by allowing us to identify with Isabella, Walpole might be critiquing a violent form of patriarchal access to women
use of horror as moral guide (painting as interrupting the threat of sexual assault)