The Final Fight of the Semester

This was the first time I saw fight club though I heard about it many times. It was a interesting movie where things were very mysterious till the end. I could not have imagined that the two were the same people. The idea of double and duality was crystal clear after watching this movie. The darker side was lurking under the cover of the nice and well mannered office clerk. It is surprising how he discovers his darker side and gives rise to a whole new person just by hatred against Marla who just joined the same support group that he did. This was the tipping point when he needed to get away form her and he creates Tyler within himself and his rage is fully transformed into Tyler just like Dr Jekyll escaped moral reasons when he turned into Hyde. I would say this movie was a satire to commercialism and modern living where you depend on the system to do everything and everything seems so fake. I loved that movie and I am going to buy this movie and watch it a thousand time.

we got Yellow and then a Jury

The story yellow wallpaper is one of the best stories I read the entire semester. We all know what happens within the ancestral hall all the frightening descriptions of the narrator. This story reminded me of a movie "Girl Interrupted" where women with mental disorder and the ones who were labeled to have mental disorder both were kept in the mental institution. I have a second thought about the the character of the husband if he really is the husband of the narrator. Lets say he is a husband and not the doctor acting her husband, then he is definitely letting his wife suffer the most as it seems like he does not listen to what she says. He is never around in the house with her. I think the author is trying to prove a point by putting the shadow of the woman behind the wall trapped. The message that we can take form this is that women have no say during that time and that is why she has to be stuck in the ugliest room without no one to talk to. It almost feels like the narrator is trying to tear herself out from herself and express herself. Which she did at the end and the death of John perhaps represents the failure of male dominance and womens freedom and liberation. Thats just my thought.
The story "Jury of her peers" is a classic story of female victimization. While female victimization was not that obvious in the Yellow wallpaper, in this story it is the main theme. They charged a women for murder of her husband a farmer who was found dead. The women have been shown to work together while the men seek for the evidence and motives to charge the women for the crime. It is very interesting to see how women would go against the norm and work their way towards independence. These two stories that we read is about women fighting against stereotypes and fighting for an independent life from their husbands or other men.

Goodman and Arnold Friend

The story Goodman is hard to find was an interesting story. The story is sort of tragic and surprising. The story has Gothic elements like the scary and remote forest and a plantation with a sliding and secret passage. The end of the story marks the tragic fate of the family who left home but never could reach their destination. They just took a turn and got side tracked with the old womens stories and fantasies and they had to die at the hands of the escapee of the prison and his goons. Along the stories we find the links to slavery and old deserted plantations and the changes that had taken over during the old womans lifetime.
"Where have you been , Where have you gone" is another story that we read in class. This is unusual among all the stories we read so far in the semester in a sense that the terror is more psychological rather than physical. The protagonist is a young woman who is discovering her sexuality and had her first stalker.Arnold Friend is no friend of hers but a character that is troubling her. She wants to explore her sexuality but things are happening too fast and on a day when she is home alone she is trapped in the house with her stalker outside waiting for her. This time she is terrified as she plays constantly with her thoughts and emotions. The story represents internal conflicts within the protagonist.

A street Car named Desire

Desire is what takes people from place to place. While I saw the street car named "Desire" bring Blanche to this urban town in New Orleans, I thought may be she is chasing her desire to be with her Stella after a big loss of property. We soon realize that she is hiding her true self and her true desires with her outward appearance. For her every day is a show that she presents and I could relate this to the story Behind a Mask. Blanche has desire to attract a male partner. She often talks about that husband that passed away who was really premature may be because she is very lonely and wish to be with someone perhaps someone like Stella's husband. The movie was weird in a sense but very Gothic at the same time as there is an internal struggle and a state of uncertainty of emotions.

A Rose for Emily and Old Gardiston

William Faulkner in his short story "A Rose for Emily" was very successful in capturing the time of the reconstruction after the civil war. The story is somewhat disturbing as it tells us about a women who is so obsessed with her own ways that she does not co-operate with authority. She even keeps her man Homer, the contractor form the North, in the same bed even after his death. When I was reading the story I felt like it was the rebel nature of the south and the things that was going on in the house was a bitter reaction to the rapid changes that were going on in the South. It is also a clash of old vs new ideas for example Emily is very hesitant of change as she does not want to install a mailbox/number in her house. I took Death of Homer to be a revenge against the Northern ways and the changes the North brought in the South. It was an interesting read. The most interesting thing about this story is that the entire town is represented as a narrator which is a new idea to me. The Gothic elements are the dead body, conspiracy and extreme secrecy. No one knew what was really going on until the death of Emily.
The Old Gardiston is another bitter response to changes that is taking place in the south. We still see the confederate flags in the present day so it is normal for the people of that time to disregard the idea of single country where the North and the South being together as a single country. While the speaking house is the gothic element in this story, the story has some deeper meanings. The attitude of women is stronger against the change as they have suffered the most during the war as they lost their loved ones in the war. So this story may be the reaction against the act which the women would blame the Northerners for.

The Goophered Grapevine, The sheriff's Children and Jean-ah Poquelin

This short story week was fun because we could actually relate all the three stories that we read because they were written on a similar theme. All the stories were based on the time of slavery. There were deeper meanings to the stories and the meanings often co-relates with the background of the authors especially in the story "The Sheriff's Children" where the author would relate the children of mixed race as he was one at his time.

In the short story "The Goophered Grapevine" there is a mysterious curse that was cast down upon the person who eats the grapes and Henry a slave who did not know about the curse eats the grape. They try to lift the curse but the only way he could survive was by using the sap of the grapes to be healthy and strong. This is a co-relation of slavery and the old southern economy where the slavery dependent upon the plantation. If the plantation was thriving the slavery was growing. The curse can be related to the condition the slaves had to live in during those dark times. The grapes would perish after a season and so did the health of Henry. This might be suggesting that when there was work to be done slaves would have better health may be because they would have more food in the table or more care as the owners needed them. Henry's owner sold him every off season and buy him back making some profit. This story represents the culture of the old south and has some deeper meanings. The Gothic images used are the mysterious and magical curse. The idea of being sold as a property itself is very Gothic as it incites terror.

The Sheriff's Children is also based on issues of slavery and represents the old south. It tries to address the problem of mixed race children as the author Chestnut was had mixed heritage. In this story a person of authority, a Sheriff commits a crime by raping a slave women who eventually gives birth to a son. The Sheriff ends up selling his own son. The son later is charged of murder. There is a lot of internal conflict represented in the story. Tom the mixed racial child is not accepted in the society. He feels like he would never get fair treatment like the whites because he was half black. This is a very important part of history as several mixed race children would have to struggle against the society primarily controlled by the white Americans. It is a story about acceptance and struggle for being accepted into the society. Tom lets himself bleed to death because he feels like he would never be accepted, and he gives up fighting for the fair treatment for himself. This story is very revolutionary of the time and I am sure that the author at some point had experienced similar attitudes from the others for him being mixed racial

Jean-Ah Poquelin is another story which is around the time of slavery. The story however doesnot directly touch upon slavery and its issues. It is more subtle and the meanings are very deep. For example the slave that the brothers have cannot speak or in other words is mute. George W Cable perhaps want this to be a political statement to the people of the time as the slaves did not have a voice meaning the fundamental rights that the other had. Also it is a tool to make the affairs of the house to look more suspicious as the caretaker of the house would not be able to talk about what goes on in the house. The location of the house is bizarre and he history of the family has some Gothic elements to it.

Behind a Mask--what you see is not what you get

Reading the story Behind the Mask I could see how we can relate the things to our present day life. In the story the characters have dual identity, as they literally have two faces. The central character Jean is new to the house and family members. It takes her one moment of fainting and showing of her feminine side to take over the entire family. She likes to get attention from the people and she is highly manipulative. She is hiding her real identity which is an old women with makeup and dentures hiding behind the look of a young woman. The external apperance is a mask that she puts on every day to manipulate the family and get whatever she wants. This should remind of people or even some agencies that have a front face and the evil dark intentions lurking behind. We also talked about this in class where there is a front side view like in the common living room area of a house where it is clean and tidy as opposed to the rooms where people spend their private life which may not be just as pretty. The dual nature is very well represented in this story. The part that makes it gothic is that the real intent of Jean is disguised by the show she puts on everyday. Every day is a show and the audience is mesmerized by it. All others are just like puppets and she is sort of controlling them. This is subtle but the gothic part of it. It was a decent read and was not very long. I didnot like the overly dramatic imagery but liked the concept very much.

The Fall of the House of Usher and Ligeia

The story is very unusual as an unknown narrator is describing the events that are happening in the lives of all the characters. The interesting thing is that the wealthy Roderick Usher calls for his childhood friend who he had never seen after a long time to take of him during his strange illness. We can see the story is full of gothic elements. The narrator tells us that how the Usher's are cursed. Only one person form the Usher's lineage is able to survive through adulthood. The house is very mysterious as it is in a marshy land and surrounded by decaying trees. The house almost seems to represent the condition of the owner and tell the history of how the others might have perished. The house itself is diseased as it has cracks. One can expect the scene to be more bizarre once the narrator goes inside the house of the Usher. Roderick seems to be very sick and it almost felt like his life energy was being sucked by the cursed house. The idea of counterparts and double is well represented in the story. The house is dry while it is on a wet ground and the house is firm at some place while cracked at others. Most interestingly Roderick’s sister Madeline is also stricken with a strange sickness and soon she dies. They decide to rest her body in the house fearing the body snatchers and the scientific experiments. Why would someone keep the dead one in the house? This is a horrific image the author was trying to create. I realized the dead body would come to life as soon as I read what was going on. It was sort of predictable in the writer’s part. Madeline’s body comes to life but we are not sure if she was dead or she was just unconscious due to her strange condition. Roderick Usher could not bear the shock to see her alive and he dies of fright. Narrator flees the scene and as soon as he leaves the house the house crumbles to the ground. It appears that the stability of the house was dependent upon the life and health of the Usher. As the health was deteriorating so was the condition of the house and when the Usher died then the death of the house was eminent. This story was a very good story full of symbolism and gothic elements. Could make a good movie based on this story.

The short story Ligeia also has some similarites with the Fall of the House of Usher. The nattator is unknown and there is that strange illness again that causes a death. In the earlier story there was a reference to a gas that was considered not harmful by the Ushers and we want to think that might be the cause of the conditions of the Ushers. Similarly, we can argue that in this story the narrator is perhaps seeing things due to possible opium induced hallucination. An opium addict narrator loses his credibility and we can say that the narrator is unreliable. Which is not the case in the earlier story that we read. I was suspecting there was no death and the person he married was the same person and was just his hallucination that made him see a blue eyed person that was different from his earlier wife. This story was just weird.

Young Goodman Brown

The tale is set in a small village of Salem in near Boston. The settlers are the early 17th century puritans who came from England. The puritans are English Protestants whose lives are very much influenced by Christianity. Christian belief had influenced the morality of the townsmen. The protagonist Goodman Brown is an interesting name that Hawthorne chose in this story. We could almost predict by reading the few paragraphs that the story is going to be about the character of Goodman. In the story Goodman leaves his wife Faith, to meet a mysterious figure in the woods. Leaving his wife Faith is allegorical to leaving the Christian belief or having lost faith in God. So the mysterious man who we can relate to the Devil himself can be compared to temptations that people have in daily life. As the Goodman travels through the forest with the mysterious man he finds he is not alone in the quest. His discovers that the people highly regarded for being devout Christians and being very kind and moral are walking along with the mysterious guy. He does not want to proceed with the group and he often looks back thinking about his wife. He is surprised to see his wife Faith proceeding with the group. This is done by the author to create dilemma because Goodman has to either follow his wife Faith or follow his religious faith. This is very much practical in our daily life where we have to decide whether we follow certain things because everyone else does or we follow only the things we like to. Finally, he denies his loyalty to the mysterious man and tells his wife to fight the devil that is trying to take her away. He wakes up middle of the forest and when he returns he finds everyone acting normal. This story is about the power of one’s belief and Goodman like his name is very Good and loyal to his wife Faith and his faith in Christianity. This story can be linked to the infamous witch trials of Salem. As Goodman had abandoned the path shown by the devil and listened to him, the author would want to send a message to people that it is not always the best to follow others like the ones who followed others in those witch trials. There are many gothic elements like the mysterious guy who looks like how devil would look like, a staff that became a serpent and various other images that incite aghast. Here human nature is shown to be flawed but the flaw can be fixed by listening to self rather than others. Here the author has shown that goodness of a person can always overcome the evil nature. This is a very important point the author is trying to make. The tone of the story is simple and easy to understand. The imagery used by the author might make more sense to people who know more about the Christian belief system and other stories about Christianity.

The legend of Sleepy Hollow---never lose a head!!

The setting of the legend of sleepy hollow is the period of early settlers. The early settlers were very fond of listening to stories and particularly that were supernatural. As there were exploring the unexplored, the supernatural phenomenon was a very popular topic of discussion among the settlers. The small town of Sleepy Hollow had growing fear of the unexplained and particularly a Horseman without a head. The introduction of the protagonist Ichabod Crane as a school teacher would be perfect thing to do as a school teacher ideally relies on scientific inquiry rather than believe on heresy. Ironically he tells stories of Ghosts and goblins himself to the women of the town to impress them. He is not the best candidate to be a teacher as he has many personality flaws. One of the women he falls for uses him as a bait to attract Brom Bones who is stronger and more appealing than him. This makes him leave a place of social gathering while all the thoughts of the ghastly stories come up to his mind. On a horse named Daredevil he rides back with his head full of tales of horror. Daredevil is a good name of the horse as it represents the irony of situation Crane is in. He is scared for his life as he finds the Headless horseman chasing him. I would suspect that this was the fragment of his imagination as he was very willing to believe the stories that told and it became real when he was most vulnerable, having a broken heart. This story is an allegory as we can say that anyone who stops to think will lose their heads. Here the school master was a victim of situation that he created in his head and eventually he lost it. It was a short story but certainly a classic. It was a good read.

Midterm Ends ----ૐ

Short stories after midterm

"The Immortal Mortal" vs "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"

The two short stories we read were quite interesting. The Immortal Mortal was written by Mary Shelley and it is about a protagonist who lives through the pain of not dying soon enough. The alchemist Cornelius who wishes to perfect the potion that would make man immortal had taken Winzy as his apprentice. Winzy loved Bertha very much but his love was weakened by his poverty and the matriarch who would not approve of their marriage. He believed Cornelius was trying to make a potion to cure love. So he drinks the potion but soon finds out that there was no such thing. This is the Irony of situation as he discovers that instead he gets the curse of being immortal. In this story humanity is believed to be weak which relies on death, the mysterious friend, to help free everyone form the perils of aging. Winzy finds out that he was not immortal but he was aging slower. This is an irony as he soon finds out living a long life has its own disadvantages as he finds out his beloved Bertha becoming older and dying and he had been the same all those years. I found that cure of love is death and immortality makes it even worse. If a person can grow older with the loved one that is the best cure for love. The theme of this story is that humans may appear weak with death but they are miserable without it. Death is portrayed as an essential part of life as it would end all the misery of being old and helpless.

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a story written by Robert Stevenson. In this story Dr. Jekyll creates a substance that makes him able to transform into a short stumpy and deformed Mr. Hyde. The scientist creates doppelganger of himself to enable him to escape morality. Transformation makes Dr Jekyll be this character which does not have conscience. Mr. Hyde does not worry about the consequences of his actions as he does not care about how others feeling or even the authority. This gives him more freedom to do things without Dr Jekyll getting the blame even though they are the same people. The story is a satire to the Victorian society which pretends to be flawless from the outside but is very unforgiving in the inside. The dual nature of man kind of hints us to the fact that there is a good side and a bad side of everything. There is a reference of Dr Jekyll going to church and trying to gather his acts to be a better Christian while Hyde was acting beyond his conscience.

In both of the stories human nature is portrayed as being imperfect. So they need to create a magical potion to transform into this being which would ideally be free from the imperfections. In the first one imperfection is death or mortality while in the second story it is the morality of humans. We can draw parallels to these stories as we find that there is the use of alchemy or science to make humans able to cheat death or transform into an anomaly that is not confined within the social norms, as we discover in some way Winzy and Hyde defy social norms in their own ways.

Northanger Abbey

The novel is one of the most popular one from Jane Austen. The novel is about a girl growing up as a tomboy and later become sexually matured women. While coming of age mean being able to drink or graduation from high school or get bitten by thousands of ants depending on what society you belong to, in this novel coming of age for a girl means being able to attract a romantic partner and get married. In chapter one the description of the girl in the first sentence hints us the total theme of the story. The author did not hesitate to reveal the protagonist in the first few sentences, unlike the other stories we read where there is a series of events that revels the main character. Catherine Morland who grows up playing games like boys grows up as her interest grows form childish games to books. Books are her window to the world of mystery and interpretation of people. However she does not think about the emotional horrors that people have in mind as she fails to understand people more.
The setting of this story is in England where the nobles have extravagant lifestyle of fashion and ball-room dances. It is different in style from the regular Gothic genre as the Dark castle; spooky hallways are only fragment of the protagonist's imagination. It is more about the internal conflict of the characters than the external conflict. The Protagonist, Catherine Morland tries to understand more about people but usually she fails every time. Miss Morland is just 17 years of age and never had affection is attracted by well mannered and humble Henry Tinley, the son of General Tinley. General Tinley seems to be interested in the brewing love between his son and Miss Morland. He is represented as a dynamic character as he seemed all nice but later turns out to be antagonist. Mr. Thorpe is used as a Foil character as he admits that the Morlands are poor. This creates a twist in the story where everything happens very fast and it seems chaotic. General Tinley upon finding that the Morlands are poor and not the heir of the generous Allen family turns against Catherine as he orders her immediate leave without escort or protection from the abbey. He is not all evil but certainly no saint as he seems to have won his three children through orders and not love as the mother’s room is restricted to the children which make Catherine more suspicious of his intentions. This is the point where the reality and imagination conflicts. The imagination is not so different to the ones fueled by Gothic books that Ms Morland reads and I believe that is a satire to Ann Radcliffe and other Gothic writers which rely on vague and cynical elements to create excitement and thrill upon readers. This novel is written very cleverly as this contains no supernatural events and yet promise to deliver the same thrill to reader. If the mind is playing tricks on the characters it can be equally horrendous. That is the point Jane Austen wants to make in this literature. The character such as Thorpe and Isabella add instability to the relations that the growing girl is trying to make. She is emotionally tested in every moment of her stay in bath and in the abbey. The society seemed to have high opinion of the higher class and the amount of wealth one could get after being married. However Henry is consistent but not willing to fight for his love until the end of the novel where he goes to visit Catherine and the Morlands to ask her hand for marriage.
There is a happy ending to this but the point the writer is trying to address is that real life is different than the imaginary world of literature and a growing girl should try to understand people more than books with imagination.

Romance of the Forest - Fin

This is the point where we all admit it was a really long story with lot of unnecessary details. I kept wandering off and was a hard read. Adeline is now trapped in a unique situation. Her beauty attracts the Marquis as expected from the novels of this genre. She is trapped in the abbey where its lord has incestuous desires towards her. There is a discovery of a manuscript by Adeline as she wanders through the secret chamber in her room. The manuscript appears to be written by a prisoner of marquis who was tortured and the accounts of the atrocities were in the manuscript. This puts Adeline in dire stress as she realizes that Marquis who is even willing to Pardon La Motte for the robbery and assault against him provided he could have his ways on her sexuality. This is the antigonist The protagonist cannot trust anyone this point and she is feeling betrayed. This is typical of a gothic literature as we read the Castle of Otranto where the female characters are shrouded by the evil intentions of the male counterparts. The twist in the story is that Adeline's father was killed by Marquis and he turns out to be his brother. At this point all things start to become chaotic and Marquis ends up taking the distressed heroine Adeline away and keeps her locked up. Finally Adeline manages to escape to meet the love of her life Theodore. Unlike castle of Otranto there is no sad ending. The protagonist finally has her ways and makes her own decision by marrying Theodore. The Heroine makes her own decision which is not that common in those times. This shows the protagonist has power though fainting on numerous occasions.

Romance of the Forest - Part One

The second reading for the class was The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliff. As it is a Gothic novel we expect to see scenes of horror, suspense, incestuous motives, a ruined castle or abbey and other elements of Goth like in The Castle of Ortanto by Walpole. The novel revolves around a Protagonist who is not the usual kind in the Gothic literature. Unlike The Castle of Otranto the protagonist is a lady in distress. When we start reading the book it takes a while for the author to introduce Adeline, the protagonist, and makes us wonder how she can be the main character in this story. Since this novel is a Female Gothic novel we do see the familiar struggle of female against the antagonist Marquis, the lord of the ruined abbey. For a start we know that Adeline was a motherless girl and she was captured by bandits from her father. The story begins when La Motte and his family who have been running away from the creditors stop at a place to find shelter. They discover the shelter to be housed by bandits and the bandits spare their lives in a condition that they take Adeline away from the place as soon as possible. This is the point where the quest of the distressed and vulnerable Protagonist begins. This is a very typical characteristic of a Female Gothic where there is a tale of travel of the distressed.
The setting of the novel is the late 18th century and early 19th century England where the characters are introduced and develop along dense forest, hiding trails, abandoned house and a ruined abbey. The society has its own ways with women as they have two choices; either to get married by force or get extinguished with the perils the society throws at them. Adeline being abducted by the bandits and being transferred to the Motte family represents the vulnerability of women in the society. La Motte perhaps would not have agreed to the bandits if his life was not at stake but there should be some sort of insecurity growing in lady Motte as they find Adeline very fragile but beautiful. At this point it was clear that the charm of a lady in distress is bringing a storm of events in their lives as it happens that their lives are connected by a chance.
The runaway along with Adeline go through much trouble along their way to find almost uninhabitable abbey or a castle where it looks as if La Motte gets another chance as he could reside there and be protected from the creditors. They clean up the place and soon discover the abbey belongs to the Marquis, the antagonist. This is the inclination point of the story.

"The Castle Of Otranto"

The Castle Of Otranto is an interesting read. The story is of a new Genre as it defines the new literary style of Goth. The author published it with a claim of finding a manuscript with a different name. This was intentional as he wanted it to have the effect of suspense and awe. The literary elements may appear crude in some ways but the story has all the literary elements. The story is filled with mystery, prophecy, secret pathway, giant statues, swords and supernatural which we discover that will set the benchmark for future Gothic literature.
The exposition of the story begins with a scene of a marriage where the descriptions of the characters are unfolded. The scene takes place in a castle setting which depicts the life of the upper class. As the story unfolds there is a twist. The marriage of the young sickly prince, Conrad with Isabella is interrupted by an accident which kills the groom. There is a mystery being unfolded as people discover what really killed him. The giant helmet of Alfonso, the true ruler of Otranto falls onto Conrad killing him instantly. There is a little that is known how that happened but people relate this to a prophecy that tells them that the ruler of Otranto and the castle, Manfred did not gain the title by inheritance and the illegitimate rule would end when the true ruler arrives. So the story is about keeping the true heir away from power by submission or marriage.
After the death of Conrad, Manfred with his incestuous desires tries to submit Isabella for marriage. This moment is the point where everything becomes chaotic. The secret pathway is revealed and amongst the darkness Isabella finds an unselfish helping hand that helps her escape from the evil intentions of Manfred. The descriptions of the castle appear very strange as the runaway finds herself passing through dark corridors of the castle. The intensity of the actions in the story fluctuates as Isabella settles into the sacred shrine where she thinks she is safe from her fears. This is the point where there is a conflict between the characters. Manfred wants Isabella but he is powerless as he cannot force her as she is safe in the holy sanctuary. Jerome the pastor would not approve this either. Jerome wants to know if Hippolita, Manfred's wife approves of the unholy matrimony and he cannot support Manfred's cause until she approves. So the characters have conflict with their ideas. This is an example of external conflict. Internal conflict arise when Matilda (Manfred’s daughter) and Isabella both fall for Theodore (the peasant arrested and later revealed to be the true heir and descendent of Alfonso).
There are different characters in this story. The Antagonist Manfred is the bad guy who has all the bad motifs including incest (Isabella being like his daughter by marriage with Conrad). The Protagonist Theodore is disguised by his peasant appearance in the story of upper class but soon we find him as a prince who is a direct descendent of Alfonso. He changes a lot through the story as we discover him as a peasant, then Jerome’s son and a great knight and descendent of Alfonso. He is also a Dynamic character. The other Dynamic character is Jerome who loves his son and is willing to compromise his piety to keep him away from the hands of Manfred. Hippolita is a static character as she is so much faithful to Manfred that she is willing to accept the sinful marriage of Manfred. She does not change herself very much in the story.
The story is a story of Irony. As the story is unfolded it becomes clear that the person who Manfred hates the most his daughter loves him, and in the end when Manfred tries to kill Theodore he kills his own daughter. This is also called the irony of situation. This is the climax of the story. From here the falling actions takes place. This includes the change in Manfred as he finds his daughter on a death bed. His evil intentions are gone and he doesn’t have the desire to rule anymore. Everyone is unhappy and things start to slow down. The resolution would be the possible marriage of Isabella to Theodore despite Theodore loved the dying Matilda. This would not take too long as we find out in these stories people get over and fall in love easily. The denouement of the story is making Theodore the prince of Otranto while Manfred and Hippolita voluntary exile to a holy sanctuary for the sin Manfred committed. However I don’t understand why Hippolita has to suffer because of this. May be thatwas how the society would have perceived the position of women in society in those times.