The Castle of Otranto: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

On their way back to the castle, Manfred worries about what he is convinced is a love affair between Isabella and Theodore, but he nevertheless resolves to gain Isabella for himself. He uses every possible argument to convince Hippolita to divorce, only to find that Hippolita readily, though passively, agrees to go through with it. Manfred decides to use Matilda as a bargaining chip to convince Frederic to give him Isabella.

Delighted with his wife’s response, he quickly leaves to inform Frederic. On the way back to Frederic, though, he meets Bianca. Knowing that Bianca is Isabella’s and Matilda’s confidante, he tries to ascertain the exact nature of Isabella’s and Theodore’s relationship. However, after a long, rambling, and unsatisfactory response from Bianca, Manfred knows little more than he did before. Still, he bribes Bianca with a jewel to spy on Isabella.

Manfred finally reaches Frederic, but just as he is about to tell Frederic his good news, Bianca bursts in. She is terrified, and in her terror she tells Manfred that as she was going to do her spying she was scared away from Isabella’s quarters by the sight of a giant hand in armor.

Frederic, having learned of Manfred’s treacherous spying, now decides not to go through with the double wedding. Manfred, however, tries to sway him by praising his daughter’s beauty. Frederic remains tempted by the thought of Matilda, and even more so by the power of ruling Otranto. And yet, he still wavers in his decision, and decides to see if Hippolita truly consented. At that moment, however, an announcement is made that a banquet has been prepared, and Manfred, still hopeful that he can convince Frederic, tries to manipulate him by seating him next to Matilda at the feast and by getting him drunk.

Once the banquet is over, Frederic desires Matilda more than ever and goes to see Hippolita in her oratory in order to confirm her consent. At the oratory, Frederic finds a mysterious cloaked figure kneeling in prayer. However, when he approaches the figure he discovers that it is not Hippolita as he thought, but a skeleton in a hermit’s cowl – it is the ghost of the hermit he met in Joppa. The ghost scolds him for subordinating his mission to save his daughter below his own carnal desires and orders him to forget Matilda. Torn between “penitence and passion,” Frederic falls in agony to the floor and prays to the saints. Hippolita then arrives to find his motionless body on the floor, and thinking he is dead, screams out. The noise brings Frederic back to his senses, and he exits the room tearfully, hinting at his love for Matilda but leaving Hippolita with little explanation. Heading for his own room, he runs into Manfred, who wants to celebrate with him. But Frederic, still shaken by the apparition, brushes off the drunk and irritable Manfred, who had just been rejected once again by Isabella.

Furious at these rejections, Manfred becomes all the more enraged when his spy at the church informs him that Theodore and a lady are secretly meeting at Alfonso’s tomb in the church. Believing that Isabella rejected his sexual advances because of her eagerness to meet Theodore, Manfred decides to spy on them himself. Guided by faint moonlight from the church windows, Manfred is able to sneak up behind the couple undetected. When he hears the couple discuss getting married, his fury rises and he stabs the woman from behind, believing that it is Isabella. However, it is not Isabella but Matilda, his own daughter. Realizing his mistake, Manfred tries to kill himself but is stopped by a few monks, who were drawn to the commotion. Though the monks try to help her, Matilda urges them to help her father instead and insists that she be brought to her mother in the castle.

The monks and Theodore are bringing Matilda to the castle, with Manfred following behind in despair. Hippolita, who had heard the news, rushes toward the church to find her daughter but faints halfway there and is revived by Isabella and Frederic. In a gesture of daughterly devotion, Matilda clasps the hands of both her mother and her father to her heart, and a remorseful Manfred throws himself on the ground, cursing himself. Worried that Manfred’s and Hippolita’s emotions will overwhelm Matilda, Isabella takes charge, ordering Manfred to his apartment. She also has Matilda brought to the nearest room in the castle. Though Theodore tries to marry her before she dies, Matilda focuses almost entirely on her mother, forgives her now absent father for killing her, and dies shortly thereafter.

As Theodore mourns over the body, Isabella is walking Hippolita back to her room, when they meet Manfred in the court. Manfred, who was on his way to see Matilda, realizes that his daughter is dead, and at that moment, the earth rocks and the giant helmet clamors. Believing the end of days is here, Frederic and Jerome rush out to the court, dragging Theodore behind them. As soon as Theodore steps out, part of the castle walls behind Manfred crash down, and a giant ghost-like image of Alfonso appears over the ruins, declaring that Theodore is the true ruler of Otranto.

Everyone in the court falls to the ground in recognition of the “divine will.” Hippolita decries “the vanity of human greatness” and declares to Manfred that only retiring to the church’s convents will save them. Grief-stricken for his daughter’s death, Manfred repents for his crimes and is finally ready to listen to Hippolita. In order to atone, he confesses to killing his daughter in the church and reveals the story of how he came to rule Otranto. His grandfather Ricardo had been Alfonso’s chamberlain and, during the Crusades, murdered Alfonso and then forged Alfonso’s will in order to gain power. Returning to Otranto, Ricardo’s ship was wrecked in a storm, and Ricardo then made a deal with St. Nicholas ensuring his survival and rule over Otranto in return for building a church and two convents dedicated to the saint. St. Nicholas accepted, but also decreed that Ricardo’s line would rule only until the rightful ruler grew too large to inhabit the castle.

Jerome then completes the story by recounting Alfonso’s secret past. Before Alfonso fought in the crusades, he married a Sicilian woman named Victoria, who gave birth to a baby girl who eventually became Jerome’s wife. This means that Theodore is a direct descendant of Alfonso. In atonement for his sins, Manfred abdicates the throne and retires to one of the nearby convents to become a monk, while Hippolita retires to the other convent to become a nun. Frederic relinquishes his own claim to Otranto, and offers Theodore Isabella’s hand in marriage. Because Theodore is still in mourning for Matilda, he is reluctant at first, but after bonding with Isabella over their shared loss, he eventually decides to marry her.