Castle Of Otranto Duty Quotes

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Responsibility, honor, pride, morality. When one thinks of duty, all these words come to mind. Never would anyone consider duty to be the cause of death, destruction, dishonesty, and cruelty. Although striving to fulfill one’s duty is seen as a noble and honorable, the gothic novel, “The Castle of Otranto” has shown that striving to fulfill one’s duty can be everything but honorable from what Manfred, Hippolita, Matilda, Isabella, and Jerome did in order to accomplish their duties. As a result, the stress that each character went through, in addition to the nature of each character’s role influenced the way the characters treat people close to them and the way their fates are determined at the end of the novel.
Manfred displays how selfish, …show more content…

Throughout the novel, she is repeatedly called “obedient” or “dutiful”, and no matter what she is feeling she always puts her duty before herself. For example, at the beginning of the play after Conrad is found dead she, “smothered her own grief and amazement and thought of nothing but assisting and comforting her” (mother) (Warpole, 7). Ironically, the reason for Matilda’s death was because of the times when she broke away from her duty like when she freed Theodore from his prison and went to meet Theodore in the darkness even though she was warned not to as opposed to Isabella who’s fate did not end badly because she did not let duty control …show more content…

The characters Hamlet and Laertes both assume duties of vengeance for their parents’ deaths. Hamlet was told by his father’s ghost that Claudius killed him and Laertes’ father was killed by Hamlet. By the end of the play, Hamlet does not get to act out his vengeance and is killed by Laertes acting out his own vengeance. In a way, both Hamlet and Laertes and Matilda and Isabelle are like mirroring foil characters in their own stories. Hamlet has aggressive, erratic, passionate characteristics while Laertes is cautious, paranoid and hesitant. These character traits had a significant influence on their circumstances at the end of the play. Because Hamlet was so erratic with his behavior, it is similar to letting his duty lead him which in turn led him to his death. On the other hand Laertes did not let it force his hand and he ended up acting out his vengeance against Hamlet. The situation between Matilda and Isabella is similar in the way that is more complicated. Matilda ended up suffering the fate of death after not letting her duty lead her for a moment and Isabella had a better future due to the fact that she did not let her obligations rule her life. In both pieces of literature, there are

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