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The Castle of Otranto - Finale and Making Arguments - Coggle Diagram
The Castle of Otranto - Finale and Making Arguments
Matilda's death scene:
the death scene adds "drama" for tragic death of a hero
the narrative compression amplifies the drama--it moves quickly and it's chaotic
the death scene mirrors the scene in the gallery: it's the doom about being a lady in a lady body in this novel
"no this will prevent it"--an aggressive violence to keep patrilineality going;
"into the bosom of the person who spoke"--this is about her chest. Why her boobs tho?
calls attention to the long history of metaphors of penetration
Initial Reactions to The Castle of Otranto:
Aubree: "pretty wacky"
and we just kill some folks: RIP Matilda
Isabella and Matilda
interchangeable women? Are they related? WHat's their deal?
what's the use of female friendship in the novel? Thinks about collectivity and female empowerment (more than just one); in a system/novel where women are being treated like garbage, it allows connections and resistance
who is the protagnoist?
We want to root for Matilda: she saves Theodore, she is trying to save Isabella, and we do get her front and center form the first sentence; maybe thinks about women's agency in a novel where autonomy is limited?
"but you are my mother, too, said Matilda fervently, and
you
are virtuous,
you
are guiltless (141)-- matilda staking out a bit of agency, a bit of choice about what happens to her
Hippolita: "There is a destiny hangs over us" she feels brainwashed, ascribing to the "dutiful wife"
What does Walpole want through horror?
by connecting negative emotions to the types of heteropatriarchal violence, we're supposed to take a step back and see the limits of this way of thinking
While written in the 1700s, but set in the 1500s, he calls attention to the LEGACIES of patrilineal violence
long history of using virginal women as the protagonist; it anticipates the "final girl" a last female protagonist who is also a virgin--reinforces purity discourse and sets up hierarchy of purity/impurity
What's lost/what's gained? Resistance/reinscription?