Reading Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto from the Perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis

Abstract

Literature has always been linked to psychoanalysis by literary critics and literary theorists in the academic field of literary criticism or theory. The Freudian psychoanalytic approach focuses primarily on exploring and analyzing an individual’s inner world. This study examines Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto from the viewpoint of the psychoanalysis theory founded on Freud’s interpretations of the behaviours of human beings and discusses the novel from that perspective. These behaviours result from the subconscious part of humans and in which they are connected to internal and external conflicts. Freud believes the unconscious mind is the root of all strange behaviours and mental illnesses and points out that the social context is a significant factor in these afflictions. The study aims to apply psychoanalytic theory to analyze in-depth the self-conflict, repetition of language, and taboos that appear in The Castle of Otranto to present examples of internal or external conflicts that are held in the subconscious as being part of human beings’ essence, and eventually as the primary source of disturbance of human behaviour.