Political Analysis of The Castle Otranto and The Gothic Novel
Horace Walpole was the son of Robert Walpole, first earl of Orford, a leading Whig
politician and one of Britain’s longest serving prime ministers (Langford). It is no surprise
then that Horace decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue a political career.
Walpole sat in the House of Commons for twenty-seven years (Brooke 6). It is evident that
Walpole’s political experiences are reflected in his novel The Castle Otranto. The novel can
be analyzed through a political/historical lens by looking at the political practices and
beliefs of the time it was written. With knowledge of the political happenings of the time
Walpole was writing readers could gain a greater context of the ideas conveyed in Otranto.
While Walpole was active in the political sphere in England the two leading parties
were the Whigs and the Tories. The Whigs opposed absolute rule and advocated for
supremacy of Parliament and a constitutional monarchy, the Tories endorsed a strong
monarchy to counter balance the power of Parliament. Walpole followed his father’s legacy
as a Whig. Walpole’s Whiggish fear of a monarch abusing their power is certainly apparent
in Otranto. John Brooke describes one of Walpole’s strongest political traits to be “his
hatred of tyranny or the undue exercise of power” (Brooke 7). This hatred of tyrants and
fear of absolute rule is clearly represented by the portrayal of Manfred. Manfred only cares
about his own self interests and treats his family and his subjects with extreme cruelty.
Manfred is a representation of the Whigs worse nightmare, a tyrant that will do anything to
protect his own interests. Manfred’s tyrannical personality not only leads to his own
demise but also leads to the demise of future generations. Even though Theodore succeeds
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in securing his spot as the rightful heir to Otranto by the end of the novel, he lives his life
indulging in “the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul” (Walpole 115).
Walpole started his political career while his father was still Prime Minister. When
he ended his career in the Commons his father’s political rival William Pitt was the
apparent new Prime Minister. It can be inferred that the inspiration for Otranto Came from
emotional turmoil sustained in his political career from 1757-1765 (Brooke). During this
time the Whig party began to deteriorate and Walpole’s political career became more
difficult as he struggled to maintain influence.
Author Toni Wein points out that Otranto was written during a time that political
debates about the limited power of the monarchy surrounding political figure John Wilkes
were ongoing (Lake). The debates had to do with medieval legal precedents and the
documents that preserved them. Wilkes published a series of Pamphlets attacking the king
and his advisors; Wilkes and forty-eight others were subsequently arrested by order of the
king (Lake). Wilkes argued the arrests were not legal because the Magna Carta, created to
ensure the rights of a kings subjects, guaranteed parliament members freedom to speak out
against the king. This scandal further fueled Walpole’s desire for the promotion of medieval
liberties and his fear of the abuse of power.
Otranto contains several references to contests between political tyranny and
freedom. It is clear that fear of political oppression was on the mind of Walpole when he
wrote the novel. Manfred resembles the likeness of King Henry III and King John (Lake).
Like Manfred King John And King Henry III were viewed as tyrants who would do anything
to push their own agenda. William Marshal who is the supposed translator of Otranto
references William Marshal the elder and William Marshal the younger (Lake). Both men
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were known to have fought tyranny and to support human liberties (Lake). Isabella
references King Johns second wife who he married by force. Manfred’s Ancestor Don
Ricardo who poisoned Alfonso can be connected to Richard I who betrayed his father
Henry II. Matilda was the name of Henry I’s daughter who was disinherited by King
Stephen. These historical references underline what Walpole was attempting to criticize in
Otranto, the struggle to maintain the balance between tyranny and freedom.
Walpole feared that the medieval documents preserving the commonwealths
liberties had failed to stand the test of time. Legal documents that were created to ensure
the power of the people were being misinterpreted or ignored all together. This mistrust
and questioning of legal documents is prevalent in Otranto. The first example of this
mistrust of legal documents comes in the dual prefaces of the novel. In the first preface
Walpole claims to be the translator of an ancient Italian manuscript that was printed in
1529. By saying that the novel comes from an ancient manuscript Walpole attempts to
convince the reader that they are reading a true story. In the second preface Walpole
admits that he wrote the story and used the first preface because he was afraid of what the
novels reception would be. By first claiming that the novel has actual historical proof and
then admitting that there actually is no manuscript Walpole calls into question what
documents can be trusted and followed as fact. Just because a document is written does not
mean that the document is true and carries weight. The reader immediately has to question
the narrator’s reliability and the reliability of the novels characters.
Another example of problematic legal documents comes when we find out that
Manfred’s ancestor was able to bring his family into power by creating a fake will. Even
though Theodore is the true heir of Alfonso false legal documents have been used to take
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away his right as heir. In Walpole’s view legal documents were not able to work the way
that they were supposed to. The documents that were supposed to ensure rights and
liberates of future generations failed. The Magna Carta failed to protect Wilkes against the
king’s abuse of power while the real will of Alfonso failed to protect his lineages’ rights.
Walpole expresses his distress about the legal systems failure to protect liberties by
depicting legal documents as something that can be forged or misinterpreted. He criticizes
the tradition of medieval manuscripts being used as tools for politicians to further their
own agendas. In Walpole’s view as long as there were kings who acted like tyrants and
abused their power, legal documents and warnings reserved no power for the common
people.
Walpole believed that government needed a strong parliament to counter the king’s
power and to enforce the rights of the people. The novels theme that the sins of fathers visit
their children can be interpreted as Walpole’s criticism of the Tories and advocates of a
centralized monarchy. By allowing the king to increase his power and ignore constitutional
documents the government fails at protecting future citizens rights. The wrong doings of
the current political system will have adverse effects on future citizens.
Another political criticism in Otranto involves Manfred’s attempt at abusing Friar
Jerome’s power. In England a series of Acts in the early 1660’s restored the Church of
England and persecuted those who refused to conform (Catholics and Protestants). The
Whig party became concerned that the government policies served as evidence of the
King’s sympathy for Catholicism and his preference for absolute rule (Catholics and
Protestants). At this time an absolutist government governed most Catholic countries
especially France. England’s new closeness to the Catholic Church made the Whigs fear that
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the king would attempt to increase his power. While the Whigs were mostly Protestant the
Tories favored Catholicism. Walpole’s fear that the King would use the power of the church
in order to increase his own power is manifested when Manfred asks Friar Jerome to
divorce him from Hippolita so that he can marry Isabella. Manfred attempts to abuse the
power of the church in order to get more power. If the Friar agreed to Manfred’s plan
Manfred would have been able to keep his position of power.
The Castle Otranto can also be read as a political satire criticizing patriarchal
politics. Politics and patriarchs could be said to visit upon their children in unpleasant
ways. Walpole knew this first hand because he was the youngest son in his family. The
patriarchal practice of the time was that the oldest son would inherit most of the family’s
wealth and status. Many people felt this practice was wrong because it disadvantaged other
children in the family. The practice promoted factions in the family and in society. Due to
his low rank in the family Walpole’s father was distant to his son. Walpole’s conflicted
relationship with his father could be what caused his resentment of political authority
(Diaz). Walpole’s Father was known for his power and corruption and was unfaithful to his
wife. It can thus be inferred that part of Manfred’s personality has been drawn from
Walpole’s relationship with his father.
The beginning of Otranto criticizes the patriarchal political system by describing
Manfred’s family. Manfred has a beautiful and virtuous virgin daughter and a younger
sickly, homely, son. It is said that Conrad is darling to his father while Matilida was never
showed any “symptoms of affection”(Walpole 17). It is clear that Matilida is stronger in
character than Conrad yet she is not valued because of the political systems value of
patriarchal practices. Conrad dies but this does not stop Manfred from getting what he
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wants no matter the cost. He wants to divorce his loving wife so that he can further his
bloodline and stay in power. He attempts to force Isabella to marry him and he ends up
killing his own daughter all in the pursuit of staying in the patriarchal hierarchy. Females in
the novel are treated as nothing more than tools to be used for personal gain. Manfred’s
pursuit of his manly duties ends up destroying his entire family. This criticism of
patriarchal political practices is yet another example of Walpole’s fear of oppressive
government and his support for the oppressed.
It is also important to notice the political nuances in The Castle Otranto because of
its standing as the first Gothic Novel. Otranto laid the foundation of the Gothic novel genre
and its political criticism is something that became a hot topic of discussion in future novels
in the genre. Reading the supernatural events present in Gothic novels as allegories of
political oppression became a popular option for early Gothic readers (Clery 24).
Political analysts of the Gothic novel Dracula compare the lives of politicians to
those of Vampires. Dracula can be read as a criticism of the government’s financial
corruption. Vampires suck the blood of the living in order to survive; politicians tax the
taxpaying citizens and live off of the tax revenues. This leads to the reading that the
government is bleeding the people dry. Marx’s analysis of the political economy in Das
Kapital argues that ‘capital is dead labour which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living
labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks”(Neocleous, 669). Marx suggests that
the political economy is set up so that those who have capital, the aristocracy, will always
be able to feed off of laborers who need capital. The moral of Otranto that abuses of
political power continue to oppress citizens for generations into the future can be applied
to the oppression of the working class.
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While there are many political factors present in The Castle Otranto the main
critique has to do with the struggle between freedom and oppression. Walpole “burned
with zeal to right what he thought was wrong, to cure injustice”(Brooke 7) and to put an
end to the political systems oppression. Not only did The Castle Otranto inspire a new genre
of literature, it reflected and questioned popular social values of the time. Walpole was able
to creatively employ his political experiences and beliefs in order to criticize the practices
of the government. By looking at the political atmosphere in England while Walpole was
writing Otranto we can see that the horror in the novel was fueled by Walpole’s fear of a
changing political sphere. Walpole was struggling to come to grips with the fact that the
time of Whig supremacy was at an end. He was terrified that the English citizens would lose
their freedoms to the hands of an overpowered monarchy. While Walpole’s fears may be
outdated to a modern audience they helped create a genre that has been used to critique
social and political values for generations. The Gothic novel allows writers to convey to
readers that these so-called monsters are present in the very workings of our society and
are not supernatural at all.
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