For my final paper, I have decided to explore the role of women throughout the 18th Century. It has occurred to me that most of the books that were read in class had issues about women, sex, and marriage. Therefore, I wanted to go more in depth in exploring what roles the women had during the time period of the 18th Century. I decided to link together the roles of women during the 18th Century to the novel of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.
Having been the first Gothic novel written, The Castle of Otranto depicts a story of the king of Otranto named Manfred. When a giant helmet from the sky kills his son Conrad, Manfred is left with no heir to the throne. This leads him to make the most unimaginable decision in a reader’s point of view. He decides to end his current marriage with his wife, Hippolita, and marry Isabella whom Conrad was supposed to marry. This brings up a question of the role of women in the novel of how they are treated.
Throughout most of the novels that we have read in class, women were depicted as an object of sex and overpowered by men. This idea that women should be submission towards men is depicted more and exaggerated more in The Castle of Otranto. The women characters in The Castle of Otranto are also portrayed as weak compared to the other novels we have read. I felt that the main female characters in Roxana and Pamela who sort of knew how to manipulate the men for some of their own advantage. What is it about the women in The Castle of Otranto that make it seem like the women are more weaker. Is it because the situations that they are in are different from the other novels? I would like to understand exactly how women were supposed to act during the 18th Century and compare it to the women’s role in The Castle of Otranto. To me it was interesting and shocking to understand how Manfred ended up killing his daughter yet the daughter does not blame the father for killing her.
I would like to focus my easy on the topic of the role of women during the 18th Century and the novel The Castle of Otranto. However, I am having a difficult time coming up with a central question. Maybe my research topic could be that women throughout The Castle of Otranto were thought of as commodities rather than as a human being and compare that idea with another novel that we had read in class, which could be Pamela. It would actually be an interesting comparison to compare the role of women in the two novels because in The Castle of Otranto the women are of high class and in Pamela the main character is a servant girl. Thus, the paper will be focusing on the topic of whether or not women of a lower class were treated more like commodities than the women of higher class during the 18th Century.
Very nicely done, your essay proposal is very informative. However, while I feel that the Castle of Otranto is a great novel and I also am writing my final paper on it, I don’t think that role of women can be backed up thoroughly hence I felt like that wasn’t the theme, or wasn’t Walpole’s goal. It is indeed a difficult topic to come up with a central question. I also fail to see how The Castle of Otranto portrayed women of a high class and how that can be looked upon as a final paper thesis, at least from this novel. I could be wrong. Don’t get me wrong. I love the thinking outside the box you have going with your essay proposal, I just find it difficult to release it to this particular novel.
The essay topic you have chosen is great! I have a similar topic within my essay regarding women. However, I wrote about virtue, marriage and inequality among women throughout the eighteenth century. I suggest adding social values to your essay to create a sort of background before you state the “depicted as an object of sex and overpowered by men” sub-topic. Social values are like norms in the eighteenth century and I feel like writing about it will back up your claims even more. Hope this helps.
Hey,
The role of women for the castle of otranto is a great topic, however it is too broad and should be narrowed down. Is there any particular part of the story in which you found that stuck out or made you question the role of women? I would suggest finding a subtopic within the topic of role of women.
Another idea: research the roles of women in this time period and compare it to how Horace incorporates them into the novel. Explore some values and evaluate whether if it made a difference to the novel.