[2] It contains the standard gothic tropes of the blameless damsel in distress, the centrality of a huge, gloomy, ancient building to the plot, the discovery of scandalous family secrets, and a final confrontation between forces of good and evil.

Matilda is ill for unknown reasons and there is no bed for her to rest in, so they go to the neighbouring haunted Castle of Wolfenbach, whose caretakers take them in.

The Count and a servant burst into her apartment at the Castle of Wolfenbach accusing her of breaking her oath by talking to Matilda and Joseph when she is supposed not to communicate with anyone.

Her punishment for communicating with the Chevalier was having her son taken away and she was to be locked up in the Castle and he made Joseph take an oath to never tell anyone, even Bertha, of her occupancy there.

The reader also finds out that the Count de Bouville has travelled to England to join his friends after the wedding of his sister and the death of his mother.

"Your story, which the Marquis related, convinced me you had every virtue which should adorn your sex, joined with a courage and perseverance, through difficulties which might do honor even to our's.

Since I have been admitted a visitor in this house, I have been confirmed in the exalted opinion I entertained of your superiority to most women, and under this conviction I may justly fear you will condemn my presumption, in offering myself and fortune to your disposal.

Heaven is my witness, that did my birth and rank equal yours, it would be my glory to accept your hand; but as there exists not a possibility of that, I beseech you to spare me and yourself unnecessary pain; from this instant determine to avoid me, and I will esteem you as the most exalted of men".

Once Matilda learns of these rumours, she decides to retire into an Ursuline convent in Boulogne, France, where she strikes up an intimate friendship with Mother Magdalene, a nun who has lived there for ten years.

One day the Marquis receives a letter from London from the German Ambassador, stating that the Count of Wolfenbach is dying and wishes to make amends to his wife.

After Matilda's friends leave the area on matters of business or pleasure, Mr. Weimar travels to her convent and demands that she accompany him.

Meanwhile, the Count de Bouville has learnt of Matilda's abduction and follows through Europe, finally finding her in the company of her mother, the Marquis and Marchioness, Lord Delby, and the Countess of Wolfenbach.

It marked the first effective challenge to monarchical absolutism on behalf of popular sovereignty, creating a republican government in France and spreading such ideals in other European countries.

"As a response to fears of a lost British identity, Gothic novels (like The Castle of Wolfenbach) reaffirm authentic cultural values culled from the past.

"[7] The Castle of Wolfenbach is likewise set in the past and in a distant land, yet deals with contemporary issues such as identity loss, marriage and choices.

an 18th-century British Critic reviewer already identifies the theme of secrecy and hiding by showing how the plot is so written as to "vanish into thin air".

A sick Matilda asks to stay with Jacqueline and Pierre, but they have no place for her – she and Albert go to the Castle of Wolfenbach, which is rumoured to be haunted.

[13] A prominent story line in the novel is what the Count did with Victoria and their child after faking both their deaths and keeping her locked in his castle.

He admits he was unable to live peacefully with his deeds weighing heavily on his mind, and how fearful he was that they would one day be discovered, so that "life became a burthen (burden) to me.

"[14] Furthermore, the Count details how he searched the Countess' apartment, found evidence of Matilda being there and soon after drugged Joseph with opium, locked all the windows and doors, and then set fire to the castle.

In addition, the Count discusses his plans to murder both Victoria and her servant, Margarite, so that there would be no remaining people who could reveal his secret.

As the novel as a legitimate form emerged through the 18th century, sensationalist and theatrical elements of fiction were being explored as grossly popular characteristics of the Gothic.

This presents itself as inability in its heroines to take control of their worldly bodies in the face of supernatural terror, villainous deeds or romantic gestures.

[27] As William Beckford satirises the nonsense of Gothic romance in Azemia and Jane Austen the dangers of subscribing to a Gothic lifestyle in Northanger Abbey, the fits of fainting and weeping, so common in the works of Parsons and her contemporaries, are parodied in countless responses, from 1807's anonymous Men and Women, to Eaton Stannard Barrett's The Heroine.

As scholar Angela Wright has commented, "The character of a Gothic heroine is seemingly a tabula rasa which exists to be over-written by emotions and overwhelming memories.

It is this poor characterisation, based solely on emotionalism, that causes many to criticise the Gothic novelist as inferior, and gives way to easy parody.

As scholar Robert Kiely has pointed out, Gothic abounds in theatricality and "the works [of romantic novelists] often seem about to turn into plays or poems.

Another theme in The Castle of Wolfenbach and often in Gothic novels as a genre, is secret parentage, unknown identity and questing to find oneself.

As the Introduction to the Valancourt Edition points out, "[Matilda's] challenge in the novel is to discover the secret of her birth, find her parents, and inherit her rightful property.

Matilda's true identity is hinted sporadically: Marquis de Melfort: If there is a mystery in her birth, time may yet bring it to light (p. 71).