A Feminist Perspective of A Sicilian Romance and The Castle of Otranto
In eighteenth century novels, a common means of discussing the role of women in society is through the characterization of two good sisters. The heroine of such a novel is a pure, kind young woman who also has a streak of spunkiness. Her sister may be more good and kind, but she is more submissive and reserved. I would like to look at these sisters (and their mothers) in Ann Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance , and The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.
It is possible that The Castle of Otranto was the first to introduce these two good sisters as a means of exploring the duties and expectations of modern woman and her right to love. Interestingly, the book comes out in favor of increased individuality and lessened submissiveness. One way contemporary ideas of femininity were being defined was through conduct books written to guide women. “Prescriptive writing…in the eighteenth century tended to portray most women as largely passive in the face of men, biology, and fate...” (Hunt, 75). Walpole and Radcliffe explore what happens when a woman is not passive. The consequences of this independence are gauged against the fate of the more acceptably feminine sister (and mother).
Though not blood relatives, Isabella has been raised as Matilda’s sister, and her relationship with the prince and princess is one of daughter to parents. Isabella has a more independent identity than Matilda does. There are suggestions that Isabella is slightly more sensual than Matilda, someone who admits her sexuality and attraction to men. Bianca, Matilda’s lady, says, “But there is my Lady Isabella would not be so reserved to me: she will let me talk to her of young men;...
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...ill inevitably have to compromise her virtue for her happiness. Walpole allows Matilda to remain obedient by having her death occur before she must make a final choice. “Well! to be sure, Madam, you were born to be a saint,” says Bianca to Matilda, “and there is no resisting one’s vocation; you will end in a convent at last” (Walpole, 42). Bianca is close to the truth as Matilda is martyred.
Works Cited
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and Family in England, 1680-1780. London: University of California Press, 1996
Radcliffe, Ann. A Sicilian Romance. Edited by Alison Milbank. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Tobin, Beth Fowkes. History, Gender and Eighteenth-Century Literature. London: University of Georgia Press, 1994.
Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. London: Grey Walls Press Limited, 1950. 1998
Cott, Nancy F. The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.
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