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The Castle of Otranto pt 2 - Coggle Diagram
The Castle of Otranto pt 2
Lady bodies
What is the use of horror?
ghost story to scare landed men? how do gendered expectations about experience shape the goals of the novel
supernatural elements and putting in the work?
Frederic and the skeletal monk; fleshless jaws and empty sockets: "to forget mathilda" said the apparition and vanished
"It was a nice wake up call for Frederic, since not long before, he was suspicious of Manfred's intentions. Yet, he let himself get blindsided by thirsting over a young girl who did not want him."
pg 147: statue weeping blood; bad omens of blood coming from where it shouldn't; three drops (very The Trinity); Catholic aesthetics facillitate the horror and the worldview of divine punishment and intervention
Manfred, masculinity, tyranny
"Manfred's pride and anger drove him to kill Matilda, who he mistook for Isabella" --Joi in chat
how does the novel figure accountability
"No this shall prevent it" drawing his dagger" (151); Mathilda's death scene; setting with connection to tomb of Alphonso--the setting reinforces the themes of usurping and violence; creates sexual suspicion
Matilda's death scene--kinda short? And gets killed off?
how is this novel about
how men in power, men in seats of power and no accountability: "usurper and ravisher"--thief and rapist
"Gothic" and tragedy
drive for "terror" as the "author's principle engine" (preface 1)
mix of Romance and horror? R&J vibes
tragedy also raises concerns about agency, following ones heart, options/choices
"Could she reach the altar before she was overtaken. she knew even manfred's violence would not dare to profane the sacredness of the place" (82)
personifcation of "violence" distances Manfred from her body
by personifying violence, it suggests Manfred is less culpable
woof; Walpole frames agency/choice in masculinist terms: "Hippolita states, "It is not ours to make election for ourselves; heaven, our fathers, and our husbands, must decide for us" (142).
Chloe argues, "I marked that quote with women’s agency mostly being dictated by men. Heaven = God = a masculine figure"
election feels ironic here since it lightens the ways men overdetermine ways of being
reinforces ideas of women's lives/bodies as contracts/transactions
reproduces fantasies of paternal benevolence
Alphonso the good dad and good blood; Theodore assumes throne; "persuaded he could know no happiness except" with one who knows mutual sadness? #SadBoyHours
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gothic novel as a vehicle to denaturalize ideas of conjugal happiness/intimacy