The Gothic

th

production and consumption of literary works of the late 18 , as the low cost of these

novels allowed a greater number of middle-class readers to buy them.

The Castle of Otranto tells the story of Prince Manfred and his family, which includes

his wife, Hippolita, and his children, Conrad and Matilda. On the Castle where they live

a curse threatens, which says that “the castle should pass from the present family,

whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it”. On the wedding day

between Conrad and the Princess Isabella a giant helmet falls on Conrad and kills him.

Manfred presumably goes crazy, getting worse throughout the story, and tells Isabella to

marry him. He tries to rape the girl when he hears a sigh from a portrait giving Isabella a

chance to run. The Prince runs after her. Isabella races through the castle in an attempt to

escape. Realizing that she can take a subterranean passage to the Church of St. Nicholas,

she decides to hide among the nuns working there. When she reaches the cloister

containing the trapdoor, she comes across a peasant, Theodore, whom Manfred had

earlier accused of moving the statue’s helmet. The peasant decides to help Isabella. They

find the trapdoor and she makes her way into the tunnel. The peasant accidentally closes

the door locking it and alerting Manfred to his whereabouts. Luckily, he is able to speak

to the prince, avoiding his entry into the passage and letting Isabella escape. Manfred is

angry with the peasant, but his mind is set astray when two servants, Jacques and Diego,

enter the cloister and note that the eerie incident in the great chamber in which they

witnessed a rather large statue laying on the floor. Diego sees the arms and a leg of the

object and notes that it could have to do with the helmet that killed Conrad earlier. While

they are running away from the room they hear it following, and Manfred assures he will

investigate the room shortly after. The peasant volunteers to investigate too. When they

actually check the room, they find that everything is in its regular place. Manfred places

the peasant into a room under a stairwell, and plan to get his wife, Hippolita, to

encourage Isabella to marry him. Matilda and her maid, Bianca, discover the imprisoned

peasant, but have possibility to save him. Jerome, the priest, confronts Manfred with the

wickedness of his intentions towards Isabella and Hippolita. A very angry Manfred gives

order to execute the peasant, and, when Jerome gets Theodore’s confessions before

dying he realizes that the boy is his son. Soon after there is a sound of a trumpet, Jerome

goes and sees what it is. He comes back with a message that declaims: “For the night of

the Gigantic Sabre, …and I must speak with the usurper of Otranto”. Frederic, Isabella’s

father, arrives with a giant sword. The Prince forgives Theodore but tells the priest to go

to the convent and prepare the princess’s return, taking his son as a hostage until his

return. Matilda, who has fallen in love with Theodore, frees him from the black tower.

The boy finds himself at the same place as Isabella and swears to protect her. Manfred

makes a deal with Frederic: he will marry Isabella and Frederic will marry Matilda.

Theodore finds Isabella in the woods and hides her in a cave, vowing to protect her. The