The castle of Otranto is a tragedy. Examine this statement with particular reference to three incidents in the story.
The castle of Otranto is indeed a tragedy of a supernatural relationship. The three incidents in focus have supernatural backgrounds. These tragic incidents are the mysterious death of Alfonso the Good, the tragic death of Conrad and the third being the murder of Matilda.
The mysterious death of Alfonso, the prince of Otranto is indeed a major tragedy that opens the way for other tragedies. Alfonso the Good had traveled to the holy land with Richardo, his chamberlain. A great storm separates them but it is later revealed that Alfonso dies of poison. Richardo presents only a fictitious will that confers the prince ship of Otranto to his family until “the rightful owner should be grown too large to inhabit it”. By this strange death of Alfonso, Richardo’s family becomes “usurpers’ of the throne of Otranto.
On the day of his wedding, young Conrad, the only son of Manfred, the reigning prince of Otranto is crushed to death under a strange helmet purported to be similar to the one on the statue of Alfonso the Good at St. Nicholas church. The young peasant that makes this allusion is imprisoned and condemned to he executed on the order of Manfred. However, the young prince escapes death by divine intervention. While hiding in the castle vault with Isabella, another victim of Manfred’s tyranny, the young peasant nearly kills the knight he lights with, outside the tunnel. The man is identified as Frederic, the Marquis of Vicenza and the father of Isabella whom the young peasant is trying to help.
Finally, Manfred murders his only daughter, Matilda in cod blond out of petty jealousy. Manfred is told that Theodore (the young peasant) and his enemy is talking with a woman in the church. He suspects that it must be Isabella who escapes from him to avoid marrying him. When he gets to the place he hears voices and not certain of the owner, he strikes with blind fury and the woman drops. Unfortunately, it turns out that Manfred spilled his own blood on the ground of St. Nicholas church, a great tragedy indeed.