:: The Young Enthusiast ::

Plot Summary: Manfred, the Prince of Otranto, plans to marry his young, sickly son Conrad to Isabella, the daughter of a neighboring Marquis. However, just before the wedding a helmet mysteriously appears on the lawn of the castle, and further inspection proves that Conrad has been crushed under the helmet. When a local Peasant, Theodore, points out that the helmet is just like the one on the state of Prince Alfonso in the chapel, Manfred accuses him of being a wizard and imprisons him under the helment with no access to food or water. However, escapes his prison by tunneling under the helmet.

Meanwhile, Manfred informs Isabella that since his son cannot marry her that he will marry her; this frightens the girl and she flees into a secret passage below the castle that leads to the chapel, where she intends to spend the night with the vestals there. Manfred searches for Isabella all night until the priest comes to inform Manfred where Isabella has taken refuge. Manfred then attempts to convince the priest to allow him to divorce his wife and marry Isabella, but the priest refuses to help on religious grounds.

Thinking that he and Isabella are in love, Manfred makes plans to execute Theodore, but as he is giving him is last rites, Father Jerome notices a birthmark on his neck that informs him that Theodore is in fact his long lost son, born before Jerome entered the church. Jerome attempts to convince Manfred to stay the execution, and Manfred agrees if Jerome turns over Isabella. Meanwhile, an army led by the Knight of the Gigantic Sabre (so-called because his army consists partly of a hundred men carrying a gigantic sword) arrives, accusing Manfred of being a usurper and insisting that Isabella’s father is the rightful heir of Otranto.

While all of this is going on Isabella has escapes the convent, and she meets with Theodore in the woods, who vows to protect her. When the two encounter the Knight of the Gigantic Sabre, Theodore wins the battle and the Knight confesses that he is, in fact, Isabella’s father. They return to the castle, and Manfred finally wins the Knight’s consent to marry his daughter by promising the Knight his daughter Matilda’s hand. However, after the giant who is haunting the castle is once again spotted and a statue drips blood from its nose, both bad omens. The Knight pays heed (he is also advised by a mysterious skeleton) and cancels both marriages.

Later, Manfred hears that Theodore is in bed with a woman. Thinking that the woman is Isabella, Manfred runs in and stabs her; however, the woman was in fact his daughter, Matilda. Theodore then announces that he is, in fact, the true ruler of Otranto, which the giant (who is the ghost of the dead Prince Alfonso) confirms. Manfred admits that he is a usurper and enters a convent. Theodore marries Isabella and becomes the new, rightful prince of Otranto.

Key Themes:

Gothic Conventions: Medieval continental castle setting, rejection of neoclassical realism, ghosts, magic and mysticism, incest, pseudoscholarly antiquarianism (note the introduction to the first edition), extremely contrived plot, secret passages, prominence of Catholocism, rampant symbolism (giant sabre anyone?)

A New Model for Psychological Expression: In contrast to neoclassical models for portraying fictional characters, gothic conventions of characterization involve letting naturalistic characters develop through their response to terribly un-natural situations. Theodore, Isabella and Father Jerome all have quite normal, human reactions to the extraordinary situations they are placed in, and many argue that Walpole believed that this was a much better way of portraying deep psychological than traditional neoclassical plots.

Next week I’ll post more after reviewing this book:

Sabor, Peter, ed. Horace Walpole: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.

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