HORACE WALPOLE: The Castle Of Otranto To what extent can we say that Manfred's downfall is caused by his lust for power?

Answer Details

In Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Manfred, Prince of Otranto, is destroyed by his own actions. His downfall is caused largely by his lust for power, his determination to keep the principality his family has usurped, though this ambition is bound up with pride, cruelty and unbridled desire.

The root of his ambition: a usurped throne

• Manfred rules Otranto through an old wrong; his grandfather seized the principality from its rightful lord, Alfonso. An ancient prophecy warns that the true owner will one day reclaim it.
• Manfred's overriding aim is to secure and perpetuate this ill-gotten power by ensuring a male heir, so his lust for power drives every decision.

How the lust for power drives his crimes

• When his sickly son Conrad is crushed to death, Manfred, desperate for an heir, resolves to divorce his loyal wife Hippolita, an act of injustice motivated purely by dynastic ambition.
• He determines to marry the young Isabella himself, pursuing her ruthlessly and even with violence, to father a new heir. His obsession with the succession overrides all morality.
• His tyranny and paranoia lead him to threaten and imprison the innocent, including the virtuous Theodore.

The fatal outcome

• Manfred's frenzy climaxes in the accidental killing of his own daughter Matilda, whom he stabs in mistake for Isabella. His grasping ambition thus destroys what he loves most.
• Overwhelmed by guilt and confronted by the supernatural apparition of Alfonso, who proclaims Theodore the rightful heir, Manfred is forced to confess his family's usurpation, abdicate and retire to a monastery.

A balanced judgement

• Manfred's lust for power is the chief cause of his ruin, but it operates through related flaws, pride, cruelty and lust for Isabella, and it runs against a destiny fixed by the prophecy and enforced by Heaven.
• His downfall is therefore both self-inflicted, through ambition, and providential, the punishment of a usurping house.

Conclusion. To a very great extent, Manfred's downfall is caused by his lust for power. His obsession with securing his usurped throne leads him into injustice, cruelty and finally the killing of his own child, bringing about the collapse of his house and the restoration of the rightful line.