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Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Key Examples in The Castle of Otranto
The Second Edition Preface
Explanation and Analysis—Hamlet:
Walpole makes several references to the plays of William Shakespeare in The Castle of Otranto. The most obvious allusions are to Hamlet, another tragic story about the nature of power and princedom, the importance of bloodlines, and the effects of the past on the present. This allusion also explains the depth to which Walpole develops minor characters, as he mentions in the Second Edition Preface:
The great master of nature, SHAKESPEARE, was the model I copied. Let me ask, if his tragedies of Hamlet and Julius Caesar would not lose a considerable share of their spirit and wonderful beauties, if the humour of the grave-diggers, the fooleries of Polonius, and the clumsy jests of the Roman citizens, were omitted, or vested in heroics?
Related Themes:
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Hippolita in Mythology:
In naming Manfred's submissive wife Hippolita, Walpole alludes to both a prominent mythological figure associated with peacemaking and to one of William Shakespeare's major characters. Hippolita is described in Chapter 1 of The Castle of Otranto as being gentle, forbearing, and as placing the needs of others before her own:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Hippolita, who knew his step, rose with anxious fondness to meet her lord, whom she had not seen since the death of their son. She would have flown in a transport, mixed of joy and grief, to his bosom; but he pushed her rudely off, and said, “Where is Isabella?”—“Isabella, my lord!” said the astonished Hippolita. [...] Willing, however, to save her lord from any additional shock, and prepared by a series of grief not to tremble at any accession to it, she determined to make herself the first sacrifice, if fate had marked the present hour for their destruction.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Incestuous Parody:
The Castle of Otranto mimics—and, in that way, parodies—the style and content of many medieval stories in a way that draws attention to their characteristic hyperbole, sensationalism, and excess. Walpole does this to particular effect with the narrative of incest in the novel, beginning with Manfred's unwelcome advances to Isabella in Chapter 1:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I desired you once before,” said Manfred, angrily, “not to name that woman: from this hour she must be a stranger to you, as she must be to me; in short, Isabella, since I cannot give you my son, I offer you myself.” “Heavens!” cried Isabella, waking from her delusion, “what do I hear! you, my lord! you! my father-in-law! the father of Conrad! the husband of the virtuous and tender Hippolita!”—“I tell you,” said Manfred, imperiously, “Hippolita is no longer my wife; I divorce her from this hour. Too long has she cursed me by her unfruitfulness.
Related Themes:
