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The gothic novel is a genre ripe with archetypes. Be it the overflow of the sublime landscape, the affluence and domination of the male figures or, the lack of backbone the females of the time appeared to have. Time and time again, when reading any book in this genre, you will be inundated with a flood of feminine helplessness. That is until you meet Maria De Vellorno in “A Sicilian Romance.”
While there are many times throughout “The Castle of Otranto” and “A Sicilian Romance” where the female characters are able to make do on their own they almost always succumb to the times and offer themselves up to their male counterparts as if they simply could not breathe without their assistance in even the most simple aspects of daily life. Quite often it is stated that from shock or from embarrassment a female character faints helplessly into the arms of any nearby male character.
In “Otranto” we have Hippolita, princess to the madman prince, Manfred. Upon finding out that her son has just died, under curious circumstances, she can only think of how to be of service to her husband. Manfred is, of course, too upset at the loss of his heir, his son, his prized and crowning glory, to be bothered with the frailty of a woman. Not even in his wife, the very mother of his son, does he attempt to find any sort of comfort or solace. Hippolita can only blame herself and struggle with her delicacy in ways unknown and or more correctly not willingly understood by a modern woman.
Hippolita struggles and ultimately fails her husband through no fault of her own. In comparison we can look to Maria De Vellorno and see striking differences between these women. De Vellorno is more than happy to serve her own fantasies while allowing her husband to wait on her, hand and foot. She is far more likely to be completely unconcerned with her husband’s family. That is of course, unless they should inadvertently and quite honestly, innocently hinge her feeling of self-worth upon their very existence, which they, of course, do again, through absolutely no fault of their own.
De Vellorno is much more like the madman prince, Manfred. In that the value of a life seems depraved in her eyes. She has absolutely no problems separating her husband, whom she cares little for, other than his name, from his children. She goes so far as forcibly suggesting to him that he should leave his daughters, who are threats to her vanity, behind while they travel abroad with his son. Ferdinand, the marquis, does so with a blindness that is frightening and similar to the blindness of Manfred. The gender roles of the time are visibly shifted here.
To her children, Louisa Bernini, first wife to Ferdinand, their mother, has been dead long enough for them to be unable to understand anyone other than Madame de Menon, a childhood friend to their mother, as their “replacement” mother. It is a position that Menon takes kindly and happily. All the while, the sisters do not know that their mother is indeed alive, but not well, living beneath them, under the confines of their adored father. They accept their fate. They accept that their father will basically walk away from them, taking only his son along to share in the wealth of his splendor. They accept this fate but do not see the doom impending them.
Again, another example of an overwhelming theme for the genre: blindness; the females blindly follow their male superior. So much time has passed that when they are told of a visit it is with great delight they look forward to a vision of their brother. The child who was apparently worthy to be in the presence of their father whom they are not even sure they will recognize when they are graced with his presence. It is this male counterpart that almost seems to have a gender role reversal in this instance. Ferdinand, son of the marquis is brave. He is so brave that he is willing to face apparitions, specters to prove the domain safe enough for his sisters to occupy. It is to his chagrin and quite out of place for him to become frightened by the very same thing that frightens his sisters. Yet it does! But he doesn’t hide his fear; instead he speaks of it to his strong father and asks for guidance.
Ferdinand the younger is an obvious example of gender role reversal but in a curious way it is trickier then even that. However, we can connect his eagerness to that of De Vellorno again. While she has a blindness toward her own vanity, Ferdinand the younger has a blindness in his seeking approval. A trait more often thought to belong to the less fortunate gender. De Vellorno, in this regard, only cares for her own approval. She lives in a world of constant debauchery which no God fearing female of the time would so willingly lead her life into.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand the younger has now become the pursuer of one of his sister’s freedom from Ferdinand the elder who is adamant about her marriage to someone she absolutely despises. In these types of marriage arrangements, while they are not unusual by any means, they do seem quite unnatural. The women in these novels are a pawn on the chess board of men’s whims. The men almost always seem more like captors, more like forceful keepers than they do any sort of loving or faithful companion. Yet the women, somehow, need them for their survival.
In “Otranto” the flight of Isabella is necessary to save herself from Manfred. While she makes her way in a very convenient underground setting we get the feeling that she is frightened but ultimately brave and strong. A person running for their lives would have to be otherwise said person wouldn’t have run in the first place. Isabella, however, becomes the object of yet another’s fancy. Although Theodore is trapped, he thinks of ways to escape and find the woman that his heart desires. So much so that he’s not actually sure who she is. He does not feign ignorance, he simply is ignorant. He, just as many of the female characters throughout these novels are, is blind. Blind with love, fury, rage, and fear. Blind with confusion. Blind with absolute control.
Marie De Vellorno is playing with her stature in her era. She is not a good person or a good example of femininity to say the least. I’m not certain that anyone in any of these novels ever is. However, she is without a doubt a character who stands out amongst the crowd. She is strong enough to almost be the hero of the story, even if she is also the bad guy. She does not fit into the mold.