The Castle of Otranto

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What seems to be the main motivation for Manfred’s actions in this novel?

A) Fear of outsiders and unfamiliar ideas

B) Jealousy over his relationships

C) A desire to retain power in his lineage

D) Greed and the desire to accumulate capital

2. Which is the most reasonable interpretation of the symbolic power of Alfonso the Good?

A) He represents the wisdom of fearing God’s jealousy and wrath.

B) He represents the divine sanction of noble actions and legitimate uses of power.

C) He represents the legitimacy of the patriarchy and the rule of primogeniture.

D) He represents the church’s ability to both confer and take away a ruler’s power.

3. Which of the following statements is best supported by the action of the novel?

A) Loyalty to family means unquestioning obedience to one’s parents.

B) Scheming and double-dealing may be wrong, but they are often effective.

C) Romantic love is more important than political expediency.

D) Even the most powerful ruler cannot escape God’s plans.

4. What tone does the narrative take toward Hippolita’s choices?

A) Mostly admiring and respectful

B) Sometimes amused and sometimes puzzled

C) Mostly scornful and condescending

D) Sometimes pitying and sometimes approving

5. What seems to motivate Hippolita’s acquiescence to Manfred’s plans?

A) She wants to distance herself from God’s vengeance against Manfred.

B) She is afraid of what he will do to their daughter if she does not obey him.

C) She wishes to take up holy orders and is eager to leave a loveless marriage.

D) She believes he is right to desert her because she cannot bear him another son.

6. Which of the following statements is most clearly supported by the action of the novel?

A) Autocratic rule is a successful system only when a legitimate ruler is in power.

B) Monarchy is inevitably corrupt and should be limited in its power.

C) The trend of history is to eventually distribute power more and more widely.

D) Autocratic power belongs in the hands of those who can seize and maintain it.

7. How does Manfred’s choice for his future at the end of the novel give him something significant in common with Hippolita, Isabella, and Matilda?

A) He voluntarily gives up his illegitimate power.

B) He turns to the church as a refuge and sanctuary.

C) He wishes to kill himself rather than live without power.

D) He finally realizes the meaning of romantic love.

8. Which character is portrayed most similarly to St. Nicholas?

A) Alfonso

B) Manfred

C) Frederic

D) Conrad

9. Which event foreshadows the revelation of Theodore’s identity?

A) Frederic’s meeting with the hermit in the forest of Joppa

B) His instant attraction to Matilda when she rescues him from the tower

C) His quick identification of the provenance of the helmet that kills Conrad

D) Father Jerome’s refusal to return Isabella to Otranto

10. What does Isabella’s experience while being helped by Theodore as she flees Otranto have in common with Manfred’s stabbing of Matilda?

A) Ghostly apparitions

B) Mistaken identity

C) Secret agreements

D) Covert observation

11. What seems to be the aim of the supernatural forces at work in the novel?

A) They are trying to reveal the truth.

B) They are trying to demonstrate God’s power.

C) They are trying to kill Manfred’s family.

D) They are trying to restore legitimate power.

12. Which of the following most accurately conveys the atmosphere of the castle itself?

A) Chaotic and mercurial

B) Malevolent and angry

C) Dark and mysterious

D) Bizarre and surreal

13. What does the text’s emphasis on bloodlines, its references to St. Nicholas, and its setting all have in common?

A) Their association with Medieval Romances

B) Their association with Christianity

C) Their association with hereditary monarchy

D) Their association with modern psychology

14. Which of the following events most clearly supports the text’s stance on legitimate power?

A) Manfred’s baseless accusations against Theodore

B) The marriage of Theodore and Isabella

C) The veneration of St. Nicholas

D) Frederic’s decision to fight in the Crusades

15. Which of the following events most clearly supports the text’s primary stance on gender roles?

A) Theodore’s story about his mother being kidnapped

B) Manfred’s comments about Conrad’s frailty

C) Manfred offering Matilda to Frederic

D) Matilda’s rescue of Theodore from the tower

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What is the implied relationship between the prophecy and Matilda’s death?

2. What role do dreams play in propelling the plot of the novel forward?