Horace Walpole created a foundation for his literature that explored themes of troubled marriages, female emancipation, and incest; themes that challenge eighteenth-century norms. Walpole uses ideas derived from observing his parents' troubled marriage and his close relationship with his mother in his writings. Walpole created characters based on himself and his parents by giving his characters characteristics and personalities similar to himself and his parents. He is not a feminist, but the female characters in his novels gain power and control from the tyrant male characters. His writings are also anti-Catholic portrayal due to his use of supernatural and erotic themes. Walpole's childhood experiences influenced his writing with his distant relationship with his father making him want to become a father figure himself, and his hidden sensual desire for his mother. Walpole incorporated his life and beliefs into his writings. As a child, Horace Walpole's parents had affairs outside of their marriage that inspired complicated love triangles in Walpole's writings. Walpole's father, Sir Robert, had a reputation for his sexual life: “There is no doubt of Sir Robert's sexual irregularities; indeed it is said to have affected his reputation…he lived openly with Miss Catherine Skerritt, whom he married after the death of Lady Walpole” (Gwynn 15). His father's sexual reputation created a problem in the family. His parents did not spend much time together so Walpole's relationship with his father was distant as he spent most of his time with his mother, who was devoted to Walpole as Sir Roberts was with other women (Ketton 30). An unhappy marriage is in the relationship between Manfred and Hippolita in Walpole's book The Castle of Otranto. In the story, Manfred's wife Hippolita was barren and therefore Manfred had no heirs