Narrating from her deathbed, Mathilda, a young woman barely in her twenties, writes her story as a way of explaining her actions to her friend, Woodville. Her narration follows her lonely upbringing and climaxes at a point when her unnamed father confesses his incestuous love for her. Mathilda has also been seen as an example of redefining female Gothic narratives which includes the first person female narrator having more control over the story than was common at the time.