Walpole There Can Be Many

Walpole

There can be many comparisons and interspersions of the Industrial Revolution and the words that can be found in many novels from the Gothic era. In Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto one of the main characters makes the following statement to a lowly friar; "Heaven," replied Manfred, "does not send heralds to question the title of a lawful prince" (Walpole 1764-page 25).

The same can be said of the workers affected by the larger, more elaborate, more efficient machinery being employed during the Industrial Revolution. The workers during that era would purposefully damage the machines, not to (as in today's world) protest the machinery itself, but to fight for their livelihoods and for the future of their families. Their struggle can be compared to the capitalists of the Industrial Revolution who only saw the potential for higher profits to line their pockets, with little or no thought as to how the implementation of such machinations would affect their workers. Their attitude was comparable to Manfred's.

There are other comparisons as well. As stated by CP Snow in his book The Two Cultures; "Each of us is solitary: each of us dies alone: all tight, that's a fate against which we can't struggle - but there is plenty in our condition which is not fate, and against which we are less than human unless we do struggle." (Snow 1998).

The same can be true for much of the Gothic era literature and many examples of such can be found in Walpole's Castle.

The young peasant boy who is portrayed as an honest, forthright, and righteous individual in The Castle of Otranto can be compared to those common workers who, having done no wrong, are still wronged by the man or men who are in positions of authority, whether that authority be ascertained as a king (or prince) during Gothic times, or the perceived power of the owners of the plants or workhouses during the Industrial Revolution.

Snow moved between two groups (the two cultures) and found them comparable in many ways, but they had little or no communication and therefore each group found the other group, not necessarily at odds, but at least strange enough to wonder whether any progress could be made between them.

For constantly I felt I was moving among two groups - comparable in intelligence, identical in race, not grossly different in social origin, earning about the same incomes, who in intellectual, moral and psychological climate had so little in common that instead of going from Burlington House or South Kensington to Chelsea, one might have crossed an ocean." (Snow 1959).

The Luddite theory also espoused that two cultures would eventually clash and portrayed the men of power during the Industrial Revolution as only interested in profits, and maintaining their respective lifestyles, at the expense of all those who would struggle against them, including family members. So it is with Walpole's king who, as he attempts to justify his play to remain in power.

He states, "would he quit the flourishing state of Vicenza for the inconsiderable principality of Otranto? If he would not, could I bear the thought of seeing a hard unfeeling vicerory set over my faithful people? - for sirs, I love my people, and, thank Heaven, are beloved by them." (Walpole pg 29).

One can only imagine the same words emitting forth from any of the monied owners who worked hard to remain in positions of power and money during the Industrial Revolution in their attempts to justify the misuse of the common workers during that era.