Both Shakespeare and Walpole sought to mimic medieval mannerisms, and in order to help justify his own work Walpole points to Shakespeare as a precedent, stating directly, "[that] great master of nature, Shakespeare, was the model [he] copied" (10). The similarities between The Castle of Otranto and Hamlet are of particular note; both works include a vengeful ghost of a murdered king or lord, the elements of the supernatural are presented in both pieces. Matilida's 'tragic' death at the hand of her father mirrors both Gerturde's death and Hamlet's. The ending of The Castle of Otranto is, of course, the removal of the undeserving ruler, and the restoration of the rightful heir. The work is not in the least a perfect mirror, however, as Walpole has melded the newer romantic styles with the ancient. Walpole also remarks in his first preface, "[the] rules of the drama are almost observed throughout the piece" (6). The theatrical either stems from or results from Walpole's references to Shakespeare. The traditional practices of the theatre appear in Walpole's text, especially attempts to use the Aristotelian idea of 'the three unities' in action, place, and time (117). The adherence to the 'unity of action' is given in the incredibly close text; there are no breaks when separate characters speak:

Walpole omits proper line breaks and puts all of the dialogue in an almost stream of consciousness style, as if one were hearing people speak frantically, rather than attempting to read dialogue in a novel. Walpole uses dashes, and rather more often than normal, exclamations. The sense of urgency in the novel is heightened by the cramped text and the characters exaggerated excitability. Each action of a character seem to lead directly to the action of another, even is such actions do not follow logically they follow immediately. Walpole follows the 'unity of place' by using the restricting setting of the castle, and occasionally the grounds outside. This would have been useful in a play, as one (at the time) would have been very limited by the creation of sets, however the true novel suffers no such limitation—the number of settings are restricted only by the imagination of the author. This artificial reconstruction of the components of a play leads to the final aspect of unity, that of time. An idea play, following these principles, would have been restricted to preferably only the length of time it took to perform it, ironically, it would occur in 'real time' (117).  The close dialogue and the lack of breaks in the text artificially heighten the sense of time in The Castle of Otranto, individual paragraphs can stretch on for more than a page, even if characters speak or change the topic of discussion. The real time frame of the novel is quite short, clearly it was impossible to limit the action in the book to a single day, but the events remain unnaturally rushed, occurring over the space of as little as a few days. 