The Castle of Otranto

   The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole was, in my opinion, an extremely "slow" and many of the characters personally irritated me with their actions. One might argue that the whole story starts off with an action packed scene that involves chaos and death. I agree that this might be true, but from this point on (with the acception of Manfred's temper tantrums) there are no entertaining scenes until the 5 minute battle between Theodore and Frederic. After this point, the only "Exciting" things that happens is near the end of the last chapter when Manfred ends up accidentally killing his Daughter Matilda.
   To accompany the rant that leads this post, I absolutely detest the way people act in this book. The mass population takes everything for granted, and the main characters all seem to have the worldly understanding of a 10 year old.
   As for the Romantic aspect of this novel I cannon complain. You can easily see the romantic aspects of the novel. Nearly all of the Charachters including Manfred, Matilda, Isabella, and Theodore all have major fits of passion that leads too them making decisions that any "normal" individual would not if there were in the correct state of mind. And example of this would be when Manfred sentences Theodore to be held captive under a Giant helmet that landed on his son just minutes before.
   Other Gothic elements are present thought the entire novel. Take for example the candle blowing out in the caverns below the castle. Another example would be the giants that people keep seeing but really don't seem to have anything to do with the main story line. Another example would be the "Curse" t hat is placed on Otranto at the beginning of the novel.
   Overall, I hope I enjoy the next novel more than I enjoyed this one. I also hope that the average IQ of the characters raises to at least room temperature.