Clara Reeve mentions it in her preface of The Old English Baron (1778), I confess that it may be abused, and become an instrument to corrupt the manners and morals of mankind; so may poetry, so may every kind of composition; but that will prove nothing more than the old saying lately revived by the philosophers the most in fashion, “that every earthly thing has two handles”, and I couldn’t agree more with her. The one handle by which it can be carried and by the other one which it cannot. To elaborate, fiction is a double edge sword capable of transferring a moral message under the sugar coating entertainment. But when the duty of doing so is unsuccessful, one ends up using its attractions to corrupt instead.
As said by Clara Reeve in the novel, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, the opening excites the attention very strongly. Not many novels would have such a beginning where a certain homely young boy’s somewhat lengthy background is provided in the first page, making readers to perceive that character is to be playing the lead role. Few minutes later, only to find out, the same character dies in the very page. If opening such as this doesn’t excite readers, God knows what will. Furthermore, Clara also praises the artful and judicious conduct of the story, admirably drawn characters; polished and elegant diction. Thus, “every earthly thing has two handles”, can be understood in depth with the same example. Impeccable advantages were available to make The Castle of Otranto an amusing, fun and readable novel
However, the overdoing of supernatural manifestations in the story stood out as a distinct reason for losing its credibility. An amusing event of the young prince who is about to marry dies in the beginning , but a helmet so giant that could force a passage through a court-yard falls from the sky and crushes the young prince to death. A helmet so huge in appearance and weight is flying up in the sky before it lands on the court-yard and yet nobody saw it is one of the many oddities in the novel.Furthermore, series of ghostly manifestation, for instance a picture that walks out of its frame, a skeleton ghost in a hermit’s cowl comes out, happens in the story but readers get a very short time span to play with their imagination. Next thing you know, narrator lays out all the exciting work of imaginations out there for its readers. Thus, Clara Reeve criticizes, the term mentioned “Enchantment” vanishes so quickly in no time, killing the surprise/suspense down with a witness leaving no room for its readers to be excited about.
While reading through The Castle of the Otranto, these unsettling disappointments were the common grounds of my siding with Clara Reeve’s criticisms as mentioned on her preface.
The mask depicts horror with the devil horns and evil glare and also it has evil laugh at the same time.
Picture found online(Just a mask tattoo design)