Plot Summary
The Castle of Otranto is a Non-African Novel. The novel is written in 1764 and it is the first gothic novel.
There was a debate then on whether or not works of fiction should be representative of life, or more purely imaginative, hence the birth of this novel.
Characters
MANFRED-The Lord of the Castle of Otranto.
HIPPOLITA- Wife of Manfred.
CONRAD- Son of Manfred.
MATILDA- Daughter of Hippolita
FREDERIC- Lost father of Isabella.
ISABELLA- Daughter of Frederic.
FRIAR JEROME-The Friar at the Monastery.
THEODORE-Lost son of Friar Jerome.
BIANCA- Servant of Matilda.
DIEGO&JAQUEZ- Servants in the Castle
Plot
The Castle of Otranto is about the Lord of the Castle, Manfred and his family. The novel opens on the wedding day of Conrad, Manfred’s sickly son and Princess Isabella.
Conrad is a fifteen-year-old son of Manfred and Hippolita and he is the younger brother of Matilda. He is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet on the way to his wedding with Isabella.
This unfortunate incident is a bad omen to Manfred as a result of an ancient prophecy “That the Castle and Lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it”. With the death of Conrad, Manfred is finished.
Manfred then resolves to marry Isabella to avert the impending danger and divorce Hippolita because she is unable to bear him an heir. When Manfred attempts to marry Isabella, she escapes with the help of Theodore who is a peasant to a church under the protection of Friar Jerome.
Manfred then orders Theodore to be killed. In the course of killing Theodore, Jerome sees a marking below his shoulder and identifies Theodore as his son and Jerome begs for Theodore’s life to be spared.
Manfred then gives two options that Jerome should either give up Isabella or his son’s life. While this is going on, a knight from another kingdom enters to rescue Isabella, the knight and Manfred then run to find Isabella in the church.
In another scene, Theodore, who is already locked in a tower is freed by Matilda, Manfred’s daughter. Theodore also runs to the underground church to find Isabella and hides her in a cave.
He later fights and wounds one of the knights who turns out to be Isabella’s father, Frederic. They all later go to the castle to work things out. Frederic falls in love with Matilda, Manfred’s daughter. The duo then plans to marry each other’s daughter.
Manfred suspects that Isabella is meeting Theodore in the church, he then takes a knife into the church where Matilda is meeting Theodore, he thinks his own daughter is Isabella, and he stabs her.
Theodore is later revealed as the true prince of Otranto and becomes the king. Matilda dies while Theodore marries Isabella because she is the one that can understand his sorrow while Manfred is left to repent.