In Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto and Haywood’s Fantomina, the women are victimized by the men, and social roles are being challenged. The characters’ interactions are the vehicle for the authors to voice their grievances with the social roles of the time period. Furthermore, the effectiveness of subverting these social roles (while at the same time conforming to them [e.g., the protagonist in Fantomina]) is implicitly questioned. The time period’s society chooses the expected behavior of the roles, and those views are foisted upon the women. Both Isabella in The Castle of Otranto and the protagonist in Fantomina are forced to react to decisions made by the men. The women in both stories lack agency. Isabella in The Castle of Otranto faces
