A comparison of Walpole's The Castle of Otrantoand Mrs Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho

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Authors Mathews, Willa Frances, 1914-

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A COMPARISON OFWALPOLE'S THE CASTLE Q? OTRANTO AND

MRS. RADCLIFFE'S THg MYSTERIES OF UDOUNHO

Villa Frances Mathews

A Thesissubmitted to the faculty of the

Department of English

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

in the Graduate College University of Arizona

by

1940

ApprovediDirector of Tl^sis Date

t a b u : of contents

£ 9 7 9 //fVY)

C (rp . Z

pageCHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION....................... . ♦ 1CHAPTER 8 DIPFSRimCES BETWEEN T£E T O NOVELS . . . 16CHAPTER 3 SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TWO NOVELS, , , 41CHAPTER 4 EVALUATION OF THE T O NOVELS.......... 94CONCLUSION............ ............................ Ill

\ BIBLIOGRAPHY . . ....................... ............117

132934

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

. The purpose of this thesis is to make a comparison of Walpole’s The Castlo of Otranto and Mrs., Raflellffe’s . The Mysteries of Udolnho for the purpose of discovering something about the nature of the formula of the Gothic novel, of determining the relative literary merit of the two novels, and of deciding to what extent Mrs, Radellffe was influenced by Walpole. The method of treatment is to record the differences and likenesses between the two novels in treatment of character, in plot, in the use of the supernatural, etc,, and to weigh these differences and similarities in order to fora an opinion with regard . to the extent of the influence of The Castle of Otranto on The Hysterias of Udolnho. After analysis of the novels an attempt will also be made to state the formula of the Gothic novol and to make a literary evaluation of the two novels.

In the eighteenth century there arose a great interest in the Gothic, lino Railo says, "The attention of those days was in general, and in a manner expressly calculated to inspire authors, directed towards the Gothic,"!1, The Haunted castle (hew York. mkv/j. b. b.

Wearied by the balance, harmony, and elegance of prevailingpseudo-classic taste, the English public adopted v/ithrapidly growing enthusiasm the new fad of 'Gothic' ideas.In 1741 Batty Langley tried to combine both Greek and

2Gothic forms in his Gothic Architecture. In 1750 Walpole,in the posteript of a letter to Sir Horace Mann, a kinsmanin Italy, remarked that he meant to build a 'little gothic

3castle at Strawberry Hill.' In 1756 appeared EdmundBurke's study of the sublime and the beautiful, whichexpressed an idea made use of by the terror school of!4fiction, the idea of the sublime having its foundationin terror (pain and danger). Bishop Hurd's Letters onChivalry and Romance. 1762, furnished considerable supportfor the Gothic enthusiasts. With this renewed interestin the Gothic came a taste for ballad literature and arevival of interest in the older poets— Spenser, Shake-

5speare, and Milton. G. H. Mair remarks, "For Percy and his followers medievalism was a collection of what actors call 'properties'— gargoyles, and odds and ends of

2. C. von Klensej From Goethe to Hauptmann (New York, 1926) p. 72.

3. A. Dobson, Horace Walpole (Hew York,1890),1. 113.4. Railo. Op. Cit., p. 3.5. H. Walpole, The Castle of Otranto. Introduction by Sir

Walter Scott. Preface by Caroline Spurgeon. (Hew York, jn pp. xv-xvi. ,

5

amour and oastl® keops with secret pnaeagec, banners and gay colours, and gay shimering obsolete xrords*”6 Caroline Spurgeon calls Walpole the "eafoodinont of this particular antiquarian aspect of the early romantic revival, for he illustrates, and Indeed largely initiated, all three sides of it; the delight in collecting old things, the revival of Gothic architecture, and the taste for the Gothic tale

iiof chivalry,”7 According t o Cambridge History, it should be added that the romantic writers are of far less importance for their own sake than for that of the writers who followed during the next fifty years."8 For in the story of The Oaatle of Otranto is found the first real example of one phase of the romantic movement.

Defined in few words, the Gothic romance is simply the romance of terror. Characterisation becomes secondary to the machinery of the story* Blood-curdling incidents are the chief feature* George Dolman in "The Will" writes$

A novel is nothing moreThan an old castle and a creaking door,

A distant hovel,Clanking of chains, a gallery, a light,.Old armor and a phantom all in white,

And thoro's a novel.9

6. Modern nsillsh Literature (Hew York, 1914). n. 209.7. WglnoleV On. Pit., on. ;cvi-xvli.8.0. 3. Vaughn,"Stern@, and the Hovel of His Time"

The Cembridpre'History of -English "Literature,Vol. X,111, 52.9 . B eers, A lTTstory~oi: E nglish liom antloism in the

E ighteenth Century UioxiTYork. 1899), p. 255.

4

Befbro boglnalBg the study of the two novels, it would he interesting to know something about the lives and the backgrounds of Valpole and Mrse Radeliffe, and something about the novels themselves*

Horace Walpole, the ’’clever, dilettante, unromantio eighteenth-century man of fashion,”10 was born In 1717, the fourth son of the famous minister of George II, As a member of a prominent family, he had the usual educa­tional advantages, the Grand Tour upon graduation from Cambridge, membership in Parliament, the friendship or acquaintance of almost everyone of any importance in England, several important political sinecures, and, late in life, the Earldom of Orford.H

A neighbor of Y/alpole, Miss Hawkins, describes him as having a long, slender body, complexion and hands of an unhealthy paleness, dark, penetrating eyes, a faint but pleasant voice and a mincing, affected way Of walking,12 Dorothy M, Stuart says, ’’Walpole, indeed, walked through life as he did into Sir John Hawkins* withdrew!ng-room,•on tip-toe, as if afraid of a wet floorV1”3-®

Walpole is unsurpassed as a letter writer, both as 10 11 12 13

10. !fa Ip ole, "Os, * 0 it.. p , xl,11. 'Dobson, 0t>. Cjt.Passlia.—12. Ibid., pp. 2W *278w—13. Horace Walpole^. (New York, 1927), p. 213.

5

to the qmmtity and no to th® ,fvivid, brilliant panorama of nutohlogrephleal, soolal, and political life" which he gives of his century-14 T. Backus calls Walpole th© "fastidious dilettante and brilliant chronicler of the court scandal of his day, a man of singularly acute pen­etration, of sparkling epigrammatic style, but devoid of enthusiasm,"2.5 Walpole had returned from Europe in 1741, and "we can dimly guess at the feelings of a delicate young gentleman who had just learnt to talk about Bomenohinos and Guidos, and to buy ancient bronzes,"16 The hard-rldlng, hard-drinking set in England did not appeal to the delicate young gentleman, "When you can only join in male society on palm of drinking yourself under the table, the safest plan is to retire to tea-tables and small talk#"-3'7 The eighteenth century lives again la the letters of the "clever retailer of gossip,"18 Bellly remarks!

And what letters they were, deservedly accounted among the most fascinating ever written! Rich in irony, in arch humor, in a delectable sense of the ludicrous, in vivid lights on men and things, and spiced with an inimitable malice which keeps them‘ ~ ■ ■ . :* . • ~ ■ • ■■ - - ■ •

id. M,' W, Meedliann and W, B,r Otis, An Outline of -inglish

.11,W 1 AP, 110,

6

as fresh today as when they first left the nimblepen and slender fingers of Walpole himself*3-9

Interested as he was In writing, Walpole, not long after the acquisition of Strawberry Kill, set up a private printing press, where ho printed not only his own writings but also those of Gray and others of his friends. Hero he printed his ^isoellaneous Antiquities, the Catalogue of Engravers. tho Aneedotes of Painting, and A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England.80 As his father’s son he had a respeot for the Importance of ped­igree* His Catalogue of Authors shows his attitude toward antiquity and genealogy. Few of them are worthy of remembrance today*83-

During this period Strawberry Hill had grown In alma and in repute* Horry’s play-thing house grew slowly— * gallery, round tower, great cloister* In 1784 a visitor to Strawberry might have walked across the lawn to linger at a email oratory there or to gaze at the flower garden protected by an iron screen copied from the tomb of a Bishop of London. Inside the door might be seen thestaircase with its antelopes and Gothic lantern of japanned tin. At on® side wore tho great parlour with

I m l a m m19. b o a r ____20. Dobson, On. Pit.,21. Walpole, On. Pit..

d (" aw York,1 1938 /, pp* 310-311. pp. 299-323, pp» rxvi-xrvil,

7

Its family portraits, and a china oloset with oollestions of &iglish, French, end oriental china* On this floor were also the pleasant hlue and v/hite breakfast room, the green closet and blue bedchamber, all of which ware deco- ratod with portraits of famous people. Armoury, library, and Holbein chamber were packed with a miscellaneous assortment often ridiculed then and now— miniatures, enamels, "caskets and cameos and filigree work,* a silver bust of Cellini, a bronne bust of Caligula, a dagger of Henry VIII, and Cardinal Y?ol8eyes hat*88

So Horry Walpole, paosing his days retailing in hie letters the petty gossip and scandal of England1 a lords and ladies and collecting his jumble of antiquities, became bored with hi® printing press end the additions to his castle long enough to start a new fad* According to Sir Walter Scott, Walpole v;as able to give the public "a apeolmen of the Gothic style adapted to modern lit­erature, as he had already exhibited its application to modern architecture because hls~mind"'waS stored with information "accumulated by researches into the antiquities of the middle ages, and inspired, %a he himself informs us, by the romantic cast of his erm habitation*"8^

S8* "Dobson",'"'dp ''/c'it* *"''*pt?*u BOG— 1 " " " ' '.■' ” ' •'B3, Walpole, On* Gib*, p. XK*

6

JuBt as he had fitted the earrings of the old cathedralsto modern convenience, so he meant to unite the Incidentsand tone pt chivalry to real human characters. Hisletters shew "the mood of Irresponsible, lightheartedgaiety In which he started on his enterprise#"24 In aletter to the Reverend William Cole, Walpole writes?

Shall I oven confess to you what was the origin of this romance? I waked on©,morning, in the .beginning of last June, from a dream, of which all I could recover was that I had thought my­self In an ancient castle (a very natural dream for a head filled like mine with Gothic story), and that on the uppermost bannister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armor. In the evening I sat down and began to write, with­out knowing in the least what I Intended to say or relate* Th© work grew on ay hands, and I grew fond of it— and that I was very glad to think of anything rather than politics. In short,I was so engrossed with ay tale, which I com­pleted in leas than two months, that one evening I wrote from the time I had drunk ay tea, about six o'clock, till half an hour after one in the morning1, when my hand and fingers were so weary that I could not hold the pen to finish the sentence but left Matilda and Isabella talking in the middle of a paragraph#25 26

And so this dream excuse, used "from Jacob toColeridge," 25 accounted for the book in which originatedthe "frowning castles, and gloomy monasteries, knightsin armour, ladies in distress, and monks and nuns andhermits," and the scenery and characters of tha romantic

24. is, Birkhead, The Tale of Terror (London. 1921), p, 19,25. A, B. •McMahan. Best leWors of Horace Walpole

(Chicago, 1901), pp. 74-75.26. N. Collins, facts of Fiction (New York, 1933), p. 87.

9

a®T®X*g7 • , ,As a story, The Castle of Otranto nruns on like a

romance which some girl makes up, night after night, for the amusement of children before they go to sleep, aim­lessly Inventing incidents that have no relation, and which lead to nothing*”* 28 On his wedding day young Oonrad, Manfred’s son, is killed by a huge helmet# When Manfred tries to force Isabella to marry him to secure his property, she floes to the underground vaults of the castle, where she meets the hero, Theodore# Theodore falls in love with Matilda, Manfred’s daughter, but Is mainly occupied with rescuing Isabella* Manfred, enraged at a tryst between Theodore and a girl, stabs the girl, only to discover that it is his daughter and not Isabell*. Matilda dies as the castle is partially demolished by an earthquake. Then, in the moonlight, the dilated form of Alfonso the Good, the rightful owner of the castle, rises to heaven, where he is received by St, Nicholas, as a voice proclaims Theodore to be the rightful heir of Otranto,

Hot a great deal is known about the life of Mrs. Radoliffe, but much has been said about the famous Mysteries of TTflolpho. Ann Ward was born in 1764, the

■g7;:: atenken.' hours -inia.-library, w, 140.28. I. Posse. Silhouettes (New York. 1925), n. 114.

10

y»ar The Castle of Otranto vfas published. She oame of honorable stock; her other relatives were wealthier than her parents, and through them she enjoyed a literary and artistic society. Clara Frances McIntyre says that not much is known of her education, although the chapter headings of her novels indicate a wide range of reading.29 Of the bits of Verse heading each of the fifty-seven chapters, twenty-two are from Shakespeare, nine from Thomson, six from Milton, six from Beattie and the remainder from Collins, Goldsmith, Sayer, Mason, Hannah More, Cray, Rogers, and Pope. In 1788 she married William Radcllffe, Oxford graduate, law student, and editor of The English Chronicle, e weekly newspaper, D, Murray Rose, in his introduction to The Mysteries of Udoluho. describes Mrs. Radcllffe as being of "medium stature, exquisitely pro­portioned, with pretty features and beautiful complexion.w30 She had an elegant, refined air; and she possessed beau­tiful eyes, eyebrows, and south. Reared in an atmosphere of books, she probably began writing to while away the long winter evenings when her husband was away. Her first novel, The Castles of Athiin and Dubavne. was published ' a year after her marriage. The best known of her romances,

29. Arm Radollffe in Relation to Her Time (How Haven.1920).P. luT -

30. A. Radcllffe, The Mysteries of Udolnho. (London,^,dj),

11

The Mysteries of Udol-oho. wnn her fourth novel. She wrote from the time she was twenty-five until she was thirty-two, then stopped writing. Many reasons have been advanced for her sudden silence? a considerable legacy upon the death of her parents made her financially independent; or she may have seen the absurdity of her own writings and may have been disgusted with the flood of novels which followed and Imitated hero,51

After The Mysteries of Udolnho was published, Mrs, Radollffo and her husband travelled through Holland and western Germany, Upon their return she spent some time in the Lake District, and in 1795 she published the notes of her travels, revealing her love for and appreciation of nature.31 32

Indeed, The Mysteries of Udoloho la practically a travel book. From La Yallee in southern France Bally and her father journey through the mountains to the Mediterranean Sea, On this trip she meets Valaneourt, the hero, and later her father dies and is buried at the con­vent of St, Clair. Returning to La Valleo, Emily is taken by her aunt to Toulouse, and, after her aunt’s marriage to Montonl, the villain, they go across the mountains to

31. Mointvr®. Ann Radollffo. n. 14......'... '' "• -r*—3B, Radellffe, On. Git., Rose Edition, p. Til,

12

Ventee and then to the ©astle of Udolpho. There Sally*# aunt dies, and Mentoni's men at the eastle fight ever Emily and her inheritance. After numerous and harrowing experiences, Emily and another French prisoner escape to another haunted castle, Ohateau-le-Blano near the convent of St. Clair in France. From here she goes back to Toulouse, then to La Valle®, and again to Chateau-le- Blanc, where she is finally married to the hero.

Caroline Sjburgeon remarks that Horace Walpole, "cur­ious paradox as it seems, was, in some sort, the originator and founder of one side, one characteristic aspect of the Romantic Revival,"33 since the writers of the talep of terror foreshadowed the later romantic revival.

The Gothic romance has been called "the most amusing interlude in the history of the novel." However, it was not merely a passing absurdity, but a mirroring of a state of mind— "adventurous, credulous, eagerly imaginative, wish­ful to forget the proaiea of war, politics, and business."5* It was read and written by all manner of people, the practi­cal as well as the sentimental. Even the first Napoleon found time to write a Gothic tale.

35. ffialnole« On. Clt.. p. Xi. • ] : " ~“—34. G. Knight, The Novel in English (lew York, 1931) t>. 85.35. Ibid.. '• -> ■ ...

13

It was not an absurdity, beeause the modern novel has de­rived some Important features from It, particularly setting and atmosphere# Aoeording to Grant Knight, it may not "be styled •passing*, because its effects..•reached far and wide and some of its technique and tone are with us now. From the Castle of Otranto the avenue of the Gothic romance led to Thornfleld, where Jane Byre was dismayed by maniac laughter, and to the awesome inhabitants of Wuthering Heights, Knight goes on to say that "it fore­shadowed Poe and Hawthorne, the haunted houses and awe­inspiring laboratories of modern flotion, William do Morgan’s Old Mad House# and Hugh Walpole*s Fortitude.It *wandered aside to realms of the detective story,M such as A, Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervllles.g8

Bvon thotyh the Gothic romance never reached any great height, yet it played a prominent part in the development of the modem novel* Never again could the novel be con­fined to the prosaically possible, since it could now include another world. The Gothic romance lost real characters for types, but pointed out the path to Jane Byre. which combined fine characterization with melodramatic action#W. I/. Cross says that the Gothic romance made Scott possible, and that‘Qther ^lineal descendants of the Gothic

^6. Knight# Op. oit.. irn.,eHfi&iSVr.: " : —

14

romance are Charles Dickens, Washington Irving, Bulwer-Lytten. William Godwin, and Charles Brockden Brown, Brown,

37perhaps, starting the Indian tales of Cooper.

Mrs. •aadcliffe's influence, Cross says, "has been ’e=rfelt on every variety of the nineteenth-century novel,

38whether romantic, psychological, or naturalistic."Ellis declares that "no, other feminine writer has exer­cised such a powerful and lasting influence upon liter-

39ature as Mrs. Radcliffe." Donald R. Tuttle has calledattention to the sources of "Christabel" found in The

40Mysteries of Udolpho: J.C. Collins quotes passagesfrom Byron's Lara and The Mysteries of Udolpho to show

41similarities. Martha H. Shackford says that Mrs.Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho and Keats' "The Eve of

42St. Agnes" contain striking likenesses. According to The Cambridge History;

Her own influence was extraordinary; for it was more or less directly exerted on two writers who exercised a most potent influence, not merely on the English, but on the European, literature or

37. The Development of the English Novel (New York, 1909).5 7 - 1 0 9 ;— -------------------------

38. Ibid., p. 109.39. M. Ellis, "Ann Radcliffe," Contemporary Review. 123, 188,40. "Christabel Sources in Percy's Reliques and the Gotnic

Romance," P.M.L.A.T 53, 445-474.41. "The Works of Lord Byron," Quarterly Review. 202 , 438-439.42. "„'The Eve of St. Agnes' and The Mysteries of Udolpho."

P.M.L.A.. 36, 104-118.

15

world in the early part of the next eentury**,*It has not happened t© any other to give a novelist like Soott something of hio method, and a. poet like Byron nearly the whole of his single hero#1*®The Castle of Otranto set the pattern and style for

the Gothic romance. Of all the novels labeled Gothicnone has excited more censure then Wali>ole,s6 Yet it musthe remembered that his book was certainly the first realexample and Mto some extent, the pattern, of the wholestyle."44 The Castle of Otranto must be judged as a bold,interesting novelty. Walpole began the Gothic romance,but it was left to Mrs. Radcliffe.to fill in the bareoutline.and to perfect the whole# Although the two novels'mire Immensely popular with the readers of their time,today they are relegated to histories of English literature-The Castle of Otranto as the original and The Mysteries

' ■ ■ ■ - ■ • rof tldolnho as the best known of the Gothic Romances.We now proceed to an analysis of the differences and

likenesses of the two romances in order to determine the sain features of the Gothic romance, the relative lit­erary merit of the novels, and the probable amount of influence that Walpole exercised on Mrs, Radcliffe.

43. G, Salntabury, "The Growth of the Later Novel, Yol. VI., Oh. VIII., p. 332.

44, Ibid., p# 331

CBAPTSR S

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO NOVELS

There are, of oourae, a nuatoer of differenoes between The Castle of Otranto and Tfyi Mveterlee of Ddolnho. The authors1 reasons for writing their novels were different, and they differed in attitude toward their own works« The novels were not the same in style. In length and amount of detail, In the use of supernatural agencies.

Walpole expressed his purpose in the preface' to the second edition of The Castle of Otranto. Mrs. Radeliffe’s •ourpoae must be inferred from the novel in question. According to Sir Walter Scotts The Castle of Otranto was not written just to excite horror and surprise through the natural and universal love of things marvelous or supernatural. Scott says that Walpole intended to paint a true picture of domestic life and manners in feudal times, and to show a household disturbed by the super­natural, which the then current superstition made credible. The castle and the machinery were all meant to prepare the reader for events which could never happen, but which people of the time the action teek place believed possible. Walpole meant for the reader to identify himself with an

17

age which did believe.1 The Castle of Otranto. was. InV/alpole’a m m words, Man attempt to blend the two kinds of

. . . -resanee, the anelent and the modem*1,8 He wanted to make his ohara®ters set and speak In the manner of real him&nbeings. Walpole’s idea ha® been vindicated by subsequent' ' 'writer®. Aeeording to Leslie Stephens

Babyish as this m s s of nursery tales may appear to us, it is eurlous that the theory which Walpole advocated has been exactly carried out* He wished to relieve the prosaic realism of the school of . Fielding and Smollett by making use of romantic associations without altogether taking leave of the language of common life.3

Some twentieth-century writers have followed Walpole’sattempt and have shown that there are no marked divisionsbetween the seen and the unseen worlds. The Image in theSand and The An#el of Mercy by S. F. Benson show againwin more subtle and artistic form than in the eighteenthcentury* this blend of the marvellous with the things everyflay."* . ... : ■

Mrs, Radoliffe’s purpose in writing The Mysteries ef TTdolpho Is not so definite. It has been pointed out that aha was accustomed to a literary environment and that, after her marriage, she probably wrote simply to pass away the

1.2.3.4.

|felT)ola Og . Clt.. ICCXIII.'-XPCVII, pp. xxxiii.xxxm.142-143.

18

time, lino Hallo ©alls The Mysteries of Udoloho a con­fession of her own feelings and emotions. He says that she tried to give the book real literary value. She wanted to give expression to the mysterious, melancholy beauty of nature and of the past.® Clara F. McIntyre thinks that

^ Mrs. Radcliffe aimed primarily to describe the changing scenery and to show the effect of the scenery on the _traveller.6 The general opinion is that she aimed at arousing the emotions of surprise, awe, and"especially terror.

Almost all critics of today agree that The Castle of Otranto was written as a half-joke. Leslie Stephen says that it is Rintentionally burlesque" or the author would not have used such obvious machinery, which is "simply

■ ■ ' - . r •babyish.M7 Walpole seems to have had his tongue in his cheek as he wrote. Norman Collins* comment is that The Castle of Otranto is "the sort of work that a contemplative devil, with his back against one tombstone and his feet upon another, might have scribbled while waiting for the dawn-cock to crow."® H, A. Beers thinks that Walpole’s "want of seriousness made all his cleverness of no avail"

8. pp.^73-74. - I ■6. Asa Hadoliffe, p. 15. v7. ^ennen. Hours in a Library, p. 142.8. Collins’, 0^. Git., p. 85.

10

wh@ 3 2 he wot© The Oastle oT Otranto.0 • Mlth Blrkhead remarks that It was "not Intended as a serious contribution to literature#"10 Walter Baleigh says that "In mere play­fulness* ho made a wooden jaok-ln-the-box«"H

Mr»e Hadeliffe, on the other hand* is deadly eerioue in her use of the eagle atmosphere— too serious* There is none of the humor, which "would have saved the disillusion­ment of her explanatory sequelae"2-2

Walpole’s style is olassie in Its restraint and simplicity, Seott points out that it is "pure and oorroot English of the earlier and more classio standard,"!3 The simplicity is so marked that there could be no descriptions for their own sake* Percy Lubbock calls The Osstls of Otranto "a neat exercise in an artificial tone#" He says that it i® so classic in its disciplined tone that it must be read carefully in order to discover that "these dis­tinguished people are enduring agonies, experiencing portents, plunging into disasters such as ’words cannot paint.1" Their sufferings do not disturb the quiet, even flow of the tale. When the three drops of blood flow from * 11 * 13

9* Beers; On. Git.. n 240." " ' " - '... • '10#-Birkhead* On. Pit,. p S3, • ■11. % e English Hovel (Hew York, 1698), p, m ,18, J* Buchan, A History of .Snallnh Literature (London, 1923),

■■ P* 303#-. ,13, Walpoi®, On, Oit., XLV.

80

the nose of Alphonse*s statue, Manfrede pale but undismayed,advisee his wife to stay away from the priest and to continueefforts to obtain a divorce. Apparently, the omens aresimply ignored. Lubbock continuest "Still classic In theirsufferings.,'and'with a noble resignation they meet theirdoom, models of antique deportment In their despair andtheir extinction," The style Is dull but urbane• One ofthe best passages from a literary point of view in TheOastle of Otranto is the scene in which Isabella findsherself in the vaults of the castle, where every murmurstrikes new terror to her soul:

Every murmur struck her with new terror; yet more she dreaded to hear the wrathful voice of Manfred, urging his domestics to pursue her.She trod as softly as impatience would give her leave, yet frequently stopped, and listened to hear if she was followed. In one of those moments she thought she heard a sigh# She shuddered, and rebelled a few paces. In a moment she heard the step of some person. Her blood curdled; she concluded it was Manfred* Every suggestion that horror could inspire, rushed into her mind.14 15

It is a good passage because it is practically the only one in which the words actually evoke a sense of the her­oine* s feelings. Everyone who reads the book has, at some time, been in a position similar to Isabella*s, where the

14. "The Oastle of Otranto", Hation and Athenaeum.15,, Walpole, Op, 0it.* p• 18* ■

21

mind conjures tip terrors that do mot exist exeent in the alert imagination* 11

Hallo says that the style is legend-like and naive.The refinement is "apparent alike in style and subject- matterj which reveals an instinctive aversion to the realistic portrayal of the horrors of Ilfo.nld The catas­trophe, which Scott in the introduction praises as "sublimely described," shows the usual restraint;!?

Tho moment Theciore appeared, the walls of the castle behind Hanfred were thrown down with a mighty fore#, and the form of Alfonso, dilated to ah immense magnitude, appeared in the centre of the ruins# "Behold in Theodore the true heir of Alfonso!" said the vision; and having pro­nounced these words, aeedapanied by a clap of thunder, it ascended solemnly towards Heaven, where, the clouds parting asunder, the fora of St, Kioholas was seen, and, receiving Alfonso’s shade, they were soon wrapt from mortal eyes in a blase of glory.16 17 18Mrs, Badoliffo vnrites in a leima^Ly, unhurried

manner, carefully setting the stage and introducing thecharacters. Clara McIntyre mentions Dibelins’ criticismthat she tends to "emphasise individual scenes" as proofthat her style is distinctly dramatic.19 Even though Mrs.Eadoliffe stops to paint the scenery and to set tho stage,Anthony Clyne says that wa cannot stop to criticize until

16. Hallo. Op. Pit.17. Walpole, Op* Oil18. Walpole,19. Ann IMolJ

p. 135# p ZULU. . pp. 154-155. 88.

38

after the story has been read* We cannot stay during its course to criticize* That is a Just indication of itspower.”20 . . • / ■

The most outstanding feature of Mrs* Ba&ollffe’s stylo is its rhythmic» musical quality, a quality mostapparent In the descriptions of scenery*

The ramparts were silent and solitary. Their lonely appearance, together with the gloom of a lowering sky, assisted the musing® of her mind * and threw over it a kind of melancholy tranquility, such as she often loved to indulge*She turned to observe a fine effect of the sun, as

■ U rhis >raysi' suddefily: otroarilng frbm ibehlhd a; heavy cloud, lighted up the west tesmrs of the castle, while the rest of the edifice was in deep shade, except that, through a lofty Gothic arch adjoining the tower, which led to another terrace, the beams darted in full splendour, and showed the three strangers she had observed in the morning#21The most apparent difference between the style of

The Castle of Otranto and that of The Mysteries of ITdoluhois between the bareness of Walpole1s romance and thefullness of Mrs. Badeliffe^s. Walpole put his heroinein a situation of real danger? then he says very simply that "words cannot paint the horror of the princess1ssituation*"22 This seems to be Walpole1s attitude

■ - : • • ■ - ' . . . '

throughout the books words cannot express the horror,

80. "Ann Hade Ilf fe, Romancer"Living AgeTvvdl. 317 (1986),

8:

S3

so he Sees not attempt to say thorn*, Walpole''.says that the girl was "far from tranquil,H‘,;3 hut he makes no attempt t© he.definite« Walpole pats down nothing that might be left out, only the bare essentials. So far as he v/as concerned, nothing else was necessary* No digressions were permissible*' On the other hand, Mrs* Radeliffe is extremely profuse $ she put her heroine in her own home in familiar surroundings and took two columns to say that nothing happened. The way in which Mrs* Badoliffe, in the passage quoted below, said that the dog came into the room is typical of the profusenass which she always used for no matter how trivial an incident. Walpole would have

"The dog c a m into the room," Mrs* Radeliffe made the entrance an event, Emily is sitting in the libraryvof her home, musing on the recent death ®f her father*

As she mused,, she saw the door slowly open; and a rustling sound in a remote pert of the room startled her* Through the dusk she thought she perceived some­thing move. The subject she had been considering, and the present state of her spirits, which made her imagination respond to every impression of her senses, gave her a sudden terror of something supernatural.*»* The silence whleh again reigned, made her ashamed of her late fears. and she believed that her imagination had deluded her, or that she had heard one of those unaeeountable noises which sometimes occur,in old houses* The same sound, however, returned; and, distinguishing something moving towards her, and in the next instant press beside her into the chair, she shrieked; but her fleeting senses were instantly recalled, on perceiving that It was Manohon who

% *' ']tbide,",",p 7 ^ r eri11 lr'"ir 1 ' ' 11 11 "H'""' T l ' ' l' I I . W M M M W a m w m i e M W W w w w '

24

sat byg|er, and .who ncm 11 eked her hand affeotion-

Stirs# Ra&ellffe 1ms been erltlsized for her use of extremely stilted language# Clara McIntyre calls the scenes of domestic happiness of Emily*s home stilted, but possessing charm and sincerity,^® Mith Blrkhead mentions the long, unbalanced sentences, "with as many twists and turns as the winding stairways of her ancientturrets#"^6 Bsilo adds tlmt l ra. Radellffe "pauses in the midst of her descriptions and attempts to lighten her style with somewhat pointless conversations— s&efely notes to accompany the description,"27

Mrs# Radellffe* m w h more than Walpolo, has the ability to choose words and phrases which suggest hermeaning or which hare oonnbtative power. Some of thesephrases are In the paa^tgraph quoted— "silent and solitary,"

Xjx "mueinga of her mind," "melancholy tranquility," or "loftyGothic arch," Her sentences are, as a rule, longer than

• ' . • v : ■; . ; , . . . .those of Walpole, Walpole tends to short, rapid sentences;Mrs, Radellffe likes longer more involved sentences, which

• • • * .

sometimes become so Involved as to be umvieldy,. Neither

24; Radcllffo/ OnV oit.; I #V 49V25. : Arm Rad26, Birknea 29V Rallo h V -

85

writer evolved a style of writing distinctive enough to give the novels an exlstene® outside the sphere of theliterary historian# ■ '

The most Obvious differeae® hetwen the two novels is that of length, which is due to the profuse style in which She writes# The Qastlo of Otranto takes 159 pages to cover the events of three days. No one hursts into poetry; Frederick repeats the four lines of the prophecy, and that is all the poetry necessary# The hero sings but once— at night and, of course, under the window of the Princess Matilda# The opening is abrupt and concise, one paragraph giving the characters, the arrangements for the wedding, and the prophecy# The second paragraph sees the young prince killed by the helmet and the supernatural machinery set In motion# The only person who is actually described is the hero# The others are char­acterized only by their actions# The surrounding country*is mentioned only in passing;,we know that there are two

■ ■ • ■ >•

convents nearby, a town to tho west, and a forest andoaves near the oeacoast to the east of the castle# These' .. .■ , .

aro merely passing observations dropped in among other’ ' ' ' " '

remarks. The ending is equally concise, and the charactersare disposed of in short order.

Mrs# Radoliff®, on the other hand, goes into great

86

descriptive detail about everything# The Mysteries of tTdolnho takes 315 double-column pages and some 300,000 words^O to cover the events from spring to late autumn# There are about forty poems or parts of poems scattered throughout the book besides tho verse-headings of the fifty-seven chapters, Music is as frequently used as the poetry is# The strains of matins and vesper songs are heard„ as well as the sound of guitar, lute, violin, tambourine, fife, drum, trumpet, and sometimes just "sweet music" in the distance#

The elaborate descriptions of scenery take up a great deal of space in the romance and are examples of the

;■ ' . / - ■ . yomateness of her style# The landscapes of Tlie Mysteries of Xfdolnho are not minutely detailed, perhaps because the author knew the scenery only through paintings and through books of travel# Oliver Elton remarks that her "landscapes leave a hazy sense of bigness and colour#"89 A typical scene is described when Emily, her father, and Valancourt pause for a moment on their journey through the Pyrenees to contemplate their surroundingsi

They often paused to contemplate these stupendousscenes, and, seated on some wild cliff, where only

8&» Radollffc, OoV Pit,. Freeman Rdltlon. n. XI."29# Survey of English Literature (How York, 1920), 815,

27

the ilex or the larch could flourish, looked over dark forests of fir, and precipices where human foot had never v/andered, into the glen— s© deep, that the thunder of the torrent» which m s seen to foam along the bottom, was searee heard to murmur* Over these drags rose others of stupendous height and fantastic shape; some shooting into cones; others Impending far over their base. In huge masses of granite, along whose broken ridges was often lodged a weight of snow, that, trembling even to the vibration of a sound, threatened to bear destruction in Its course to the vale* Around, on every side, far as the eye could penetrate, were seen only forms of grandeur— the long perspective of mountain tops, tinged with ethereal blue, or white with enow; valleys of ice; and forest® of gloomy fir* The serenity and clearness of the air in these high regions were particularly delightful to the travellers; it seemed to inspire them with a finer spirit, and diffused gn indescribable complacency over their minds.c0

Thus she describe® the scenery and its effect on the■ ' ' . /traveller. Grant Knight points out that "artificial as X

this now sounds to ears accustomed to realistic word pictures, it was a big step in the direction of making ron and women of books vzalk upon a soil and before a background adapted to the writers artistry*w3i tea# •- Radoliffe was "one of the first to excel in sentimental landscape, the landscape which is lighted up, like the stage in a melodrama, to suit the particular conjuncture of the hero's or'heroines.;affairs:as:-tho;case aay;.be*”S2

30* Radcliffe. On. Git*. 1, 24.i:

literature (New York, 1907).^|istory of English.

88

Of her degeriptiona Knight says that ’’idealised as they are, they breathe a feeling for beauty which adds so muchto the story that thenceforth novelists dared not disregard the now-found neoesaity for harmmy "between environmentand incident*"®^

Even tho^h she had not seen this section of Europes there are passages of real beauty, for she had a ‘’vague love of mountains, v/at erf alls, forests, vast waters, gloomy sunsets, sad and pensive evenings*” Words like "stupendous,” "magnificent,’’ "sublime," and "melancholy" give the impression rather than the cause of the impression^ Her "emotional, oadeneed prose of the more elevated pass­ages, in which she yields herself to the beauty or sublim­ity conjured up from the depths of imagination...blend story, scenery, and sentiment into an impressive symphony,"34

Mrs. Badeliffe,s description® set the stage for a

certain mood where anything could happen. When Emilyvisits her father’s grave at St. Glair at midnight andalone, "' ' ■ ' ' '

the cold air of the aisles chilled her| and ^ their deep silence and extent, feebly shone f upon by tho moon-light that streamed through

a Gothic window, would at any other time have a w d her Into superstition; now grief occupied all her attention; She scarcely heard the

■ whispering echoes of her m m "steps, or thought * 3483. Knight; On.,,dit.1. p. 64. ' ' “34. Buchan, a * Git., p. 383.

of the ©pen grave till ahe foxto4 herself almost onIts brink# .

She h#az4 the organ aoooapnnytag the voices of the monks as they ©banted the req.td.ea for the dead* "She thought she saw a shadow Gliding between the pillars# She stopped, to listen; and not hearing any foorstep, believed that her fancy had deceived her, and, no longer apprehensive of being observed, proceeded,“SB There Emily.remains until morning. According to Buchan, “what is finest in her novels, and of the essence of her romanticism, la the harmony of the scenic accompaniment with the feelings evoked by the story, Idyllic, grandiose, mysterious, orsolemn,"56

Mrs* Radoliffo is very careful about each scene, every description agreeing with the mood she wishes to evoke* The story opens at La Valleo, where a delightful home and beautiful scenery are described, and where each character is carefully introduced, We know Emily* s background, education* and various accompliehaente. We know the general way of life in this peaceful domestic

he*.setting* Then Emily and father travel in the Pyrenees; • ■ T , ' ' - ■ • : '

Mountains, and almost every passing scene is painted, aswell as the various places where they lodge* Many pages * 50

^K' doliffe^^'O^ Olt* . 1*. 47# ~~ ™50. Buchan, On* Pit. * t>* 383.

30

are taken up with descriptions of travels, since Bmily moves from one part of France to another part, then to Venice and the castle of Udolpho in Itely, and hack to France# Once again in France, she goes from Ohateau-le- Blanc, where8 amidst the Gothic splendor® of the ancient house of Vllleroi* Emily finally marries Valaneourt» Where Walpole used one paragraph to settle the fate of his char­acters* l!rs» Badcliffe used half a dosen to dispose ef two only, Emily and Valaneourt * Then Mrs * Kadoliffe adds a little moral lessont

01 useful may it be to have shown, that though the vicious can sometimes pour affliction upon the good, their rower is transient and their punishment certain; and that innocence, though oppressed by injusticet shall, supported by patience, finally triumph over misfortune!

And if the weak hand that has recorded this tale, has by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or by its moral, taught him to sustain it— the effort, however humble, has not been vain* nor is the writer unrewarded.37Another reason why Walpole's story is simpler than

Mrs. Radcllffe's is that ho needed no explanations# Wal­pole presented the supernatural events as they would have been accepted in the eleventh or twelfth century,38 just as the ancient ballads told their tales of horror with stark simplicity# Hallo thinks that Walpole may have

W;' Sadcliffe. On. Git#; II;. 158,3@. Walpole, On# Olt#, p. XXVIII.

31

been right In his use of the supernatural without an explanation• This situation is good nhen the reader's imagination ean become identified with the author's. How­ever, in the case of The Castle of Otranto, the miracles are not related to the characters, and they fail to impress the reader. A true state of horror "demands a relaxing of the logical faculties and a psychic stiffening into a hypnotic attitude of fear." Hallo goes on to say that explanations would have been out of order, but that Wal­pole did not discover an effective means of dealing with the supernatural.39 The appearance of the skeleton hermit to the Prince of TlOenza was, for some time, thought to be a superb example of the horrible# According to Scott, "the valley of Jehosophat could hardly supply the dry bones necessary" for the imitations, which have lessened the effect of the model.* 40 The praying skeleton is the only real ghost in the story. The young prince is killed by an enormous helmet with sable plumes, which wave and nod in the moonlight when Manfred tells Isabella that he him­self will be her husband. Then again* the plumes nod

' . . . *■

three times affirmatively when Manfred asks if he has offended.'A huge sword carried by a hundred men fallsstf."1 W i i o T St). bit;,40. Walpole, Ojs. Pit

pp., 71-72p. m m

in plane beside the helmet and remains immovable. Diego and Ja<tu@s see the h % e leg and foot in the great chamber, but these disappear by the time Hippolita and Father Jerome reach there. Then Bianca sees the huge, mailed hand on the bannister. Apparently, Manfred does not even trouble to investigate Bianca’s story, but goes tranquilly to dinner. Presumably, Alfonso the Good gathers up the pieces of his body and armor before he is gathered to his ancestors by St. Hieholae. Walpole never took time to explain why the prophecy was so vague— ” The Castle and Lord shin of Otranto should pass from the present family whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it.”41 * 43

There are two other marvelous occurrences* The three drops of blood from the nose of Alfonso’s statue are not simply ludicrous, but an omen well known and often used,^ The incident of the animated picture, Scott says, borders on the extravagant but wis finely introduced, and inter­rupts an interesting conversation."*3 The picture sighs, leaves its frame, and, beckoning to Manfred, walks down the gallery and goes into another room. The conversation that it interrupts is that in which Manfred first declares

41, Walpole, Op , Git., p. 2.**'. M * Bont^jHew43, Belpel,, 2b . Olfc., p. :CLii.

itlo Move-

s*

M s intention to marry Isabella# Seott defend a Yfalpolo1s eboie® of a ploturo rather than astatue, because of the oolor and tho effect of the eyes of a painting, even though tha twelfth eentury vms too early for a full-lengthportrait.44

Walpole ha# been criticized for M s use of "super-human carpentry*”45 william Hazlitt says that The Castleof Otranto is construeted upon "false principle® of taste.”' . 'The huge glove* leg, helmet, and sword are the "pasteboard machinery of pantomime.” The supernatural events "shook the senses, and have no purchase upon the imagination*They are a matter-of-fact impossibility! .a fixture, and no longer a phantom*”46 To Henry A. Beer®, Walpole Is like a child telling himself ghost stories and trying to make himself shudder,47 Herman Collins pointo out beat to the rational mind* miracles ten bo only "ingenious illusions*##Bnd oven then the last chapter must contain a full confession by the Almighty as how he contrived So appear miraculous *"4@ Scott * s principal objection Is that there is too frequent action and interference of the supernatural. He adds that "the supernatural occurrences

^ • ibidVV r : " — — —45* Buchan, Op . Cit., p. 583.46. Lectures> on the "Radish Comic Writers (London, 1913),

il: E ? ! A s S % i. ^ ^ 05o.

34

of the Oastl® ©f Otranto are brought forrrard into too' strong day-light, and are marked by an over degree of distinctness and aoemraey of entlime." Seott thinks that our idea of ghosts demands a "mysterious obscurity/, and that Alfonso^ limbs are "too distinct and corporeal to produce the feelings which their appearance is intendedto excite."49

Mrs. Radoliffe, unlike Walpole, objected to such free us® of the superaatural$ therefore she used the postponed explanation* In fact, she placed some of her explanation® so far from the original event that the reader has forgotten the event* Everything is carefully saved until near the end; then she ties all the threads together and carefully explains* With the exception of some vague hints and suggestions, which will bo dealt with under her attempt at suspense and emotion, there arc only three instances where she presents what might possibly be supernatural events, but which are fully explained later. In chapter six we find that at the convent of St* Glair wild strains of sweet Music have often been heard at night for some twenty years* Hear the close of the book, in chapter fifty-five, Emily loams that the music was played and. . - - " ' ■ : ' , : • ' ■ . : ' ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ . . ■

49* Walpole, Op. Oit., pp, X H —XIAi.

35

Btmg by a m m from the convent, one v-'hoae mind was a t , times maettlade the aim sang and playad her guitar as she vmlked In the woods nearby in the solitude and darkness of the night. She was permitted this Indulgenoe under the advloe of her physician, but, since it was against the rules of the convent, it was kept secret for almost twenty years. The nocturnal music had led to a belief of the peasants that the neighborhood was , haunted, and that the music presaged a death#

The castle at Udelpho also was supposed to be haunted after the strange disappearance of the owner, I^urentini di Udolpho, whom, it is hinted, Montoni murdered because she refused to become his wife* Laurent ini could not have been a ghost hatmting .Udolpho, became all this tino she was the living nun who haunted the woods at the convent of St. Glair# Since the superstitious peasants believed that the ghost of Laurentini walked the ramparts of her old homo, the soldiers were ready to believe that the figure which they saw there really was a ghost# Add to that, the electricity which played on the tips of their lances, and the soldiers v/ere in a. mood to see ghost,s on every cannon. Then twice Montoni, while in the cedar parlour, was interrupted by a-voice which, like an echo, repeated the last words of

36

MoatonVs speech. Both the voice and the foreran.the ramparts helongel to Monsieur du Pont, a French prisoner at Wolpho, v/ho had loved Smily since he had met her

tsome time before this time at la Yallte#The Qhateau-le*Blano also had its haunted suite of

long unused rooms. These rooms xvere situated at the back of the chateau In an unoecupled ell, never visited by anyone. The rooms had never been opened sinee the marchioness had died| everything v/as as she had left it*Her lute lay on the table; the black counterpane on the bed was her death pall; her prayer-book lay open as if she ha# been at prayers* Baily was exploring, of course, and becoming faint, seated herself upon the edge of the bed# She and the servant fled in terror when the pall moved and a fane suddenly appeared*

This escapade occasioned so much disturbance among the servants that Ludovico, Emily's servant* persuaded the count to permit him to pass the night in the haunted apartment and prove that no ghost was there* Bhforfctmately, Ludovico himself disappeared; so the count and his son deoided to spend the night in the chambers* They were still present the next morning but refused to say what had happened. To all inquiries both men remained silent, although it was obvious that something terrifying had .

3?

occurred during the night* Later the reader learns' that a band of robbers had used the chateau* which vms on the ooaooast, an a depot for thoir smuggled goods#Since there were only the housekeeper and her husband in the castle, the robbers had kept alive tho story of its being haunted and wore not bothered by the superstitious pair# How there came to bo a secret door and steps and passiges carved out of rook and leading to the seashore, . and why these should lead to the,private, rooms of the late marchioness, Mrs. Radcliff® never said# Ludovico had been carried off through the seenet way by the robbers, but he escaped later with the aid of the count’s party, which very conveniently took shelter in the same mountain tower in which Ludovico was kept prisoner* Hally and her servant had seen one of the robbers, and the count and his son had heard them on the night they spent in the rooms*

Mrs* Badcliffo has been criticized for explaining too much. She meant to excite tho feelings, arouse the emotions, and then to explain away the causes as natural ones* This procedure will delight some readers, but itwill disgust others# While there is a genuine feeling

, , . • . . - _ •' • ■

of awe and terror as The Mysteries of Udolnho Is being read, "there is a most Inartistie contrast between the sublimity of the imaginary Incidents and the triteness of

38

tho aotyalitye"®0 I* A» Baker in the introduction to The Honk speaks of the ”nild titillation of the nerves produced by Mrs. Badollffe*s timid trifling v/ith the world of phantoms and nameless terrors.”51 H# A. Boors* opinion i s that, sine# everything is explained, the reader refuses to believe in anything supernatural after the first explanation.58 However, only one explanation comes before the end of the story, a minor one, that of the voice which In terrupted Kontoni and the figure on the ramparts. All the other ex p la n a tio n s cone together at the end. E# A. Baker complains that nher ghosts are all make-believe, and tho reader’s alarm is carefully soothed before it exceeds the point of pleasant e x c i t a t io n ."55

Scott in the introduction to The Oastl® of Otranto declares that Mrs. Radoliffe's readers are cheated into a sympathy with terrors that are too easily explained. Explanations are unnecessary, but if they are given they must seem natural# In The Mysteries of Udolnho the explanations, according to Scott, are often as improbable as tho events. The acceptance of the phenomena goes better with feudal times than do the explanations which are the product of 50 51 * 53

50. H, G. Lewis. The Monk (London, 1907)> n. XI.51. Ibid., p. Till. ~ ~58, B ears. Op, Pit.. p. 854.53. lewis. On, Pit.. p Viii.

39

the eighteenth- eentuiy#5^A more modern critic, Anthony Olyae, in 1928, states

that Mrs* Bedeliffe is right In explaining the mysteries* This statement is proved by the fact that almost all later writers explain* Her mistake was not only that her ex­planations were not always adequate or credible, hat that all were kept until the end of the story* instead of being Mdexterously introduced during its course." Labor authors explain one mystery as they bring forth another, always having an unsolved mystery to keep up the Interest of the reader*66" " The principal differences between Walpole and .'Mrs*

Radcliffe are these! the reasons for writing, the attitudes toward the novels, the amount of detail, and the use of the supernatural* Walpole1 a ob joot "was to make the supernatural appear natural, more expeoially by his por­trayal of the behaviour of the characters under these unusual blreumstaneos."66 Mrs* ladeliffe meant to show the mysterious, melancholy beauty of nature and to arouse emotions of surprise, awe, and terror* Walpole evidently had a tongue-in-the-oheek attitude, and The Castle of * 55 56

54* Walpole , Op, Cit;. lOOCVili-XL. "55, Olyne. On, Pit*, pp* 50-51,56, Walpole, OnT^lt*. p* m i i * .

40

Otranto was probably intentionally burlesque * Mr® * Radoliffo*® attitude is entirely serious♦ Walpole writes in a style noted for its classic simplicity and restraint; Mrs. Radoiiffe,s story pursues its leisurely, v/ay inrhythmic, wasleal prose, each scene being carefully painted

.-.'i :V;. • ' , . ' , . . . ' 1 .before she proceeds# The difference in length of thenovels is due to the fact that Walpole permitted no di­gressions, almost no descriptions, nothing that might impede the swift progress of the story: Mrs. Radoliffagoes into great detail to set the stage to agree with the mood she wanted to express, adding poetry, introducing each character carefully, describing the frequent journeys of the heroine, and. adding her little moral at the end. Walpole’s expressed purpose made it impossible for him to explain the supernatural as due to natural causes $ Mrs. Radcliffe folt it necessary to explain everything. This difference in the use of the supernatural is probably the most important difference between The Castle of Otranto and The Mrateriee of Wdoluho.

GEAPTBR 5

m a x A R i T m b t o b s r ' te s tv?o m o t o s

SlS. CiLstlg. of Otranto ani The ^ stories of molnfeo have many points in common. Both are baaed on morals; neither presents a real picture of the time it was supposed to show; the main setting, the use of suspense, the char­acters , the plot, and the formula are all practically the same. "

Both Walpole and M m . ladoliff® base their stories on a moral# In The Oastle of Otranto the moral, as pro­nounced by the friar, is that "a tyrant's race must be

. : : : • • ■ . ' ■ • ' ' - - ■ ■ ’ • .sweat from the earth to the third and fourth generation,"!• . >■ ' \ • ■ ' : ■ ' ' ' ■ 'The sins of her fathers cause the death of Matilda and the

destruction of her house. Mrs. Radellffe adds her moral on the last page of the second volume: the power of the vicious is but temporary, and innocence will finally triumph over all.8

neither author succeeded in reconstructing the times of which he was supposed to be writing. Walpole gives the * 2

’ 1 #• WalnoleV Or>«.Git., p ..125.2, Radellffe, On. Git., p. 158.

dates in the Preface to the First Edition as "between 1095, the era .of the first crusade, and 1243, the date of the last, or not long afterwards♦”3 The Cambridge History says the novel has a "delightful vagueness" as to time*4 The castle of Otranto is located in the principality of Otranto in Italy* Walpole, according to Scott, keeps the tone of chivalry, not by using terns of antiquity, hut by carefully refraining from using any­thing , which would bring in modern associations. Ee does not include any "glosserial terms, or antique phraseology"in his dialogue. Scott also commends the first interview

- ' - ■between Manfred and the Prince of Vicenza, "where the manners and language of chivalry are finely painted."8

Although Soott, of all modern writers, should know■ ! " . . • / ' ' '

what the tone of chivalry was, subsequent critics have not vindicated his enthusiastic judgment. Walpole1s medievalism was thin. He took pains with the description of the feudal procession which enters the gates of Otranto, "but the passage is incorrect and poor in detail compared with similar things in Soott."6 Perhaps it was the des­cription of this cavalcade of harbingers with wands,"

3; Walnole. On. bit.. t>. XLlx. — ......... " ‘'' .4* Vaugh, On. Olt., p. 68.5, Walpole, Op. Pit.. p, XLVi, fl. Beers* On. Pit.. p. 240,

43

pages with tm*peSs mounted guards, footmen In scarlet and black, heralds, banners, priests, knights in armor, a hundred gentlemen bearing a huge sv/ord, etc.,7 which caused The Cambridge History to decide there was "some faint flavour of the later middle ages to his characters and their settings.M® The Castle of Otranto Is not classed as an historical romance. . The manners, senti­ments, and language are modern, for,aceording to Beers, "Walpole knew little about the Middle Ages and was not In touch with their spirit.n® Hallo finds it impossible to agree with Scott; he thinks that Walpole's conception of feudal manners and customs lacks any real foundation# The historical coloring is too vague to be of any importance. Hallo states that even though Walpole said that the period was that of the Crusades and mentioned the usual crew of knights, hermit ghosts, saints, and miracles, these things cannot provide an historical background.^ Hallo goes on to say:

If the characters had been really influenced by them and the result had been something truly medieval, reflecting the atmosphere of a world dominated by miracles and strange beliefs, Walpole’s book might have had a value beyond that of a mere terror-romanticist curiosity.H

7. Walpole,, 0t>. Cit., p*. 78. ■8. Taughn, On, _CjST, p, 68.9. Beers, Ou. Oil LO. Halloi 0£. 5T LI. Ibid., p. 577

P. 240.V, P. 14.

44

As for Mrs, Radollffe, there Is a ’’general inaccuracy of local color, for she aims to reproduce the manners of her o\m time.”12 * 14 15 Slio speaks of French opera and Paris manners and fashions as dominating the world in 1584, the date given for her novel. She has the Ouesnels arrive in a landau with no regard for the facts of history. She preferred French or Italian settings, hut the characters are always English, never French or Italian,3*3 According to Raleigh, l!rs, Radflllffe made no pretence to "historical precision."14 _ . .

In both novels the castle is the moot important part of the story, Walpole declared after the second printing of his book that he had not known of the existence of a real castle of Otranto or of such a family. There are various opinions about the origin of the castle, and not even Walpole himself is entirely consistent in his state­ments about it. In the first preface, Walpole ventures the opinion that the author must have had some particular castle in mind and that ih® curious reader might be able to discover the actual building.33 Scae years later, Walpole, on a visit to Cambridge, recognized the model

12. Nee’dleman and Otis, On. Clt.. t>. 114. 'IS. C . F. McIntyre, "Wore the*Oothio1 novels Gothic,": P-.Mi>'L-.A;. vol. 36. y. LSI.14. Raloigh, On. Clt., p, 229.15. Walpole. Op. Pit., n. Llv.

45

for his castle of Otranto In the eourt of a college there Shakespeare may hare furnished t M model* His eastles have a more direct connection with the Gothic ones than do the enchanted castles of Spenser, aecording to Hallo* Hallosayst .. . . ... . ■ .

The Oastle of Elsinore is already a haunted building in fall accordance with all the demands of horror-romanticism; its ramparts reflected in the moonlight and the wandering ghost seeking revenge, together with the romantic belief in the supernatural which, like an accompaniment and confirmation, creeps In with the conversation between the watchers, fora a picture of the haunted castle which has perhaps struck deeper and more permanently into the public mind than any other setting of this nature.17

Mias Sturgeon thinks that Walpole*s oastle grew from Strawberry Hill,2-® and 0* H. Hereford believes that Strawberry Hill is the castle of Otranto*!?, Miss Spurgeon remarks that ’’the title is very fitly chosen, for in this tale, as in its many imitators, it is the castle itself which is the real hez^*20 In fact* It becomes ” almost the action by means of which they [Walpole and Mrs* Badeliffej develop their romantic visions. Herein lies their special and original invention.*21’ Dorothy Scarborough says that

16* F* Lucas,(New York

17. Hallo18. Walpole19. "Buskin80, Walpole, On, Pit81. Hallo, fin. Pit..

lew iorK, ivi >, fia* cit.* ile.OnTOit In and the(

^ S^nantJLo Ideal1936 j.

p. 17,., p. m u .Gothic Revival", Quarterly Review 206. 88%

48

any "feudal hall is the suitable domicile for ghosts and supernatural rerenanta," and that the terror romance has always had a olose relation to its arehiteeture.22

The eastle of Otmnto "possesses a mystle vagueness which leaves an; impression of the castle as a pile of enormous proportion*"^ Walpole gives so little descrip­tion that the reader has to pick out phrases her® and there to build up a picture* It is vague indeed* Walpole con­stantly uses the word great— the great chamberj the great banquet hall» the great church and two convents nearby, and the great staircase. ' He mentions the chapel court­yard , the,battlement#, the black term?, the ramparts, the winding staircase, an oratory, and various other chambers, on© of which contains the animated picture of Manfred*a grandfather* Then there are also the vaults, where Isabella flees, an intricate arrangement of cloisters, doors with squeaky hinges, and, of course, a secret trap-door* Moon­light , streaming through the hole made by the giant helmet, made It light enough for the heroine to see the trap-door by which she esoapes through a subterranean passage to the sanctuary of the church* Railo saysi ■

With some few such strokes Walpole conjures up hiscastle before the. reader9 avoiding overmuch detail,

47

but eonfclmially stimulating, the imagination. It must be admitted, tbo, that he has sueceeded, for some hint of strangeness and austere majesty is undoubtedly left in the mind.24In The Mysteries of TTdolnho the castle is still the

center of the story, and the tale is less impressive awayfrom it.88 Walpole give# to the Gothic romance the castlewith its.secret passages and important trap-doorsandMrs. Radeliffe "enriches the outlines derived from herpredecessors to such an extent that in this field therewas little else to add,w®6 Here in The Mysteries ofUdolnho is no vague picture but a clear, vivid one of acastle with battlements and towers. Emily first seesUdolpho from a distancei "Lighted up by the setting sun,the gothic greatness ofits features, end its moulderingwalls of dark gray stone, rendered it a gloomy and sublimeobject," Then as the evening sun went down, "silent,lonely, and sublime, it seemed to stand the sovereignof the scene, and to frown defiance on all who dared toInvade its solitary reign," Thus the stage Is set forthe entrance into Udolpho:

The gateway before her, leading into the courts, was of gigantic size, and was defended by two round towers crowned by overhanging turrets embattled, where, instead of banners, now waved

•i P. 8. '., pp, 257-258., P. 9.'

48

Ions grass and wild plants. . .The tower# were united also by a ourtain pierced and embattled also, below which appeared the pointed arch of a huge portcullis surmounting the gates.87

Beyond the gates was darkness. Passing into the hall,Sally perceives a marble staircase, arches leading to alofty vault from the "centre of which hung a tripodlamp," a corridor, and a pointed window from the flooralmost to the celling. There is a room lined with blacklarchwodd and hung with Venetian mirrors. Emily i®, asusual, lodged at the farthest end of the castle. Annette,her maid, says: -

10!t says I, *for that matter, I only want to go to my young lady’s chamber, and I have only to SQ* you know, along the vaulted passage and across the great hall and up the marble staircase and along the north gallery and through the west wing gf the castle, and. I am in the corridor in a minute.®®

Mrs. Badeliffe also likes greatness, although she expressesthe idea in a larger variety of words than Walpole did.She too speaks of a great staircase, a chapel within thecastle, battlements, towers, lonely ramparts, and anynumber of chambers and galleries and unused wings of thecastle. There is also a narrow, winding staircase, leadingto the top of the tower where Emily’s aunt is held prisoner,Udolpho has a room with a very strange picture, just as * 28

2?V Hadcllffe. On. Git.. 1. 109.28. Ibid.. II. 30.

49

Otranto has, but at tMolpho the picture is covered with a black veil and the door 1» left unlocked only long enough for the heroine to satisfy her ohriosity as to what is behind the veil.

Walpole1 o-'story ends with the castle in partial ruins; Mrs. Radeliffe’s story begins with a castle that has not been repaired for many years. In the eighteenth century ruins wore considered things of loveliness, showing the impermanence of human life and the melancholy triumphs of chaos over order#29

The soon plays an important part in both The Castle of Otranto and in The Mysteries of Udoltho. In The Castle of Otranto, when Manfred first acquaints Isabella with his new plans for her marriage, the moon gleams in at the win­dow, showing the villain the huge black plums of the helmet, itiiioh gave forth a Mhollow and rustling sound.*A sudden ray of moonlight gives Isabella and Theodore light enough in the vaults to see the brass look of the secret trap-door. There was moonlight enough in the church to guide Manfred1a hand when he.plunged his dagger into the heart of the girl he thought was Isabella. The moon was at its height when Isabella died and the castle

sa; Sadleir, ”Northanger Novels,M | 246 {192?), 95-96. Edinburgh Rovj

50

was d@®troy®d-— giving light aaoi^ii to show Alfon®© tlwi Good being received into heaven, Walpole never goes into detail; so moonlight is barely mentioned and never dwelt upon. He simply says:

Manfred rase to pursue her; when the moon, which was now up, and gleamed in at the opposite case­ment, presented to his sight the plumes of the fatal helmet, which rose to the height of the windows, waving backwards and forwards in a tempestuous manner, and accompanied with a hollow and rustling,30 31Mrs, BadeIlffe is not content with a mere mention of

the moon, although F. L, Lucas is not exactly fair or correct when he criticizes The Mysteries of TTdolnho for too frequent use of it. His criticism is: "Mrs. Radcliffe,in defiance of all the astronomers since Ptolemy, can hardly admit a night without a moon. As soon as the sun sets, the more Romantic luminary is ruthlessly hauled above the horizon."3^ This is not true; Mrs. Badollffe uses starlight until the proper time for the full moon to appear again. Mrs. Radcliffe goes farther in her use of the moon than Walpole does; he is satisfied with a noon that could be used to point out what he wanted identified, while Mrs. Radcliffe uses the moonlight to awaken a romantic mood, Emily, leaning on the open casement, is lost in tears,

30, Walpole, Or)» Crt•, p# 15,31, F, L , Lucas, On, Pit,, p. 35,

51

when suddenly a figure appears, groans, and beekons toher. The sentinels also see.the figure end take it forthe ghost, which, seconding to a nodular suneretitlon,walks the gardens and ramparts of the castle. It was bythe faint light of the moon that Emily got first glimpseof Ohateau-le-Blano. The moon guided Emily and her partywhen they fled from Udolpho. William Haslltt says:."Part of the impression with which I survey the full-orbed moon shining in the blue expanse of heaven, or hearthe wind sighing through autumnal leaves, or walk underthe echoing archways of a Gothic ruin, Is owing to arepeated perusal of the Romance" of the Forest and theMysteries of Udolpho."32 Hallo says: "The moon isintended to awaken a nocturnal atmosphere fraught withmystery and tinged with fantasy, fear, and sadness. Itlends an indistinct and weird shape to each feature." Itis used as a "theatrical searchlight", which is cast fromthe wings of the stage at the proper moment.32 33 The risingmoon does not always shine upon a ruined castle; the scenesin Venice have a different kind of beauty:

The rising moon, which threw a shadowy light upon the terrace, and illumined the porticos and magnificent arcades that crowned them, discovered

32 »• Hazlltt. On. Git *. t> . 125* ' ' ""r '"" " ~'1133. Hallo, Op,. Oit., p. 11. .

52

the various company, whose light steps, soft guitars, and softer voices, echoed through the oolo&ades. • •And here, other forma of beauty and of grandeur, such as her imagination had never painted, were unfolded to Emily in the palaces of Sansovino and Palladio, as she glided along the waves. The air bore no sounds but those of sweetness, echoing along each margin of the canal, and from gondolas on its surface, while groups of masks were seen dancing on the moonlight terraces, and seemed almost to realise the romanoe of fairy-land.34 35 36 37

This place is in direct contrast to the castle of Udolpho.Emily is returning from Tuscany: '

The road winding round the base of a mountain, they now came within view of the castle, which was shown in the perspective of the valley by a gleam of moonshine, and then vanished in shade; while, even a transient view of it had awakened the poignancy of Emily’s feelings. . .And soon after she saw again the old walls and moonlit- towers rising over the woods; the strong rays enabled'her also to perceive the ravages which the siege had made— With broken walls and shattered battlements.33Walpole was as sparing in his use of the sun as of

the moon. He has Manfred rise "at the first dawn of light”33indeed all the characters of both books seem to arise at daybreak. One critic, John Duhlop, complains, not about Mrs, Radcliffe's use of the moon but of the sun, which, he says, "is never allowed to rise or set in peace."37

34. Radcliffe, Op. Pit.. 1, 06-87.35. Ibid.. 11. 46.36. Walpole, Op . Pit.. p. 50.37. History ofTrose Plotion (London. 1906), vol. 11, p. 581.

68

Where Walpole is oontent with simply rousing hie ehareetereat daybreak, Mrs« Radeliffe gets the stage as well;

The d e w soon after trembled in the eastern horizon, and the light tints of morning gradually expanding showed the beautifully declining forms of the Italian mountains, and the gleaming landscapes stretched at their foot. Then the sun-beams, shooting up from behind the hills, spread over the scene that saffron ting© which seems to impart repose to all its touches« The landscape no longer gleamed! all its glowing colours were revealed, except that its remoter features were still softened and united in the midst of distance, whose sweet effect was heightened to Emily by the dark verdure of the pines and cypresses that over-arched the foreground of the river.38

As for the sunset, Mrs. Radoliffe reveals this picture:The sun had now been set some time; heavy clouds, whose lower skirts were tinged with sulphureous crimson, lingered in the west, and threw a reddish tint upon the pine forests, which sent forth a solemn sound as the breeze rolled over them.®9

True, "the sun has his part well rehearsed."38 39 40The wind knows the part it has to play also. Doors

shake and are eloaed by sudden gusts of wind; the heroine*#oandle wavers or goes out; tho wind whistles through thebattlements or the courtyard. Walpole uses it sparingly,as he does all the properties of the haunted castle exceptits ghosts. Isabella seizes a lamp and seeks safety inthe underground vaults, where an "awful silence reigned,"

38. Radoliffe39. Ibid.. II,40. iallo. On. Pit., p,

rivicE:13.

54

exe@pt for "some blasts of wind that shook the doors as she passed, and whleh, grating or. tho ruofcy hinges, were re-oohoed through that long labyrinth ©f darkness SMdenly a door Is opened and quickly closed by soneone who rotroats hastily. This is the way the heroine must go| so, steadying hor norves, she approaches the door that had been opened * "but a sudden gust of wind, that not hor at the door, extinguished her lamp, and left her In total darkness."41 In another part of tho castle that night, Bianca, th® naid, chides Matilda for not narrying, saying that the aether .ef She princess knew that "a bad husband is better than no husband at all." Then Bianca cries, '"Blase ne$ v/hat noie® is that* St, Rioholne forgive mo! I was but In jest."' Matilda calms her fears and explains that it is only the wind whistling In the battlement# of t W to^r above.42 later, as the unknown

knight*s retinue entered the castle of Otranto, Manfred’s attention "was soon diverted by a tempest of wind thatrose behind him. He turned and beheld the plumee of the

. .. .

enchanted holnot, agitated in the same extraordinary manner as before."43

41. Walpole, Op. Cit., pp. 18-19#48 * lbidj, p. 30.43* Ibid *, p. 79*

BB

Mrs* Radollffo’g heroine found herself in almost the same situation as Walpole’s. Emily, who usually ehqse midnight to explore, started out at that hour to eeareh for her aunt, who she thought was imprisoned somewhere in the eaetl®. After traversing as many intricate passages as Isabella had, Emily, too, opened a door, and "the sudden current had nearly extinguished her l i g h t * l a t e r ,Emily and Annette, in Sally’s room, listen in fear to the noises of the night,

♦Surely, Annette," said Emily, starting, 1 heard a noise: listen,— * After a long pause, •Eo,aa’amselle,* said Annette, •it was only the wind in the gallery; I often hear it, when it shakes the old doors at the other end.'45

Again Emily searched for her aunt, following Bernardine,the porter, who insisted on going at midnight;

As they passed up, the wind, which poured through the narrow cavities in the wall, made the torch flare, and It threw a stronger gleam upon the grim and sallow countenance of BernardIne; and discovered more fully the desolation of the place— the rough stone walls, the spiral stairs black with ege, and a suit of ancient armour, with an iron visor, that hung upon the walls, and appeared a trophy of soma former victory,*® ; . ' ' . -

Andrew Lang asks, "Itoes any on® now read Mrs. Rsdoliffe,or am I the only wanderer in her windy corridors, listening

timidly to groans and hollow voices, and shielding the

44. " Radoliffo. o W Pit,45. Ibid.. II.. 50.

1,153,p. 10.

5*

flats® of a lamp, which, I fear, will presently flickerout, and leave mo in aarteft@ss?n47 Lang ends by saying , ... . . . ■ that Mrs* ladeliffe wkont the of Hcaano® burningmuch more steadily than the lamps which, in her novels,are always blown out, in the moment of excited apprehension,by the night wind walking in the dank corridors ofhaunted abbeys,*48

Storms also had a part to play in the Gothic romance, Walpole Sent Theodore away from the castle, "regardless of the tempest* and the clap of thunder *that shook the battlements,* The storm was mentioned only that one time when Theodore chose to wander in the forest and dream of his beloved Matilda,49 In The Mysteries of Udolnho Emily's aunt died during a violent storm, during which Emily opened the window and * listened with a gloomy pleasure* to the thunder:

It began to murmur among the mountains... .The pealing thunder rolled onward, and then, rever­berated by the mountains, other thunder seemed to answer from the opposite horizonj while the acoua-

l ’ulating clouds entirely concealing the moon, assumed a red sulphureous tinge that foretold a violent storm.®0

Dorothy Scarborough says that there is scarcely a peaceful

47.48. ::tSE*49. Walpole*, °E* °lt. i P. 95.50. ; Radoliffe> 0 u ~ i t . , II., 83*

(New York, 1905), p, 121.

57

night in GotMo fiction, the storms almost always taking place at midnight* She remrlcs: "The stroke of twelvegenerally witnesses some uproar of nature or some appearance of restless spirit* Whenever Mrs. Radcliffe’s heroines start on their midnight ramble through subterranean passages and bal%s of horror, the barometer besoms aglw - . tated.”51 : - • ' : - .. . ;• .•

like lino Hallo in The Haunted Castle, "X shall now proceed to those marvels, horrors and tricks of construc­tion on which their reputation (that of the Gothic romaneej as ghost stories is based, and which are responsible forthe thrills they awaken*"52

Walpole was not as successful in hie attempt to create suspense and terror as Mrs. Ratcliffe ms, although his story contains almost all the elements that she later used so effectively* Walpole meant his supernatural omens to foreshadow what was to happen* The plumes of the giant helmet waving and rustling, the picture that walks and sighs, the blood dripping from the statue, and the skeleton hermit praying at tho altar have a decided effect on those characters who harbor guilty secrets* Manfred

ei*'" ■ PP.'• 11-lS*

58

knows the ortme of his antestor* and lator oh, when M sgrandfather’s plotur® walked out of the room, Manfred again hinted of past eriaos, when he referred to himself as the ”wretched descendant who too dearly pays for— " and never finished the sentence.53 Frederie knows that he was not sent to Otranto to make love to Matilda, the daughter of that house* The seeme of the praying.skeleton is one of Walpole’s better scenes* Frederie, looking for Hippolita, Matilda’s notlujr, entered her apartment and went to the oratory. The door was open, but the gloom of the evening made It diffioult to see distlnotly* "Pushing open the door gently, he saw a person kneeling before the altar.As he approached nearer, it seemed not a woman, but one In a long woolen weed, whose bask was toward Mm.!’ Seemingly absorbed in prayer, the figure finally rose andstood a moment in alienee. Then it turned and "discovered

/ ' ■■ : ' ' •

to Frederic the fleshless jaws and empty sockets of a skeleton, wrapt in a hermit’s cowl," The hemit rebuked Frederic, who asked what he was to do, and with the words, "Forget Matilda," the ghost vanished,Sd

Vague hints and suggestions of erimos in the past arealso used by Walpole, to create suspenae and terror* * 54

58, Walpole,54. Ibid,. pp7P i M u

The

59

prophesy eoneerntng the ownership of Otranto seemed to have/been well known to the peasants, but they.eould.only 4uob3 at its noanlnge The prophecy about the real owner of the castle Inheriting the land at some future date made it obvious that ?v!anfred oould not be the rightful owner and therefore mist have Inherited the property unjustly#In aome vmy, Isabella had to be eonneetsd with that proph­ecy, so the people think, or else Manfred would not have Insisted so strongly on her marrying into hie family# Manfred’s first words after the death of his son were instructions to take tare of Isabella, not his wife or daughter.

Walpole also used the constant danger of his heroine to create suspense. From the night Manfred started to pursue her until the downfall of Otranto, the heroine was always in danger. She escaped to the underground vaults, where the silence, except for the doors banging end creaking In the wind, served to terrify her, and where she heard mysterious sighs and steps# Ber .light was extinguished by the wind, but the moonlight enabled her to see the figure of a man. Words could not "paint the' horror of the princess’s situation#”^ She thought the

55.- WalT)oie» On. Gltv p. 21. .. : . ■ ••

60

/figure was the ghost of her dead flame#* but It was the peasant, for whom the helmet had obligingly out a hole of exeape• The moonlight gleamed on the brass look of the secret door; the princess escaped to the sanctuary of the church, but Theodor® again wa# locked up* The next night Theodore was released from his prison and told to fly to the caves nearby to escape the villain. In the caves Theodore found the same princess in the labyrinth of rooks, Theodore first realized that another person was in the cave and was retreating before him. Although Theodore was in armor, he had no difficulty in apprehending the other person* MTheodore came up just as a woman fell breathless before him," Then when Theodore proposed that they go farther inside away from the mouth of the cave, the princess was again frightened and primly asked if it were "fitting that I should accompany you alone into these perplexed retreats? should we bo found together, what would a censorious world think of ray 'conduct?*^ Manfred’s daughter, Matilda, felt that her destiny was linked with something about Alfonso, because all her life she had been told to pray at his tomb, Matilda thought that there was some mystery about Alfonso, mainly because her mother

86«• WalPole, On, Clt»T pp. 95-97, ~~

61

refused to dlseuss the affair with her. The four lines of verse on the mysterious huge sword also hinted at a crime long past!

Where1er a oasque that suits this sword is found,With perils is thy daughter compass’d round;Alfonso’s blood alone can save the maid, „And quiet a long restless prince’s shade#"7

Soon after the verse was recited by Matilda’s, father,Manfred entered the room and, for the first time, sawthe hero dressed in armor# Struck by the resemblance ofTheodore to the picture, Manfred thought it was Alfonso’sghost come to demand revenge# ’Dost thou see nothing,Hippolita? is this ghastly phantom sent to me alone— tome, who did not— ’58 Before the hero knew that he wasthe rightful owner of Otranto, Father Jerome started totell him, but they were interrupted by Manfred’s wife.The reader is supposed to know then only that the priesthad a "tale of horror, that will expel every sentiment fromthy soul, but the sensations of sacred vengeance#"59

The servants in The Castle of Otranto added theirbit to the suspense by persistently refusing to some tothe point# Manfred had to pry loose nn account everytime he asked a servant what had happened* Diego and

57. falpole, S S . Xbid.. p#59• ml.-, P.

0E.721t., p. 106.126*

68

and Ja#@m took four pages of broken sentences to say that they had seen a gigantic hand and foot in- the great chamber. ' :

Walpole praises the suspense and terror of his orm story as no other critic does: "Terror, the authoresprincipal engine, prevents the story from languishing} and It so often eontrasted by pity, that the mind is kept up in a eonstaat vidiseltuA#■of interesting passions60 H. A. Beers* caustio comment is that excitement is too strong a word to use* the book may still bo read "without a too painful effort***61

Walpole, then, had several devices for creating suspense and terror. He used supernatural omens and portents to foretell the coming events; he gave vague hints and sug­gestions of past crimes that may hsve concerned the char­acters of the novel; he placed his heroine in positions of almost constant danger; the swift pace of the tale was interrupted by the loquacious servants, who refused to ecm® directly to the point of their story*

Like Walpole, lira. Radeliffe also used omens and portents of evil to add to the suspense and to the vague

feeling of terror* When Annette told 3mily the story of

&5

the aiaappearame of Signora L m m m t i n i , the lamp burned blue, and to Annatto, this v m a sign of spirits nearby.Just before thedoath of Sally*s father, swoot, mystorloua musio was hoard from the adjacent woods, music which the peasants believed oame to warn someone of a death. After the death of her father, Emily awakened from a dream about him to hear musio; it vms musio ’’such as angels might breathe....then rose again in mournful sweetness,— and then died in a oadenee that seemed to bear away the listening ’ soul to heaven*

Emily1s search for her aunt is eomparable to Frederic** seareh for Bippolita. He went at dusk; she started out as soon as she heard the castle clock strike twelve that night. He found a praying skeleton; she found a dead soldier. This excursion was one of Emily’s most horrifying experiences. The villainous-looking Bernardino took her along a circuitous route, through the ruins of one wing of the castle, djam through the vaults, pest an open grave, up some stairs to the gateway of the court, and then up the spiral staircase to the tower roam where her aunt was supposed to be. Bernardino looked her into the room and left her alone.

'dg*r'Mciij^o7..10n*T * 1. 4&rr ^

6*

The feeble rays of the lamp* however, ala not ,, allow her to see at once Its full extent | a he- perceived no furniture, except, indeed, an iron '

chair fastened in the centre of the chamber, immediately over which, depending- on a chain from the celling, hung an iron ring* Having gazed

, upon these for some time with wonder and horror,\ she next observed iron bars below, made for the > purpose of confining the feet, and on the arms of the chair wore rings of the same metal* As she continued to survey them, she concluded that they were Instruments of torture; and it struck her that some pobr wretch had once been fastened in this chair, and had there been starved

- to death*63 - - . 'Emily believed that her aunt had been the latest victimand that she herself would be the next* Trying to get asfar as possible from the torture chair, she rushed to theother side of the room, where a dark curtain stretchedacross the wall*

She seized it in a fit of desperation, and drew it aside* Beyond appeared a corpse stretched on a kind of low couch which was crimsoned with human blood, as was the floor beneath* The - features,, deforest by death, were ghastly and horrible, and more than one livid wound appeared in the face* Emily, bending oyer the body, gazed, for a moment, with an eager, frenzied eye; but,

, in the next, the lamp.dropped from her hand, and she fell senseless at the foot of the couch*8*Mrs* Badcliffe also made use of the pursuit of the

heroine to create suspense and terror as Walpole did, and,as W ^ a l , she took the situations he created and further developed them* Isabella was pursued by Manfred only; * 64

#*, fedoliffe. On* Glt.'V Ik*. 10%64. Ibjta*, 11.

68

Emily was beset by a castle full of Montoni*s band of oondottlorl. all of whom wanted to make love to her ex­cept the villain himself* His interest In hor ms purely mercenary• The Count Moreno, who wanted to marry her and whoso suit Montonl had at one time favored, discovered the private staircase which led to Emily’s room from the court­yard. He came Into her room one night, awakening Emily as be opened the door. It was too dark for her to dis­tinguish who it was• She watched him, move about the room, until the dog finally awakened and barked at him.The "she sprung from the bed in the dress which surely a kind of prophetic apprehension had prevented her, on this night, from throwing aside.”65 Montoni arrived in time to save Emily by wounding Moreno and ordering him out of the castle.

Emily was always being pursued at night. At one time she was passing by the chamber where the veiled picture hung. Looking back along the dusky corridor, she spied a tall figure. "In the next moment she found her­self clasped in the arms of some person, and heard a deep voice murmur In her ear.w66 it was one of Montoni1 s soldiers, begging her to attend the party in the lower

eg. Waoiiffo. On. Pit.. 1. 125. - : ~ ~• 66.: ''vv ■

66

part of the castle* Emily escaped when he stooped to kiss hor hand. At another time two non chased her through the halls, hut she knew the way to her apart- ment and they did not; she managed to get to her room before she was caught. One night she made an appoint- ' mant to meet the prisoner who she was sure was Valanoourt. They were to meet in the corridor outside her room and at night, since it was only at night that the prisoner could arrange to get out of his cell. Waiting for Valanoourt, she heard "the light, quick Steps of hope", but again found herself clasped in thd arms of a stranger, Monsieur du Pont, a Frenchman, One of Monton!1s men discovered the two together, and in the fight that followed, Emily "threw herself in a ehair, and supplicated them to desist from further ▼loleaoe*"67

Pictures in Molnho oontribute a groat deal to the suspense of the story* Just as there were two pictures in Otranto— the oermmbulatlnK picture and that of Alfonso, which tore such a striking resemblance to Theodore, so there were also two Important pictures in tJdoluho— one covered with a black veil and the other a portrait of a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Emily. Although 67

67. kadcilffe. On. 011.. 11. VF7

67

telly saw the veiled pieture when she first went totJdolphb, there m s no erplanetlon'until the end of the book,telly was busy exploring rooms "obscure and desolate,"when she decided to investigate what lay behind the blackveils She felt a thrill of terror, which, according toMrs* Redcliffe, "as it occupies and expands the mind, andelevates It to high expectation, is purely sublime, andleads us, by a kind of fascination, to seek even the objectfrom which we appear to shrink#"68 Emily took one lookand fainted when she taw It v/as not a picture# Hear theend of the romance, Emily learned that It was not the bodyof Laurentini as she-had supposed. It was a wax statue ina niche within the mil, a figure resembling a partiallydecayed human body# Some early Marquis of TOolpho ted beencondemned by the ohureh to look upon this image as a penancefor his pride# The marquis ted commanded his descendantsto keep the image or to forfeit certain lands to the chtarah#Montonl kept it, but he kept it veiled and in a locked room#. . The other picture was a miniature, which telly'sfather ted kept in a secret drawer# Emily knew nothingabout the picture except that she had once seen her father weeping over it# When she went to Ghateau-le-Blanc,

.• t ^ i l ^ T i l t ' i f ^ ^ r : " l i n ~ '' ■«. 33 i''ir X T lf f . ' ir :)iD-i

68

Dorothea, the housekeeper, remarked on the resemblance of Emily to the late marehionees of that house. The half- Grazed nun at the nearby eonrent declared that Emily v.-aa the daughter of the marohlonesa* There was another and more noticeable likeness In a picture that hong In the suite of room used by the lady of the chateau and closed, since her death twenty years before. Emily and Dorothee went at midnight to see; the rooms in the housa whore she is an honored guest. They examined the picture, touched the strings of the long unused lute, and Dorothee regaled Sally with the details of the marchioness* last day on earth, imtil Emily became faint and sat down upon the bed. The black death pall that was still on the bed wavered and fluttered in the still room. Dorothea tried to convince herself and Emily that it was only the wind, but, "as she gazed within the curtains, the pall moved again and in the next moment the apparition of a human countenance rose above it,"69

Perhaps the best use of an interruption of the action to add to the suspense and terror came when Emily, Du Pont, Annette, and Ludovico were trying to escape from Udolpho,In escaping from the castle, the four young people succeeded

69. faadoliffQ, Op. dit. . II, 1 1)6.

69

In evading everybody until they came to the outer gates of the courtyard. Here, they had to pass by the sentinel* Ludovico, whoa the sentinel knew as on® of the eoldiera of Manfred, undertook to perauade the sentinel to leave hi® post long enough to share in the wine being dealt out to the other soldiers, Hally and the others had to stand in the darkness, waiting anxiously until Ludovico's signal that the coast was clear.

*1*11 have the wine, though,' said the sentinel, running off! 'I won't keep you a hinute*'

'Take your time, I am in no haste,* replied Ludovico, who was already hurrying morose the court when the soldier oeme back, 'Whither so fast, friend— whither so fast?' said the latter. 'WhatI is this the way you keep watch? I must stand to my post myself, I see.'

'Aye, well,' replied Ludovico, 'you have saved me the trouble of following you further$ for I want to tell you, if you have a mind to drink the Tuscany wins, you must go to Sebastian, he is dealing it out; the other that Fredrioo has, is not worth having.But you are not likely to have any, I. see, for they are all coming out*'?"

Finally, the sentry went inside and Bally's party was fortunate enough to secure some horses on which they made good their escape from Wdolpho. Ludovico also figured In another incident where an interruption created suspense. After the fright of Sally and Dorothea in the haunted room, 70

70. Radoliffe, 0%. QltU II., p. 58*

70

. Ludovico persuaded the fount to permit him to stny all night in the suite in order to prove or disprove the story that it was haunted* Ludovico took with him a hook of ancient Provencal rominfes. one of which was given in The" Mvaterloe of Udol^ho. The last thrt was mentioned of Ludovico in the haunted rooms is this story that ho reads*It ros, appropriately enough, the talc of a ghost whichappeared to a baron to ask him for Christian burial and- : V ... . ... ■ ■ ;■ / . •■■■for vengeance* The chapter ended, with the fortes "Thusclosed the hour*w7*And thus Ludovico disappeared, not to return and explain M s st^lden departure until near the close of the hook* His part in the story is interrupted by this incident*

Many and varied are the comments on Mrs* Radoliffe’s use of suspense and terror* Legouls and GacaMan give her credit for having transformsd the ordinary Idea of terror into nsouthing higher and nobler." They point out that by making terror "more aoceptable to the feelings as well as to the moral scruples of all, she prepared the way for the teaching of Wordsworth, when he showed how a lesson could be reaped from a wonder that was all a mystic .

» . r * - 09* •' - - 1- * . i f r ■ 1 -•' *illusion,f?: 71 72

7 1 . RadoliffeV On* GitJ. II*. 105 -72. History of Snalish Literature (Hew York, 1955), p* 970*

n

H* A* Beers says that Mrs, Radoltffe "oreatea In her readers a feeling of impending danger, suspense, fore- boding," She delights innunearthly preaeneea in these vast, empty rooms" and eorrldors, ominous alienee#» tehoing footsteps, or billowing draperies.Edith Blrkhead believes that she "deliberately exeites trebling, apprehensions In order to show how absurd they are," Birkhead goes on to say that the readers' "live by faith and are drawn forward by the hope of future mystifications and that "the anticipation is half pleasurable, half fearful,"74 Clara McIntyre points out that other authors before Mrs, Badelift® had attempted to uso suspense, but that all these4attempts might have led to nothing, "if Mrs, Radoliffe had not assembled the scattered hints, and shaped them into a distinctly characteristic method, into a type of novel strong enough to win popularity,H75 Bail© thinks that Mrs* Radoliffe did not know her own power, but that "in numerous details she succeeds in working upon the suggestibility of the reader to a degree capable, in favourable circumstances, of culminating In a state of undiluted terror, "7® Dorothy Serb ©rough ooments on Mrs, 73 74

73, Beers.; Op, Git*, p, 257,74, Birkhead. Op. Pit.. pp* 47-48.

P* 92, ,*» P,

72

Bafieliffo's us© of ©vil portents, mysterious music,end black Tells* Black Tells "are in fashion la all oflirs, Radoliffels romnoes and eke drapes them very effective-.ly, while the arras waves likewise in other tales as well*"??William Baslitt sums up Mrs* Badoliffe’s chief appeals

But In harrowing up the soul with imaginary horrors making the flesh creep, and the nerves thrill, with fond hopes and fears, she is unrivalled among her fair country-woman* Her great power lies In describing the Indefinable, and embodying a phantom* 3he makes her readers twice children: and from the dim andshadowy veil which she draws over the objects of her fancy, forces us to believe all that is strange, and next to impossible, of this mysterious agency: — whether it is the sound of the lover’s lute borne o’er the distant waters along the winding shores of Provence, recalling with its magic breath, some long- lost friendship, or the full choir of the cloistered monks, ©haunting their midnight orgies, or the lonely voice of an unhappy sister in her pensive cell, like angels’ whispered music; or the deep sigh that steals from a dungeon on the startled ear; or the apparition of ghastly features;**.or the robber gliding through the twilight gloom of the forest* All the fascination that links the world of passion.to the world tmknown, is hers and she plays with it at her pleasure: shehas all the poetry of romance, all that is obscure, visionary, and objectless, In the imagination. It seems that the simple notes of Glare’s lute for tolly’s), which delighted her youthful heart still echo among the rocks and mountains of the Valois*.* *The greatest treat, however, which Mrs• BadeIlffe’a pen has provided for the lovers of the marvelous and terrible, Is the Provencal tale which Ludovico reads in the Castle of TMolpho (Ohateau-le-Blane), as the

‘'‘lights are beginning to burn blue, and Just before the faces appear from behind the tapestry that carry him off, and we hear of him no more*78Walpole’s purpose was, not only to create suspense

W * SoaWorougk/ On. Git*. p. 44* 78* Hazlitt, Op* Qijb*, p* 126•

73

and terror| but also to depict faithfully each character in Ma household disturbed by supernatural phenomena*M Stephen says that he meant to reproduce the manners of thetime of the Crusades and that he tried to make real men

79and women of medieval knights and ladies* There arediffering opinions- as to his success in characterization*Walpole wrote what people wanted to rend, but, althoughhe is seldom tiresome, there is, according to Macaulay,

80little actual chapiter delineation* ; The. personages

• ' . . . . • . ,a re , fo r th e most p a r t , th e same s to c k ch aracters— th e

virtuous heroine, the pure hero, the blaCl^-brov/ed villain, etc * The characters are puppets $ yet they^have b e m copied again; and again in other romances*' Seottysays" that the characters;are. not individuals, because Walpbli meant to show a "general view of society and manners* rather than particular characters* Scott says that the chan» acters are 0 strikingly drawn, with bold outlines becoming the age and nature of the story*" Leslie Stephen comments favorably when he writes that Walpole has only to "add his keen touches, and as in The Castle of Otranto, the portraits

our respectable old ancestors^ which have been hangingin gloomy'repose upon the wall, suddenly step from their' ■ .. f ' 1 . : . '■ ■ •' v ' ' • . . : . ' . '. ■ : •# * StmpSen* Hours in a Library, p* 143.802 B. Macaulay. Critical. Historical and Miscellaneous

74

frames, arid, for some brief space, assume a spectralvitality,"®^ , .

. Walpole tells us that the servants were used deliber­ately to bring out certain passages, and that their conduct Is only natural. The servants are not meant to speak in the dignified manner of princes. Walpole gives as his models, nature and Shakespeare. He places himself.under the protection of Shakespeare, proud to do so as a weak imitator*84 T h w When Diego and Jaques tried to tell Manfred what they saw in the great chamber, Manfred had to extract the information by bite, a little at a time*They were, naturally, frightened and confused. Their conversation provided a contrast to the speech of the scene Immediately preceding this, in which Theodore re­plied to Manfred’s questioning in aloof and dignified words The conversation of the servants also provided a touch of humor. The servants were afraid of meeting Conrad’s ghost, and suddenly they were confronted with a huge foot and leg. After that they vowed that they would never open another door again as long as they lived. It took four pages for them to say what they had actually seen.The comic relief was used to add to the suspense, and the story was forwarded by Bianca’s chatter* Blanca related

St84.: Walpole.V^Oit.„ S W B i P * 105.infill.

to -her■alstress.all that;was happening in the castle# The shrewi, talkative maid expressed her ideas on every subject mentioned, Including that of Isabella's disappearance, which, she was sura, had something to do with Theodore# Matilda insisted that Isabella was purity itself# *Purity or not purity," eald Blanoa, "gone she is#" Again Bianoa said in regard to Isabella and Theodor®, "Oomend me to the piety of a young fellow and a damsel, that consult to elopei*®5 Later on, Manfred tried to bribe Blanca into telling him something about Isabella and Theodora. She accepted the gift, but managed to do a great deal of talking without telling him what he wanted to know# Hallo saysthat Bianoa was supposed to be in contrast to the heroine# She was meant to be tb«"uaself-conscious and natural damsel." Although the talkative servant did not originate with the Romance writers, she came to be used by the®-'‘‘to represent naive and merry wonanhood#"®6 TTnlike the maid, the heroines waro highly romantic,"the character of the heroine being mns of those inconsistent portraits in which the sentimental languor of the eighteenth century is superadded to the gentlewoman of the Middle Ages#*07 According to Hallo, the heroine was the "rosy embodiment of womanly beauty and virtue."00 Walpole had two leading

4?-49.: .k #History of .Engl ish Literature

88. Hallo, 0t>, Git.. p. 883.

76

woaaa 0 haz^oters» Isabella m s the persecuted maiden whofinally married the hero, although he was In love withMatilda# Matilda had to die| so the hero married the othergirl# Both Isabella and Matilda were sweet, patient’maidens$indeed, there was no great difference between them# Bothfell in love with Theodore without delay. Hallo says?

Both types are young and unusually beautiful, noble in their thoughts and exceedingly jealous of their virtue, which tyrants and wicked lords do their best to threaten#.#.Both preserve their mental balance in the most delicate situations, until mostly after countless tears, blushes, and moral sermons, they end up with a happy marriage.;8®

Both maidens were extremely sentimental* Both wept andfainted: at every opportunity# Matilda fainted when sheheard her father decree the death of Theodore, who at-that time was a complete stranger to her? Isabella swooned

/in Theodore’s arms when he came upon her in the caves* Everyone wept, even Manfred and Frederic* '

Walpole did not describe the heroine, but he did give a definite description of Theodore, because he looked like the picture of Alfonso, which Matilda thought so such of* Theodoro vms na lovely young prince, with large black eyes, a smooth white forehead, and manly ■ curling looks like jet**9®.

89# Hallo, Op.,Git;, p. 45. 90* Walpole.■■■(hCTit. , p. 40.

?7, . -r

' '• •

Although Theodore posed as a peasant, Manfred was not deceived and demanded to know Y7ho he was, Theodore loftily said that his soul abhorred a falsehood, hut he was not above evading !.Canfred1 s questions as to his identity, Theodore called himself a laborerj yet he knew at that time he was the son of the Count Falconara of Sieily, Theodore was romantic enough to fall in love at first sight, brave enough to rush Into battle for a strange woman, and finally, praotleal enough to marry without love* * He married Isabella so that he could talk to her of Matilda and nindulge the melancholy that bad taken possess­ion of his soul*^®l TlMOdore was not afraid to investigate the supernatural phenomena of the castle, because he feared "no bad angel" and had "offended no good one*n®i* 'Hallo says that "on his brow there sits no stigma of prime and bad conscience; It shines clear, end he regards the world with open and;candid gase*"^ H* A, Beers1 comment is that "the lover was of the type adored by our great-grandmothers, handsome, melancholy, passionate, respectful but desperate, a user of most choice English; with large black eyes, smooth white forehead, and jetty curls, now sunk*.,to the covers

@1* Walpole* Op,. Clt.yp, 159.• MV;.-^3..95* HailO, Ojd* Pit.« p* 38*

78

of prm® boxes,*94Hallo points out t M t the main character was not the

hero hut the tyrant# Manfred# who had to pay for tho sins of hi® ancestors# Manfred knew that he was struggling against the inevitable, but ha had courage and tenacity, Walpole said that he was not naturally stern but had been made so by fate* Manfred was hot-tempered* easily angered, impatient. Hallo says the knowledge of the fate hanging over his house made him as ho was. Manfred was "uncertain and illogical*w

He is transformed into a being Inhuman, sevage and passionate, occasionally capable of some slight show of feeling* though taciturn and gloomily silent....His heart was sensitive to outside Influences, but his pride forbade him to show it. Those who were Ignorant of the cause of his secret agony could not understand his temper; in their eyes he was scarcely sane, deliberately ill-treated M s daughter, and was a gloomy and lonely man,©pressed by the consciousness of a coming unhappy fate. He is the luckless hero of a tragedy of destiny, for whom we can feel sympathy* 9 5

S, A. Baker points out that the lord of the house feltthat the ancestral ghosts were rather a nuisance and fairlyuncomfortable, but he seemed to be mainly annoyed by theirInterference in his affairs*95 Homan Collins thinks thatManfred had too much of the grand manner, but he was a

®i*Beers, 98, Ratio 96* Lewis

pp. 250-201. p* 29*p* % 1 *

79

foreigner and a Catholic, "no naturally excitable and not altogether responsible for his actions,*9?

There are two other characters in The Castle of Otranto that deserve mention--Father Jerome, the worthy monk, and Hippolita, the :#iQu#i wife* suffering in silemee, Hippolita1* "deeoeadants are found in every later romance* where an unhappy wife is needed,

Mrs, Badcliffe used practically the same personages as Walpole did. Her heroine was pursued more often; herhero was even more melancholy; her villain was just as• ■ •villainous; and his wife just as suffering*

Annette» like Bianca, was the maid, who provided humor and contrast to the heroine. It was Annette who brought Emily news ©f what went on in the castle, Annette heard.and repeated all the gossip of the kitchen and back stairs*

. ■ ■ ' ' % ~ ' ’ ' '■ ' - :She was a faithful servant to Emily, keeping her mistresscompany even when she had to ^ s s through halls where any number of the soldier-bandits roamed at will* Cnee she fainted at Emily’s door, "but the faculty of speeoh was never long withheld from Annette,"and she was soon able to explain that she had seen a ghost,99 This talkativeness

80

of Annette seemed to be her m a t striking eharaoterlBtle, 36ally told her that she would not be able to see fairies for any length of time because she would never be able to pay the penalty of silence. When Ludovico told of hie capture by the robbers at Ghatsau-le-Blane, Annette said It could not have been so bad because the robbers let him talk* Annette, in her conversations, supplied almost all the humorous touches* When Ludovico confessed that he had looked around the haunted suite with something like apprehension, Annette said, *0 very like it, I dare say,*» and X dare say too* if the truth was known', you shook from head to foot* * 1 0 0 Annette's chatter, like Bianca's, added to the humor and forwarded the action of the story*

Oust as in The Oastle of Otranto, the heroine of The Mysteries of Udolnho was also the virtuous and pursued maiden in distress. Hallo thinks that the "character reflects the quiet, dreamy soul of the author herself, and can rise to no greater heights of idealism than is contained in pure love and melancholy, sentimental brooding in a beautiful summer night, " 1 0 1 R, B, Johnson declares that thecharacters were "prewired, without very much reference to to actual humanity, from mysteriously acquired recipes

1151)7 Radoiif f 0 , 10i, Hallo* O^* i F E Sam*, p,pl^iE7 IBI*

81

of virtue and riee, 1 , 1 0 8 Tho Emllys ana Isabellas were oertalnly heroines $ ordinary woman would have avoided the situations they put themselves into, for "had Sally been less Impulsive she would have - missed many opportunities of proving herself eourageous♦"^03, Sally’s door bolted on the outside, and a private stairease led to her room from the courtyard, Although she was lodged far from all the others, she never thought to move to another of the many rooms in the castle. Emily was always moving about the halls and suites of mused rooms at midnight, either In exploration or in flight from some villain. Emily had a curiosity that Isabella did not have. Dorothy Scarborough says that the "Romantic heroine is a peculiar creature,". who swoons and weeps on every page, yet is always- "1 m* pecoably clad In no matter what nocturnal emergency she is surprised;" She writes long versos or plays the lute to amuse her melancholy soul. Her worst blemish Is that of curiosity# "In her search for supernatural horrors she wanders at midnight through,apartments where she does not belong, brealco open boxes, desks,, and secret hiding* places to read whatever letters she can lay her hands on,

O T 7103.

V7oraen Kovallgta (London. 1918). :•? py 57. ;

p. 30.

m

behaving generally lilc® .the- yeilew journaiist of fietion#"3-04,like Isabella, Eaily was always being pursued, but alwaysshe escaped. "This mioh-ado-about-nothing process" irritatesor bores soae readers.: Emily wandered through chapterafter ehapter being pursued by man after man; yet shealways got safely back to her own rooa— and, "very sensibly"went to bed.lOB Mrs. Hadeliffe,a heroine oombined r<wm-tieisa with sentimentalism* Emily wept at the eight of

mo<mthe/or at the sound of a guitar* ; H. A. Beers remarks that "every page is bedewed with the tear of sensibility; the whole volume is damp with it, and ever and anon a chorus of sobs goes up from the entire company*"3-0 6 Emily was a prey to excessive emotion; she dissolved in tears on every occasion, much more frequently than Isabella did*Emily was the only one of characters v/hoso description was given* She resembled the miniature, which was even­tually identified as a picture of her father’s sister. She had dark brown hair which "played carelessly along the open forehead," a rather aquiline nose, lips that displayed a faint melancholy mile, bliio oyes, "directed upwards, with an expression of peculiar meekness; while the soft

104* Scarborough, Op. Pit., p. 46* lOSV'Salntsbury. Op. Git, pp. 334-335e 106* Beers; Op. oXt*". 8 8 8 i

83

©loud of the brow spoke of the fine sensibility of■the tamper."1 0 ? ' ■ -

Valanoourt, Mrs# Hatcliffe's hero, v/as muoh. less dlstinbtly outlined than the heroine was. He was too pare to be interesting to lino Bello, who says that Valanoourt was even more refined than Tfalpole1 s hero, with a "roeooo olegenoe of. deportment" and a sensitivity that often degenerated into a "tearful sentimentality."1 0 # Hazlitt remarks that the reader ham to fill in the vague picture and give human touches to the "inanimate outline and fill up the outline with all that is amiable, inter­esting, and romantic," Mrs. ladeliffe used "unintelligible distinctions, impossible attempts, a delicacy that shrinks from the most trifling objections, and an enthusiasm, that rushes on its fate." These are the "charming and teazing contradictions that fora the flimsy texture" of the Gothic romance. I5rs,; Ra&ciiffe gave no particulars about her hero. Hazlitt says:

A sounding name, a graceful form, are all that is necessary to suspend the whole train of tears, sighs, and the softest emotions upon: the ethereal nature of the passion requires ethereal food to sustain it} and our youthful herb, in order to be perfectly * 108

loVV. R a d o i l f f e .. 0''^,1,vy v S3~108. Hallo, On. Pit,, p. 59.

M . : ' ; • • ■ ■ ' : r , • •

84

inter®stins, must be dravm as perfectly insipid#10*Mrs» Hadoliffa* 3 villain, Montoni, is, like Manfred,

the most outstandins ohaMieter in the romance# ” Hisvisage w s long, and rather narrow; yet he was calledhand some# 1 , 1 1 0 He, top, loved power, was fierce, morose,quarrelsome, proud, revengeful# Dark, hidden crimes are ,hinted at in his secret past, especially in the dis-appearanoo of Signora lanrentini, although of that hewas innocent. The model for Montoni, says Hallo, wasManfred, "but where Manfred*s character was fairly simple,that of Montoni was more complicated, enigmatic* Theatmosphere created around Montoni made it possible tobelieve anything about him, Montoni finally died in aprison in Venice, "unrepentant, secretive In death as

•m iin llfe."^ Edith Birkhead thinks that the Manfred- Montoni villains are from fairy storiesi "The ogre drops his clubi assumes a veneer of polite refinement and relies on the more gentleman-like method of the dagger and the stiletto for gaining his. ends# H 1 1 2 Hallo points out that Montoni had the 11 defiance and titanic qualities of Milton*s Satan*" Ball© says that Hamlet, Satan, liO. * 112

109* Haalltt. OpliO. BadcliffeT"Ill# Hallo,..‘Op * Pit# ,.p #' 3p*112. Birkhead, 0^. Cit,, p. 13.

*» %, !61«d8*._.-

85

Manfred* and Montoni are "related souls, night-dark broodersover deep mysterious thought#* .wheae likenesses, havinghitherto Journeyed apart, combine in the Byronio hero. " USHalloIs .speaking of both Manfred arid Montoni 1

Of all themsters of haunted.oastles to whom so many hundreds of pages have bee® devoted, the type most likely to adhere to;the memory is that represented by Manfred-Monton!, the lonely, stalwart, saturnine and black-browed man of beautiful countenance, whose spiritual life i® in the grip of some secret influence and, who, by reason of his intelligence and strength of will and the volcanic nature of his passions

. stands out from his surroundings as an independent individual,11^ -There was also Saily*s aunt, Madame Cheron,,who

married Montoni— cold, selfish, ambitious, and, of course,long-suffering. There was no priest like Father Jerome,but there was a whole convent of nuns, who took oare ofEmily upon the death of her father.

The characters of such Gothic romances as The% , ,

Mysteries of Udolnho had such an "air of timidity and con­vention," because the authors subordinated all else to the appeal to th© emotions,*1® T, J, Backus agrees that mystery is the whole spell$ "the characters are no more like Individuals than the "pieces of a chess-board but they experience "such terrible and intense ferr, suf­fering, and suspense, that we sympathise with their fate * 115i g y i f a i lo Y 'On.'' a l t . 7 v Y 3 6 . ^ " ' :m , Ibij|,, pp. 31-387115, Legouls and Oasamian, 0 £# Pit,. p. 168,

66

ae if they vfere roal. ” 1 1 6 Tho Gambridfto. History confadt that they are stock characters, who 1had wept or stormed through the chapters of romance, without much alteration In their family habits and characters* for a quarter of a century befor® Mrs* BMoliffe’s time«? 1 1 7 Olara Hclntyre explains Mrs# HadeIlffa’s lack of characterisation as due to the fact that ’’she was not keenly interested in the men and. women around her, that she had not a quick eye for the little oddities of human character*"^® Miss McIntyre1 s assumption is based on the notebook of Mrs. Radollffe, which contains many descriptions of scenery but few of people. Miss McIntyre says that Mrs. Ra4 oliffe,s books have not kept their popularity because she did not make individual characters. The interest lies in situation and not in character# Ho one wants to reread, the books because the outcome of the situations is known# "There are no characters which fascinate us by their humanness* so that we wish to associate with them over and over again

A careful aniptjLysis of the plots of the two novels will show, as might be expected, that 3Irs, Radollffe’s novel contains many more incidents than Walpole1 s. * 118

116:.'¥«ciwa^^Outiines''’of literature, r. zis'/117-i C-IL, Sainfsburv. • On. .bit .vu. 3 3 3 . Quotation is from Scott.118. Ann Radoliffe, .p. 97. • - . .lit. -IwTatyre.. Ann 1 Radollffe. n. 93. -

m

Walpole’s heroine is put into situations of danger only twioe; Mrs, Radoliffe’s heroine has six'real adventures besides expeotlng to have adventu^s in those situations where efce merely imagines something -is going to happen*The two adventures of Walpole?s heroine oeour when, to escape an evil man, she flees to the vaults and then to the oaves, where she wanders each time in darkness# Mrs# Hadcliffe’o heroine also wanders twice at midnight through halls which, like the vaults in Walpole’s book, are lighted only by the heroine’s lamp, which flickers or blows out in the wind. At Chate&u-le-Blano the heroin® of The Mysteries of Moloho goes to th® rooms of the late marohloneas, where ah® is sure she sees a ghost# Like Walpole’s heroin®, Mrs* Badellffe’s has to flee from evilmen, who are always pursuing her. One time she awakens to

1find a man in her room; later the same man tries to abduct her again, and she is locked in the old torture chamber; finally, she meets another Trench prisoner at tJdolpho, and together they escape from the villain, Montonl* In both novels the primary cause of danger to the heroines, Is usually the greed of the villain* Mrs, Badcliffe simply makes more frequent use of incidents,of danger to the heroine than b'alpole does; otherwise tho two novels are practically the same in plot, repeating again and again

e®

the adventures of the virtuous naiden in fllatreae* •Instead pf experiencing a mere Panela-like series of incidents, the perseeuted aaiden is given real adventures* The fact that she always manages to escape unharmed does not make the adventures any less real and terrifying. The terrifying experiences of the heroine provide the structure of the plot} the mysteries v/hidh surround the events M v e to be explained by the author, and these explanations serve to unite the incident a into a somewhat complicated whole. ■ : ■ ; . ; ' • ' - . ' ' ' , '

The Castle of Otranto has been both praised and condemned for the structure of Its plot, which 1®. some­what like that of Hamlet. Hallo says that although the romantic machinery was„not, suited to the stage because it was too melodramatic, still The Castle of Otranto and

i ' "Hamlet are similar.180 Both stories open with the adventof the rightful heir, absent until this time, "until the

'programme drawn up by fate for vengeance has been setin action by a supernatural agency*" The hero and the

. ■ ■ ■ - - . - . . .■ - . . '

heroine are in love, but she dies. A ghost or a miracleis found in each story to fulfill a prophecy or to warn of future events, and the supernatural phenomena are treated with "salve directness and are fully believed

120* RailcK rbn7"'oit*V p. 517*- ;ir~r" ...1S1* Ibid*, p. 35.

88

Railo goes'on to say that the story* for the most.part, "consists of short, matter-of-fact observations, rapid and lively conversations in brief sentences, and changing; scenes of dramatic suddenness and effeetivity»w^2g Homan Collins gives Walpole credit for changing the novel from a mere string of adventures to a form which has a plot like a pattern* Collins says that the most important thing he did was "to lay out a plot like a pattern and not merely uncoil it like a rope."123 Mound Gosse has but little praise for Walpole's plot. To Gosse, it is a "tissue of Incoherence, poured out in engaging fluency, with fre­quent looseness of style and grammar, but In very high spirits."1^* Walpole, according to Gosse, lacked thetechnical skill, ability, and "moral seriousness" necessary

... . . . . ■ ■ ■' .

for any really able piece of writing* Gosse calls TheCastle of Otranto "artless;” the incidents are unrelated because Walpole had no skill in putting them together.He sees no use in the helmet and no excuse for having..• • - •* . •'the picture walk out of its frame, but he does praise the preface to the second edition as "an elegant end serious piece of writing."3-29

IKS« Hallo * Op* Cite, p* 35* 123; Collins, PniT^it;, p. a s * 124; Gosse, On. Pit.* p. 118i IBS; Ibid;, pp..S%116. * .. - - *•

90

Soott, of ooursa, praises•the plot of The Castle of Otranto,eepeoially for the way in which every evei# prepares thereader for the dov.’nfall of Manfred’s house# Scott says;

In other respects, making allowance for the extra­ordinary incidents of a dark and tempestuous age, the story, so far as within the course of natural events, is happily detailed, its progress is uniform, its events interesting and wall combined, and the conclusion grand, tragical, ana affecting#128

Even Macaulay, who disliked Walpole, says of The Castle ofOtranto that the story never lags, that there are nodigression®, no out-of-place descriptions, no long speeches;The action is always carried forward# "Absurd as is themachinery, Insipid as are the human actors, no readerprobably ever thought the book dull."12?

Like The Castle of Otranto; The Mysteries of tMolohotreats of the adventures of an innocent maiden, who ispursued by the mercenary villain of the story# Accordingto H# B; Johnson: :

The main plot is really no more than a spirited ■example of the conventional Romance-plan'(in the, development of which she is wittily said to have invented Lord Byron)— an involved narrative of terrible suffering# and dangers. # with hurried explanations all around in the last chapter to justify the wedding-bells.126 * 128

126. Walpole# Op. Git# . p# XLV#IB7# Macaulay, On. Oit., p. 23.IBS# Johnson# On# Pit#. p» 68#

91

The Cambridge History remarks that the ngeneral scheme is remarkably and, to some tastes, tediously unifora--repeating over and over again the trials and persecutions of a heroine, who, at last, wins through them.”3-89 R« Austin Freeman, in the introduction to one edition of The Hysterias of Pdolnho. says that the solution of a pusmle is the real test of an author, who must hold the attention of the reader and cause him to speculate on the outcome. Freeman thinks that Mrs. Hadeliff0 * 8 solutions are "satisfying and conclusive," although the delayed explanations are not always necessary for the suspense of the story. Freeman states that "Mrs. Eadeliffe, following her usual method, leads up to each tragic denouement by sketches or panoramic views, em­broideries skilfully employed to cover the real awe-inspiring horrors, n that fill page after page of The Mysteries of Udolnho.3-50 According to Clara McIntyre, Mrs. Radollff•, like Walpole, "gave a new emphasis to action— not action in and for itself, as in the picaresque novel, but action as bringing about complications, and resolving them.”3-®3*

Grant Knight gives a good description of the nlot of the Gothic romance in generali

129. Saintsbury. bo. CitT130. Badcliffe, dnT CTET.131. Ibid., pp. 88-89.

i P*PP*

335.Vl-Xi.

98

. • It has something of a formula: a delicately rearedheroine of unearthly beauty 1* perseeuted (she is often imured in a lonely tower) by the villain, a sinister gentleman who wishes to marry her, some­times for ulterior purposes} she hears the clanking of chains above or below her; at midnight hands reach out to ohoke her in bed; owls hoot at most Inopportune times; she discovers bloodstains, sometimes bones; she is tortured by shrieking winds and maddened by object# behind curtain# that move. But a pale, spiritual youth is Irresistibly attracted to her neighborhood* Sometimes he sings or plays the lute outside the place of her captivity, and without being seen, wins the heart of the unfortunate girl languishing behind stone walls* Always he is handsome of figure, face, and mind; his voloe is gentle, his speech is grave and chaste, hie oondwet noble* After many trials and horrors enough to ruin the strongest constitution, the heroine is rescued and happily wad.3-38

The more extreme romances m y include mesmerism, varioussupernatural phenomena, ghosts, Satan, etc. Knight says';"In short, the Oothio romance was imagination in revoltagainst common sense; a melodramatic Arabian Nights puttingout its tongue at an Age of Reason or a Pamela."3-33To summarise*

Both The Pestle of Otranto and The Mysteries of TJdolnho are based upon morals. Neither novel presents a real picture of the time it is supposed to represent: Walpole's medi­evalism was thlni and Mrs* Hadcliffe's characters are eighteenth-century English msi and women and not sixteenth- century French and Italians* In both novels the castle is

135* Iblf31* * ^ 901t ‘ V • 78-79.

93

the m a t Inportant part of the ronanee* The titles are chosen to indicate this outstanding feature. The same climatic conditions are usecU-the moon lights up the stage; the wind whistle^ through the battlements or blows out the heroine’s latap; and violent storms accompany some disturbance of the household. walpole made some rather feeble attempts at suspense* which Mrs. ttedcliffe took up and fully devtijoped* The c h a r a c a r e all stock characters and practically the same in both novels. Walpole uses a picture to describe the hero; Mrs. Radcliffe uses a miniature to describe the heroine. Almost all the characters * weep profusely and faint frequently. The hero and the heroine are dignified and aloof.' The servantsf in contrast to their mistresses, supply the few touches of humor in colloquial dialogue. The plot is the same in both stories. A persecuted maiden undergoes the most strenuous experiences but finally wins through to marriage with the hero. This series of incidents is tied together by means of a mystery or mysteries which must be unravelled, the explanations serving to unity the whole.

CHAPTER 4

EVALUATION OP THE TWO HOVELS

After a dieeueelon of the difference# and similarities between The Castle of Otranto and The Mysteries of Udoloho. several points remain to be discussed in this thesis • It would be interesting to know something of the popularity and the critical evaluation of the two books from the time of their publication until the present day. Also, it is necessary to make some mention of the same sort of books published between the date of The Castle of Otranto and that of The Mysteries of Udoloho in order to determine whether other romances besides Walpole1 s influenced Mrs* Radeliffe1 s • The formula for the Gothic romances in general remains to be stated.

Both novels were extremely popular v/hen first issued. The enthusiasm exhibited by the reading public at the time of the publication of The Castle of Otranto has steadily diminished through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, until today the book is considered interesting only as akind of literary landmark in the history of English fiction, - . - 'The fact that Otranto was extremely popular as soon as it was published shows, according to Legouis and Cazaaian,

95

the willingness of the public to meet any writer halfway*1 In a letter dated December 30, 1754, Thomas Gray wrote to Walpole from Cambridge:

X have received the C* of 0:, & return you my thanks for It* it engages our attention here, makes some of ue cry a little, & all in general afraid to go to bed o*nights. we take it for a translation, & should believe It to be a true story, if it were not for St* Hioholas*^

Hot all his contemporaries were as full of praise as Gray was. One of them, Gilly Williams, wrote to George Selwyn, March IS, 1766, that Horry Walpole had written a book that *no boarding-school mi as of thirteen could get through without yawning,1 Williams suggested that the dream which inspired The Castle of Otranto must have been a feverish one.* 3 However, Williams1 opinion did not reflect the general attitude of the readers and reviewers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Ac­cording to Scott, Walpole may be surpassed in descriptive passages or in means of sustaining suspense in longer and more complicated compositions, but he must be remembered as the originator of the Gothic type of novel. Scott praises the chaste style, the use of the supernatural, the feudal tone, the characters, and unity of action.

1. hegouis and Casamlan,Op . Cit.y p. 965*

3. Dobson, Op, Cit., pp, 168-169.

96

8The applause, in fine, which cannot he denied, to him who can excite the passions of fear and of pity, must he awarded to the author of The Castle of Otranto»- In 1825 Macaulay published his critical essays, in one of whicht according to Dobson, "Walpole's trivialities and eccentricities, his whims and affectations, are seised with remorseless skill, and presented with all the rhetori­cal advantages with which the writer so well knew how to invest them."8 'Macaulay, in the Essays, calls Walpole "eccentric","artificial", "fmmtidlous", "capricious"• Macaulay says that just as plte-de foie-gras is excellent because it is made of the diseased livers of the animals,DO only an "unhealthy and disorganised mind could have produced such literary luxuries as the works of Walpole."6 Macaulay ends, however with praisei Walpole "never con­vinces the reason, or fills the imagination, or touches the heart | but he keeps the mind of the leader constantly attentive and constantly entertained."? Leslie Stephen states that Walpole, while no great original creator, nevertheless was not content to follow the great mass of only average writers of his time, but struck a new note in the development of the novel. Walpole was, says

4. Walpole, Op. Cit.. p. XLA/il.5. Dobson, On. Cit.. p. 274.1: i : p*8-

97

Stephen, one of that "intermediate class of men who\ areuseful as sensitive barometers to foretell coming changes of opinion**® Walpole*s affectation of a frivolous and

leads Stephen to believe that this attitude has prevented critics from perceiving Walpole * s true worth* Stephen speaks of hie "remarkably acute, versatile, and original intellect.n He goes on to say, "We cannot regard him with much respect, and still less with much affection; but the more we examine his work, the more we shall admire hie extreme cleverness.*® Caroline Spurgeon, in the preface to her edition of The Castle of Otranto, remarks that the novel no longer excites the enthusiasm expressed by Gray and the dons at Cambridge or the admiration of Scott. The foremost man of letters of the present day would not write, as Scott did in his day, a serious discussion of the ma­chinery, the animated picture, or the catastrophe, all of which he praised highly. Scott, Gray, and the others merely echoed the opinion of their time.10 The CambridgeHistory remarks that The Castle of Otranto "has become

Ct&siJa sort of classic of English literature, though few now care to read it.""*"*" Today the main interest in the novel

disdainful manner toward professional writers in general

< . X., Ch * XX, p . 288

m

seems to be historical; it is used as a literary landmark, Dorothy Stuart remarks that Otranto, must always be. judged as a bold Innovation. She says* "Other and far greater hands than Walpole8s sowed the furrows he had driven; yet to his or edit be it recorded that it was he who broke the first clod."** Percy Lubbock points out that despite Walpole1s expressed dislike of professional authors, his romance now is "handed over to the schools, to the critical handbooks, to the literary lecture rooms," where The Castle of Otranto has its only existence.13

Like The Castle of Otranto. The Mysteries of Ddolpho became popular as soon as it was published; it has, however, attained a more lasting reputation* At the time of its publication the reviews, for the most part, were very enthusiastic, praising the novel in extravagant terms.Mrs. Radeliffe‘s contemporaries realized that she had merely developed a style of writing and also that she was not responsible for the flood of imitations which followed. She was of the pre-romantic period, a transitional writer, whose great popularity made it possible for her to pass on to a later generation many tendencies and themes with which writers of the Gothic school were then experimenting•14

12. Stuart. Op. cit.7 " '. ' ™" — :13* Lubbock, Op. Cit., p. 267.14. McIntyre, Ann Radeliffe. pp. 65-55.

99

•Menk11 l»ewie was ae much Impressed by The Mysteries of Udolpho that, lie wanted to see some reamblance between . himself and the villain .©f the story.15 In 1798 Dr.Nathan Drake, in his Literary Hours,, gave Mrs. Hade Ilf fe^ s descriptions of scenery the highest praiset deelaring that the predominating emotion of the reader was pleasure, the Impression never being too strong to degenerate intoterror. In 1863 a critic who signed .himself H. C.wrotei

We can, in our day, realize to ourselves very little of the effect produced by Anne Radcliffets romances at the time of their appearance. All the contemporary critics agree in testifying to their imjaenae success, only inferior to that of the Waver 1% Novels in yore recent times. Wow they appear nothing more than the efflux of a morbid imagination, full of hallucinations and absurd!tlee, and insufferably tedious to our modern tastes, accu^omed to the condensed writings of the present

Today The Mysteries of Udolpho is probably the best known of the Gothic romances. Idlth Birkheed says ' that Mrs. Radcliffe probably saved the Gothic romance from death.Jane Austen liked it well enough to write her famous satire, Northanger Abbey, while Thackeray, says Birkhead, drew pictures from the descriptions in The Mysteries of Udolpho.17 18 Mrs* Radcliffe*s book has a more vigorous existence than

16. Beers. Op» eft.. p. 4157 16. Birkhead,^Op. Cit., pp. 34-35.17. H. C., "j\n Anecdote of Mrs. Radcliffe,n Living Age. 37,118.18. Birkhead, Op. Cit.. p. 38.

100

the other.Gothic stories toecause "the far-renowned Uyeterim supply tiie fullest, .the most popular ana, perhaps, the most thoroughly characteristic example of the style. "18

Modern readers do hot agree in preferring one of these novels to the other, though there seems to toe a slight preference for Mrs. Radcliffe. Walpole*s tongue-In-the- cheek attitude may please some readers more than Mrs. Radcliffe*e toe-serious attitude, just as Walpole1s classic simplicity of style is more agreeatole to some than Mrs. Radcliffe*e more ornate and flowery attempts. The modern reader probably skimo over most of the descriptions of scenery, ignoring the fact that they were put there in order to set the stage to agree with the current mood or action. The length of The Mysteries of UdolPho undeniably diminishes its popularity today. It is published in two separate volumes or in one book in small type and with double columns. The Castle of Otranto is much more at­tractive to many people because it is so ehort that there la no need for either small type or double eolumte. Mot only does the reader skim the daacriptlong in The Mveterlea of Udolpho i he is also more than likely to omit the poetry altogether, since the poetry has nothing to do with the . advancement of the story. Mrs. Radcliffe sprinkled her story liberally with verse, without, seemingly, any defi- nite reason except that the heroine might thus show her

19.Saintsburr. Op . Cit..p. 334.

101

aceompli eteeats# In The Castle of Qtranto the reader • muat read every word carefully or lose the continuity Of, the story. - ; . : ;

To many people, 3!rs, Radcliffe’ s use of the supernat­ural is mueh to he preferred* Gritiee have called Mrs. Radeliffe1s explanations nimprobable”f hut still they are kept within Uie bounds of possibility. Almost all readers nowadays demand some explanation for apparently supernatural oceurrencee* Modern writers may deal in the fourth dimension, but they usually do so in a pseude-scientlfic manner. So Mrs* Radcliffe’s use of explained su|m*natwal phenomena has been vindicated by subsequent writers* The worst criti­cism that is made of her explanations is not that they are inadequate, but that they are all saved until the last part of the book* If would have been much better had she dis­closed one explanation just before she began another mys­tery* . , , • , ' - f

In discussing the many point# that Walpole and Mrs, Kadcliffe have in common, it must be remembered that she took the outline from him and filled it in* Having, there­fore, been given a goodly start in the right direction, she enlarged greatly upon the original. Walpole scarcely more than invested a great castle in Italy; !Srs. Radeliffe painted a huge castle of many, wings and floors. It is partly in ruins and has suite after suite of long unused

108

room#, furnished In grand hut ancient style. She describe a not only the rooms, but the courtyard, the castle walls and ramparts, and the surrounding territory• Walpole, living amidst the antiques in what he called a Gothic castle, did not present a real picture of a castle; Mrs. Radcllffe, on the other hand might have written her des­criptions with a real castle before her. Walpole, of course, must also be given credit as the source of the climatic conditions used by Mrs. Radcllffe. She used the properties of wind, moon, and storm more often but no more effectively than Walpole had done. Mrs. Radcllffe also created a mood of suspense more often than Walpole had. Walpole's best is his description of the heroine In the vaults, where she is terrified by the slightest sound. Mrs. Radcllffe uses the same method, simply placing her heroine in the same situation several times, as she Is pursued by the various men around the castle. Mrs. Rad­cllffe is much more specific than Walpole as to what the heroine feels as she roams the castle. As to the char­acters, the tyrant of the castle is unquestionably the best drawn In both novels. Walpole's villain is made cruel by circumstances; Mrs. Radcllffe1 s tyrant may also be a victim of circumstances, but he is much more mysterious than the villain in The Castle of Otranto. The tyrant of The Mysteries of Molnho was capable of anything as

103

black as the imagination can picture # Walpole1 s hero comes closer to being a real person than Mrs. Radcliffe*s her© doe®, in The Castle of otranto there is a good description of the hero, while in The Mysteries of Odolpho the reader never is told what the hero look® like. Railo, having in

' - . i . . . - . . . . . *■' ■’ ■ ; ' ■mind a picture of Walpole, suggests that the description of the hero may be an "idealised portrait" of the author as a youth.^ Walpole does not describe the heroine $Mrs. Radcliffe doe® not describ® the hero, but doe® tell what the heroine looked like. Again Ralle suggests the heroine 1® probably the author's ideal maiden, reflecting "the quiet dreamy soul of the author herself."?! All the characters in both books are extremely sentimental; their emotions are near the surface and are easily touched. There is not much to choose between in the dialogue. Walpole's characters are more direct; Mrs. Radcliffe*s are more loquacious. Mrs. ttadeliffe shows more skill in putting together the pieces of the plot. Walpole, while he is given credit for laying out a plot like a pattern, never­theless tended to jump from incident to Incident as a drama doe®. Mrs. Radcliffe follows the same plot but makes it more complicated by the additional adventures of the heroine.

p r s s c

104

Walpole* perhaps, pleases some modern reader by M s serio-comic attitude, by the simplicity of his style, by the shortness of his book* by its freedom from super­fluities such as the poetical quotations in The Mysteries of udoloho. Most modern readers prefer Mrs. Rsdellffe1 s use of the explained supernatural, her picturesque castle setting, and her skill in wearing the parts of the story together as a whole. There is not much to choose between in the characters* Mrs. Kadcliffe*B heroine is more definite a character than Walpole’s hero. The villain in both novels is the outstanding character, ssrs# Badcliffe uses the properties of the haunted castle more often but no more effectively than Walpole does; the same criticism may be made in regard to the adventures of the heroine.The heroine has more adventures, but they are the same ones over and over again.

In discussing the probable amount of influence which The castle of Otranto exercised on The Mysteries of Udolpho, some mention must be made of those novels of somewhat the same sort published between the respective dates of the two romances, in order to eliminate other possible sources of influence on Mrs. Badcliffe besides that of Walpole. Wot all these books may be classified as Gothic, but each one contributed to the development of the Gothic novel. The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve was published in 1777$

105

Zeluco. Various Views of Human Mature. Taken from Life and Manners Foreign and Domestic by John Moore in 1786$ Vathek. M Arabian Tale by william Beckford in 1787; and gteaeljne. The Orphan of the Castle by Charlotte Smith in 1788.

Vathek, An Arabian Tale by Beck-Cord may be classified as a Gothic romance, since it aimed to produce the feeling of terror. The protagonist is an Eastern Satan, Eblis, who has Uie same qualities as the villains of The Castle of Otranto and The Mysteries of Udolnho. Eblis shares with them the melancholy nature, "the dark glance a W the defiance that dwells in his soul.',22 There is also in Vathek a huge castle of vague description as in Walpole’s Story, • ... ' . - : ' . " ' •

The chief figure of John Moore’s Zeluco, ^although not actually a member of the romantic family,* has, ac­cording to Railo, certain features, particularly selfishness and cruelty, which all the Gothic tyrants share.23

Charlotte Smith’s Emmeline, The Orphan of the Castle, is a Pamela-like story with nothing of Gothic mystery. It has, however, a little description of a ruined castle and several paragraph# ©f deeoription of mountain scenery, widily scattered throughout the four volumes. Emmeline travels as much as Bnil^ dbes; Enrnieline" also goe§ to the

2^. Railo. Op. 33".' Ibid l E T ^ 57

10®

south of Frame In the mountains tIn some places huge masses impended over them, of varied fora and color, without any vegetation hut scattered masses: in others, aromatic plants end low shrubs$ ‘the lavender, the thyme, the rosemary, the mountain sage, fringed the steep craggs, while a neighboring aclivity was shaded with the taller growth of holly, phillyrea, and ever-green oak) and the next covered with the glowing purple of the Mediterranean heath. The summits of almost.all, crowned with groves of fir, larch, and pine.^

there Is no description of this type in The Castle of Otranto. It is possible that Mies Smith’s description# pointed out the path to Mrs. Radcliffe.

Clara Reeve’s The Old English Baron is the most im­portant of the romances published between 1764 and 1794, because ft is a true Gothic romance. Moonlight and etorma are not used, but the wind blow# out the candle of the hero a® he explores the haunted suite of rooms at night# The villain is no Manfred or Montoni, but an ordinary English­men; the heroine, is no Isabella or Emily, but an ordinary young lady, who ie scarcely mentioned# The hero is like Theodore in that he grows up in ignorance of M o real heritage, M a castle and lands being held by the usurper.

Mies Reeve says in the preface to The Old English Baron that her book is the "literary offspring of The Castle of Otranto." Her plan, like Walpole$e, was to

C. ^ith, ^ s u n e , M M ^

107

unite the best of the modern novel with the beet parts of the ancient romanceBs However, she criticises Walpole*8 use of the supernatural as too obvious, too improbable *2S It is this restricted use of the. supernatural which makes her book different from The Castle of Otranto or The Mysteries of Udolpho« Perhaps the restricted use also pointed out to Mrs* Radcliffe the way in which she might explain everything as Sue to natural and not supernatural causes. . As for Hiss Reeve, “about the use of the marvelous, she is manifestly nervous.1,86 Her ghosts are like those everyone is fmiiliar with in e*toriee— groans are heard or chains clank in the night. Miss Reeve’s particular donation to the Gothic novel is the haunted suite of rooms, which are no longer used by anyone in the castle. The rooms are filled with old decaying furniture, tapestry-covered walls, the portraits of the rightful owners turned to face the wall, and a closet with blood-stained armor. Beneath the floor of the closet lies the body of the siain owner of the castle* Mrs. Radcliffe made use of this haunted suite in the second part of The Mysteries of Udolnho, when Emily goes to explore the unused wing of Chateau-lewBlane. Miss Reeve1 s novel contributed little to the development of the Gothic romance, except for the definite contribution of the

26* v'ughn^6 ^he^pld^Engrlish Baron (London, 1833), pp* 11—14.

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haunted, suite of rooms in the castle and a new. attitude toward the supernatural.

The first of the books discussed, Vathek and Zeluco f have as cliief characters villains who are in the direct line of MamfrW and Montoni. Vathek a M Zeluco helped to establieh the character of the villain more definitely than it had been establisWd. And no doubt Mre. Radcliffe profited by their addltiMS. There Is a distinct possi­bility that Mrs. Radcliffe may have found the idea for her scenic descriptions in Charlotte Saithts novel. It is possible that Clara Reeve's romance showed her that ex­planations could be employed; that it was not necessary for a true supernatural agency to be used, and Miss Reeve's book also supplied her with the haunted suite. Otherwise we can probably say that the important influences on The Mmteri&& of l&olphQ came from The Sit Otranto.

Although Mrs. Radcliffe, so far as we know, never mentioned The Castle of Otranto, it is scarcely possible that she could have failed to read it. Since she is said to have spent most of her leisure time reading the popular literature of that period, particularly the poetry and the romances, she must have known Walpole's novel, and in one of her books, The Italian, she quotes several passages fromWalpole' s melodrama, The Mysterious Mother.27 Surely, if. ’• ' _ ;■ _

2 7 . B i l l h e a d , Op 7 P i t . v p . S 8 . > r ‘ 1 1 — ..

she know The Mysterious Mother . Walpole1s blank-verse tragedy, she must have read the extremely popular Castle

; Almost all the erities'agree that, while Walpole be­gan the fad for the Gothbromance# it was !£rs e Eadcliffa who thought the fern to the highest point in Its development. Selden L. Whitcomb says that Walpole is credited with the creation of the Gothic novel, but that Mr®. Badcliffe produced a more perfect specimen. William Lyon Phelps ' remarks that The Castle of Otranto "was the pioneer of all the wild tales of blood and ghosts that followed its ap­pearance, and thus, in some sense, it was an epoch-making book. * Phelps goes on to say that Mrs. Badcliffe is in the "direct line of succession"^ 0f Walpole. Sir' ieslie Stephen describe# Castle of Otranto as the parent of The Mysteries of Udolpho. Frederick E, Pierce thinksthat Kro. Radcliffe *s book is "obviously the progeny" of Walpole •s n o v e l K * A. Beers1 opinion is the same as Pierce* s: Walpole is the progenitor" of Mrs« Radcliffe * sromance and must be given the distinction of originating the Gothic romance. The Castle of Otranto "became the

28. The Study of a Kovel (Boston, 1908), p'. iM. ‘29. phSlps, Op. Cit.« p. 103*

m a s $ M h -31. SoEiBUS Generation,

" • . " • - ; ,

prototype of that classof novel which was afterwardImitated by W e . Radcliff©."3® Idlth lirkhead simply stateo that Mr a. Radcllffe received from Walpole a "goodly heritage.m33 v..; .

After studying the Gothic romance, one becomes aware that it has, as Knight says, "something of a formula": ^A beautiful and virtuous maiden and her trusted servant are kept prisoners in the lonely ruins of an old castle with winding stairs unusual pictures, and battlements and towers with the wind whistling through them. The black-browed villain, whose prisoners they are, is lonely# saturnine, melancholy, and proud. The handsome hero does little, outside of singing beneath her window so irresistibly that she immediately falls In love with him. The heroine.. - ■■■ ' -- ' - ' ■ ■ ■' v .encounters numerous, harrowing adventure8 as she wanders at midnight through underground vaults or halls lighted mainly by the moon. The villain always pursues her, but she finally escapes his evil machinations and marries the hero, while the villain is suitably punished.

110

32. BeersT 0p« Cit., pp. 231-237.33. -Birkhead. Op. Clt.. D, 40.34. Knight. Op . Cit., p. 78.

CGROLnSIOT

From the foregoing analyelo It will be seen that Ji!rs. Hadoliffo followed Walpole’s example In a- great many ways, the differences between th® two romances being relatively tmlmpdrtant In comparison with the striking similarities. Walnole wrote The Castle of Otranto intending to ocaablne the best of the ancient romances with the best of the novels of his day; Mrs. Radcllffe wrote her book to arouse the emotions of fear and terror and to show the affect of changing scenery upon the traveller. Walpole used a simple, classic sort of stylo; Mrs. Radoliffe was more ornate, more profuse in describing what happened in her book.Walpole made no attempt to explain the marvelous as any­thing other than intervention of m^pernatural; ’ Mrs. Radoliffe insisted on giving an explanation for every incident that savored of the supernatural. The similarities are much more Impressive than the differences. Walpole gave to the Gothic romance its castle in a southern setting. Mrs. Radoliffe followed with two castles, one in France, the other in Italy. Walpole gave the castle; Glare Reeve gave the haunted suite; and Mrs. Radoliffe developed the picture fully, Railo remarks that "with powerful imagination and

112

inventiveness and a melancholy poetry she enriches the outline derived from her predecessors to such and extent that in this field there was little else to add*"* According to.Haile, the castle was placed in the southern part of Europe heoause of the luxuriance and brilliancy of color to bo found there. Perhaps it was in Italy because of the "spiritual atmosphere" of the Catholic church, the monasteries3 monks, nuns, and other details being suggestive of older times and far away places.1 2

Walpole also gave the climatic conditions used byMrs. Radoliffe. Walpole used the moon to light the stage■r ■ ■ . ■; . ; .in order for the heroine to escape, or to show the villainin the act of committing some terrible deed, or, as in

- . ■ . 1 : . ■ - .the final scene, to show Alfonso ascending to heaven. Mrs. Radoliffe also uses the moon to illumine the stage. In her novels the moon does not simply show what occurs on the stage; it also awakens romantic memories, usually sad reminiscences of a far distant lover or recently deceased parent. Walpole also gave the blasts of wind, which, Caroline Spurgeon says, "at the critical momentextinguished Isabella's lamp, and which, for more than

' ■ . . " ■ ' ' • ■

balf-a-century, were to be heard whistling through the

1. RailoV Op. Oitr.Y T).2. Ibid.. on. 314-315,

W.

pages of Clara Reeve, Mrs, Badoliffo, Monk Lewis, Seott and many others,”3

In use of swmpenee Mrs, Radollffe also followed Walpole, Walpole used aertain portents of approaching evil or doom--the sable plumes of the huge helmet, the immense sword, the praying cowled skeleton, and the promenading picture, H, A* Beers says that the supernatural fears "all derive from Otranto,"4 Suggestions of fearful secrets are further embellished by Mrs. Radollffe, who hintsat horrible crimes In the villains*s past, although nothing■ ■ ... ' ■ . '• ' ' ■■ . ■■ ■ .is ever proved against him. The fir® burns blue or mysterious music, which may foretell a death, is heard at night. Mrs. Radollffe, too, uses pictures, one to mystify the heroine about her parentage, the other to terrify her at Udolpho and to provide another mystery for the reader, Walpole followed the example of Shakespeare in the use of humorous dialogue of the servants to interrupt and to provide a contrast to the main action of the story. Mrs, Radollffe continued the use of the colloquial dialogue for the same purpose• The heroines are contrasted with their maids. The use of the constant danger of the heroine, although certainly not original with either Walpole or

3. WalpolQ.Op. Pit.. DP. X1X-XX,4. Beers, On, Clt», p. 853,

Mrs* Haaollffe, became nan aim in itself" in the Gothic novel*5 • ■ • .

The characters of both novels aro practically the same, being stock personages of literature* The heroines, like Richardson* s Pamela, are young, beautiful maidens, whose virtue and chastity are constantly being threatened by wicked lords* Both persecuted maidens eventually marry the hero. Both swoon or weep as the occasion demands, but both have courage and endurance enough to permit them to escape through subterranean passages or complicated hallways in the darkness of the night, where every murmur, every footstep, fills them with terror. These heroines of the Gothic romance differ from Pamela, because Walpole and Mrs, Radoliffe put them in romantic surroundings and gave them real adventures»5

The heroic, are also alike* They are perfect creatures whose noble sentiments are expressed in pure, lofty lan­guage. Like the heroines, the heroes are apt to weep frequently. Beth heroes have the olear, shining gaze and the gentle manners of the truly noble. Both exhibit a pleasant melancholy when in love. They love solitude and

£n* jyji* *'^#.43# 1/"P* 299.

115

nature* Ballo says that this ”harmless, emotional dalliance with nature" is "well in accordance with the general sentimental tendencies of .the authors, which for its finest and highest flight® demanded s o l i t u d e ,

In both instances tha most clearly defined character is the villa in* The Manf red-Mont oni type became the Byronio hero— silent, defiant, melancholy, mysterious* The villain's love of power created most of his difficulties In both novels. Both persecute the heroine In order to keep' possession of property* ■ \ ■ - '

Both heroines have maid-servants to keep them informed as to what goes on In the castle. They also serve as contrast to the highborn ladies, and they add their touch of humor to the story. Both are extremely talkative, witty, faithful, and superstitious•

Both romances have long-suffering wives of the tyrants. Hippolita suffers with dignity and patience and in silence; Madame Cheron, on the other hand, suffers and makes

‘‘i •' ' '

everyone else suffer too. She abuses everyone who die-■ - / ; 'pleases her, usually In a voice loud enough for the entire

castle to hear.

The plot is practically the same in both novels. A

7. Ballo. 507-308. :

116

young girl la thrown, friendless and without servants of bar own, into the power of a tyrant, who tries to force her to do as h® says• Both girls are, apparently, heiresses to considerable estates, which the villains mean to appro­priate as their own, The flights, constant dangers,' and escapes of; the heroines make up the greater part of the .stories. "■ •- ' - : • : ' ■ V '

" Froa this comparison it will be seen that *'Talpol®gave to the Gothic romance those elements upon which : ;■ :' .; .■ / ■ ' "• ' ■ ■ ■ . . ,other romanticists of this tyoe built; their hovels.Walpole gave the outline arid set the fashion. It remained for Mrs. Radoliffe to fill in this outline so that later writers had very little to add to her presentation.

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