The Castle of Otranto and C.P. Snow's Two Cultures

Introduction: Snow's Two Cultures and the Gothic Novel

According to the scientist and novelist C.P. Snow, the Industrial Revolution caused a catastrophic schism in the way human knowledge was classified. In his view, scientists and literary critics "have a curiously distorted image of each other" and are separated by a "gulf of mutual incomprehension" of one another's pursuits (Snow, 1963, p. 3). Once, it was believed that wise persons could and should possess both a broad and a deep knowledge of what are now called the sciences and the humanities. Today, these two ways of knowing stand opposed.

Long ago, no strict division existed between these two genres of knowledge; rather, knowledge as a whole was fused into one. But as science grew increasingly specialized, and literary culture began to concern itself with what was fantastic and psychologically true rather than what was proven and "real," two intellectual cultures began to develop. For Snow, this divide was dangerous (Snow, 1963, p. 65). It was not merely that an atmosphere of "hostility and dislike" and a "lack of understanding" born of such "polarization" represented a loss to the "intellectual life of the whole of Western society." It was also a practical and creative loss: scientists lost a sense of humanity, and literary critics lost a sense of judgment and purpose for their works (Snow, 1963, p. 3).

This notion of a divide is evident in the way that modern literary critics frequently interpret the eighteenth-century Gothic novel, such as The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. The Gothic genre is typically read as a Romantic manifestation of the turn away from the rationalism, realism, and Neo-Classicism of the Enlightenment toward emotion, fantasy, and Medievalism. Viewed in this way, the Gothic genre becomes a kind of refuge from the rapidly industrializing, socially mobile, and unstable reality of England.

Walpole's Ambition to Reconcile Two Kinds of Romance

Horace Walpole's Gothic classic The Castle of Otranto, with its twelfth-century Medieval setting and highly fantastic, supernatural plot, seems at first glance to be a perfect example of a Gothic refuge from reality. However, Walpole himself did not see his novel as merely a diverting tale. In his second preface, he stated that his novel was "an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern. In the former all was imagination and improbability: in the latter, nature is always intended to be, and sometimes has been, copied with success... The author of the following pages thought it possible to reconcile the two kinds" (Wikipedia, 2006). Walpole thus saw himself as attempting to bridge two cultures in his novel, in a manner analogous to Snow's argument. He was trying to find a balance between art and nature — between what was self-consciously artificial and a realistic psychology of the individual.

The Supernatural World of Otranto and the Limits of Human Agency

Gothic tales are usually seen as existing at a remove from the very real concerns of everyday life. On the surface, it appears that chance rather than human will governs the plot of Walpole's novel. The original marriage of Conrad and Isabella is thwarted when Conrad is crushed to death by a fallen helmet. The characters are constantly beset by messages from the gods. "Heaven itself declares against your impious intentions!" cries the dead Conrad's fiancée Isabella to Manfred, when Manfred reveals his intention to divorce his wife and marry her (Walpole, Chapter 1).

The "good" characters advocate submission to fate rather than active resistance to the supernatural will of heaven. "My gracious Lord," says Hippolita, "let us submit ourselves to heaven. Think not thy ever-obedient wife rebels against thy authority. I have no will but that of my Lord and the Church" (Walpole, Chapter 4). Despite Manfred's attempts to control the world around him, the forces of heaven cannot be thwarted in their determination to right the wrongs committed by his grandfather Ricardo, or to prevent Manfred from committing further mischief. The characters experience helplessness and terror in the face of forces beyond their understanding, rather than any sense of empowerment through scientific mastery. Morality, rather than reason, enables them to survive.

Of course, the characters must at times exercise a degree of judgment and reason in grappling with the supernatural. Even in a novel where the forces of prophecy are undeniably real, the "real" can be mistaken for the supernatural and vice versa, as occurs in Chapter 4 when Manfred mistakes Theodore for a specter: "Theodore or a phantom, he has unhinged the soul of Manfred." Like scientists, the characters must struggle to analyze the world around them and interpret messages from beyond, so they can comprehend the will of the supernatural forces that threaten or cajole them at every turn.

Conclusion: Otranto as Confirmation of the Cultural Divide

Walpole's The Castle of Otranto illustrates the persistence of Snow's cultural divide even when an author consciously attempts to transcend it. Although Walpole aimed to reconcile ancient romance with modern psychological realism, the novel's supernatural plotting, its insistence on moral submission over rational agency, and its privileging of personal and familial history over empirical progress all confirm Snow's thesis. The world of Otranto is not governed by science or reason but by conscience, prophecy, and inherited guilt — a literary universe that is fundamentally at odds with the rationalist, industrial culture Snow describes. In this sense, Walpole's work stands as an early and telling example of the very schism Snow would later diagnose as central to modern intellectual life.

Works Cited

"The Castle of Otranto." Wikipedia. 28 Jul. 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Otranto

Snow, C.P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963.

Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. Originally published 1764. E-text available 27 Jul. 2006. http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/romance/TheCastleofOtranto/toc.html