Can You Count a Castle as a Character?

Gothic novels are easy to spot. Even without studying the subject for an extended period of time, we are familiar with the archetype through the now clichéd themes which it first employed; preternatural occurences, decaying castles, curses, prophesies, swooning damsels, and dastardly villains. Like Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe also commands control over the basic outline of a standard Gothic drama. Interestingly, one of the sometimes overlooked features of these novels is found in the very beginning, carefully woven into the opening paragraphs.

In both The Castle of Otranto and A Sicilian Romance, the writers begin by describing an ancient, landed family in the exotic-to-the-English-readers locale of Italy. They go through the families, listing each member and, later on, providing a character sketch of each person. The patriarch is usually the first person to be described, followed by his loving and dutiful wife, and then his children and heirs. Yet, there is something that they mention within the very first sentence. Something that, although it is not a person either living or dead, it is a character. What I am describing is the castle.

Yes, I said castle. Before you pounce on me shouting how can a building be a character in a story, let me explain myself and my thinking. 

Scottish Castle, what readers of the time would be familiar with.

Italian Castle, similar in architecture to Radcliffe's Sicilian castle.

There is a short preface before the story begins and the castle is first brought up. The setting is described visually, how there is a hill and on can see both the sea and grand woods. But then it shifts a bit. The unknown, unnamed narrator then details her thoughts as she draws in the crumbling stone edifices. She imagines what it may have looked like inhabited and taken care of. It is because of the castle that she asks for more information. The friar tells her that the walls “were once the seat of luxury and vice. They exhibited a singular instance of the retribution of Heaven, and were from that period forsaken, and abandoned to decay” (1)  This piqued her interest and she investigated further. She next presents the story she “found”, much like Walpole’s story in his first preface.

The castle is introduced in the same way as Ferdinand and the women of his family. Within the first paragraph, these people are listed and given brief descriptions. After this, each character is described a bit more in depth, focusing on deportments, similarities, and unique characteristics. Just after Madame is presented, the castle gets described in a similar way. Similarly to the temperament of the Mazzini daughters which was detailed in the preceding paragraphs, the nature of the rooms of the old castle is presented. The girls were lively and uneasy, sensible and sentimental. The castle was forlorn and melancholic, elegant and pleasant. Such fine detail is given for both, and it is hard to not focus on the castle as much as Emilia and Julia.

This evidence is striking on its own, but A Sicilian Romance is not alone in using a bit of setting as an important feature in the plot and story. Walpole also takes time to carefully describe the castle in his novel. In The Castle of Otranto, the castle holds the mysteries of the bloodline, the escape for Isabella, the gallery of the devil, and the pieces of the giant. Even the descendants of the Gothic genre often feature a setting which acts as more than just when and where. In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, the House of Usher acts as an extension of Roderick Usher. The House suffers and decays as Roderick does. It is described greatly in depth, just as Roderick is. These locations, the House of Usher and the castle of The Caste of Otranto are even in the titles, drawing more attention to their significance.

There is a lot of evidence one can use to argue that the setting of Gothic stories can be featured as characters. These are just a couple of examples. Another example I came across is found here in the form of an analysis of another gothic tale, The Woman in White.

And just for kicks and giggles, here is a link to a Buzzfeed post called "29 Gorgeous Castles from Around the World".

Discussion Questions:

Does the castle keep up importance the whole time? Or are there bursts where it is focused more? What are other instances of the castle being portrayed like a character? Do you see any more similarities between The Castle of Otranto and A Sicilian Romance?