Is Transgression Represented As A Positive Action In The Narrative Of Matthew Lewis’s The Monk?

This assignment will look at narrative transgression in Matthew Lewis’s 18^th Century Gothic Novel, The Monk (1796). The novel was written towards the end of the eighteenth century, during the French Revolution. This is reflected throughout the narrative of the novel, mainly through the characters actions which further the narrative. There was a lot of unease in Europe at the time the novel was written amongst nobility, with the fear that the same thing would happen to them. Lewis was an MP; so it would have been of concern to him. As a result one of the major themes of The Monk is transgression, and Lewis explores the effect it has on society. Religion and sexuality are the main themes in the novel, and the assignment will look at how the characters conform to the cultural expectations of those themes, and how their transgression, if present, affects their narrative. Ambrosio and Matilda, the protagonist and antagonist will be explored thoroughly, with minor characters also being investigated.

The character of Matilda, or Rosario, is the ultimate transgressor in The Monk. She transgresses both sexually and religiously. Whether this is seen as a positive outcome for her depends on whether what the devil says at the end of the novel, “It was I who threw Matilda in your way”[1] is true or not. Given that the devil also claims Ambrosio was to be found innocent by his prosecutors despite such evidence against him, it is probable that this is merely a lie to further torment Ambrosio.

Matilda’s gender transgression has a startling effect on Ambrosio, “Amazed, embarrassed and irresolute, he found himself incapable of pronouncing a syllable, and remained in silence gazing upon Matilda;” (p. 46). By revealing her female form she gains power over Ambrosio, and is able to manipulate him to do what she wants.

Furthermore her religious transgression gives her control over a “daemon” (p. 204) which appears to give her the power for anything she wants,

Matilda…spoke in a loud and commanding tone, and her gestures declared that she was threatening him with her vengeance. Her menaces had the desired effect: the spirit sank upon his knee, and with a submissive air presented to her a branch of myrtle (p. 204).

This enables her to give Ambrosio what he wants; Antonia, and further strengthens her power over him.

There will be debate over Matilda’s fate. Both she and Ambrosio cut deals with the devil and we see that Ambrosio suffers for doing so. However in his article, “Transgendering in Matthew Lewis’s The Monk” Brewer[2] argues that because he was afraid of religious transgression he only asked the daemon to “save me! Snatch me from hence!” (p. 320) whereas Matilda was more confident, and by wishing for “the power of procuring every bliss which can make life delicious” (p. 314) she would be able to lead a life of luxury. This would suggest that through religious and sexual transgression Matilda would come out of the novel in a better position than any other character. It is also worth noting that she is the only character to transgress both sexually and religiously of her own free will.

The central character of The Monk, Ambrosio, was raised in the monastery since he was a baby, and “in order to break his spirit, the monks terrified his young mind with all the horrors with which superstition could furnish them” (p. 204). This would have left Ambrosio too terrified to entertain any unholy thoughts, which built up over time unleashed themselves all at once as soon as Matilda gives him an outlet to do so. Had he not been treated so harshly by the monks he may not have been as compelled to transgress in adulthood.

Ambrosio transgresses both sexually and religiously. In breaking his vow of chastity with Matilda, Ambrosio weakens his resolve and this causes him to “forget his vows, his sanctity, and his fame: he remembered nothing but the pleasure and opportunity.” (p. 69) this leaves Ambrosio open to sin. Every time Ambrosio transgresses he feels regret and remorse, “Scarcely had he succeeded in his design than he shuddered at himself and the means by which it was effected. The very excess of his former eagerness to possess Antonia now contributed to inspire him with disgust.” (p. 281) This sexual deviance backfires on him and he finds himself taken by the inquisition to be punished.

Ambrosio also transgresses religiously, by making a pact with the devil, “He signed the fatal contract, and gave it hastily into the evil spirits hands.”(p. 320) This is the act that seals his fate and results in a prolonged death. This could be seen as an argument against transgression, however it could be argued that seeing as he is not committed to the pact, and does it out of fear rather than desire, and he is punished for taking transgression lightly.

The opposing fates of Ambrosio and Matilda counter balance the argument for transgression, however only Matilda is fully behind the transgression, and she manipulates Ambrosio into his actions, suggesting that transgressing through choice reaps benefits, but it is something to be taken seriously. Characters that only broke one boundary still appear to have better conclusions than those who stayed within their boundaries.

The opposite of Ambrosio is the Mother St. Agatha. She is so regressed that she insists on following the laws as strictly as possible, “The laws of our order are strict and severe; they have fallen into disuse of late, but the crime of Agnes shows me the necessity of their revival.”(p. 38) and condemns Agnes to death. Her lack of transgression however is her downfall, as she is killed horrifically in the riots, “…the rioters still exercised their impotent rage upon her lifeless body. They beat it, trod upon it, and ill used it, til it became no more than a mass of flesh, unsightly, shapeless, and disgusting.” (p. 261) Although it later emerges that Agnes had not been killed, her outward regression resulted in her death.

Agnes breaks her religious vows, and tries to elope with her lover Raymond. This sees her punished by being placed in a chamber underground, where following an illness to the nun responsible for feeding her she transgress into “a creature stretched upon a bed of straw, so wretched, so emaciated, so pale, that he doubted to think her woman” (p. 270) as she is near death, this could be Lewis saying that in death gender and guidelines are broken, and that transgression is natural, as is argued by Brewer[3]. Both her religious and sexual transgressions work for her in the end as she is reunited with Raymond and ends up marrying him. The cost of all this, the death of their child, could be seen as a warning against transgression, but the finality of their marriage at the end would disprove this.

An important character who does not appear to transgress is Lorenzo. At the start of a novel he dreams of a monster attacking Antonia, which many interpret as a foreshadowing of Ambrosio’s rape and murder of her. However in his article, “A Dreadful Dreadful Dream…” D.L. Macdonald argues that “The monster may represent an unacknowledged side of Lorenzo himself…The monsters fall into the abyss may represent Lorenzo’s repudiation of this side of himself.”[4] Macdonald’s argument is convincing, and explains what happens to Lorenzo at the conclusion of the novel.

In shunning the darker side of his sexuality, Lorenzo is patient and waits for Antonia, which results in Ambrosio taking advantage and ultimately leads to her death. Lorenzo gets married to another former nun in the end, but Lewis states “his sentiments partook not of the ardent character which had marked his affection for Antonia.” (p. 306) Had Lorenzo acted on his natural urges and transgressed sexually, he and Antonia may have been together.

Antonia is completely unaware of her sexuality, and as a result she does not notice the danger when Ambrosio makes an attempt to seduce her, “She knew not that there was more impropriety in conversing with him in one room than another. She thought herself equally secure of his principles and her own, and having replaced herself upon the sofa, she began to prattle at him with her usual ease and vivacity.”(p. 191) Had Antonia been more aware of human transgressions, instead of being protected from them, she may not have suffered the same fate.

Despite fears of a revolution, The Monk does not entirely condemn transgression. Ultimately the character of Matilda show’s that transgression when well planned can be a benefit. However we are shown through Ambrosio that rushing into unchartered territory can be fatal. The narrative shows that uncontrolled transgression can lead to rioting, yet at the same time those not willing to transgress are punished for their passiveness, and their actions do not further the narrative. The novel itself was considered transgressive at the time due to its explicit depiction of sex and violence. Lewis would have been aware of this as he was writing which suggests that Lewis sees transgression as a positive act, as long as it is deliberate and thought out. Matilda and her fate mirror this verdict. The Monk shows transgression as something that happens naturally, as highlighted by Brewer, and it is something that we have to learn to control, rather than unleash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Brewer, William D., ‘Transgendering in Matthew Lewis’s The Monk’, Gothic Studies, Volume 6 Issue 2 (2004), p192-207

Cooper, Andrew L., ‘Gothic Threats: The Role of Danger in the Critical Evaluation of The Monk and The Mysteries of Udolpho.’, Gothic Studies, Volume 8 Issue 2 (2006), p18-51

Lewis, Matthew, The Monk (Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2009)

Macdonald, D.L., ‘’A Dreadful Dreadful Dream’ Transvaluation, Realisation, and Literalization of Clarissa in The Monk’, Gothic Studies, Volume 6 Issue 2 (2004), p157-171

Messier, Vartan P., ‘The Conservative, The Transgressive, and the Reactionary: Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian as a Response to Matthew Lewis’ The Monk’, Atenea, Volume 25 Issue 2 (2005), p37-48

Nelson, Victoria, ‘Faux Catholic: A Gothic Subgenre from Monk Lewis to Dan Brown’, Boundary 2, Volume 34 Issue 3 (2007), p87-107

Robertson, Ben P., ‘In The Name Of Matilda: Female Transgression and Romantic Conceit’, Names (American Name Society), Volume 53 Issue 3 (2005), p169-201

[1] Matthew Lewis, The Monk (Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2009), p 322

[2] William D. Brewer, ‘Transgendering in Matthew Lewis’s The Monk’, Gothic Studies, Volume 6 Issue 2 (2004), 192-207, p. 202

[3] William D. Brewer, ‘Transgendering in Matthew Lewis’s The Monk’, Gothic Studies, Volume 6 Issue 2 (2004), 192-207, p. 199

[4] D.L. Macdonald, ‘’A Dreadful Dreadful Dream’ Transvaluation, Realisation, and Literalization of Clarissa in The Monk’, Gothic Studies, Volume 6 Issue 2 (2004), 157-171, p. 157-158

Poe, Lovecraft, and The Movies: Part VIII

Fear causes us to regress into a childish mindset, and we have seen how this has been exploited in horror and the gothic. A social fear, such as an invasion or isolation from the modern world as seen in The Mist[1] scares the adult mind, causing us to regress back to childhood. Once we are trapped in that mental environment, we are assaulted by things that don’t scare us as adults, but did as children. This is seen in all the works studied, overgrown insects are present in The Mist, a spectral ghost that represents death in The Masque of The Red Death[2], and monsters in both Dagon[3] and The Call of The Cthulhu[4]. Although as mentioned previously, Lovecraft was criticised for his lack of characterisation, with the reasoning that a ‘good horror writer is a good character writer’[5], it is this lack of characterisation that makes the work of Poe and Lovecraft so timeless. It is easy for a contemporary reader to substitute themselves into the story at the expense of the narrator as they are given no defining characteristics. No traits or interests that would seem foreign to a reader in a hundred years are present, making them relatable no matter what year the reader is living in. Modern horror writers such as Stephen King retain this basic formula, but much like Roger Corman, are forced to improve characterisation in his novels to get the reader to invest in a story of that length. Interestingly King has written several collections of short stories, like Poe and Lovecraft before him. Only time will tell if these retain more horror for future generations than his novels.

The problem with analysing the cause of fear is that what scares us is unique to each individual. Studies can be done and theories can be made, but what frightens one may not frighten another. Artists who make their craft in the horror genre draw from popular fears when choosing what to implement in their work. Obscure phobias are seldom featured in the media, as this would narrow the target audience, limiting potential revenue, and revenue is the most important factor as far as contemporary publishers and production companies are concerned. Fortunately childhood and social fears have remained fairly constant throughout history, and are unlikely to change in the future. Timothy Evans stated that horror is ‘predicated upon feelings of insecurity brought about by cultural change, and that life as we know it is increasingly under assault by forces beyond our control’[6]. Man and technology continue to evolve, never staying still, meaning that every generation in existence will have felt this way. This enables those who create tales of horror to take these fears as a base for their stories, and simply substitute different settings and roots of fear into their stories to satisfy and terrify a contemporary market, as evidenced by the fact that Poe is still in print and influencing modern writers and film makers, over a century after his death.

 

We are left with the question of where horror artists of the 21^st century can find inspiration with which to create fear. We have seen that films don’t necessarily have the same staying power as literature. Modern cinema is too young however for us to truly assess how well films from the last fifty years will be regarded by future generations. Although even if these films are discarded in years to come, there are plenty of other places for us to get our fix of horror. Emerging forms of entertainment have embraced the genre, literature and film continue to produce horror, and it is even visible in music, with bands such as Black Sabbath and The Misfits drawing inspiration from the genre, basing their songs on horror films. Horror is also popular genre in the video game industry, with Silent Hill[7] and Resident Evil[8] being but two popular franchises that place the gamer directly into the role of the protagonist, causing them to experience the fear directly. If Lovecraft’s writing is prescient, there is nothing to say that any of the other texts discussed will become so in time. Some social fears may change, but most remain constant. Fear is a base emotion, and as a result what causes this fear is usually base too. Once we are reduced to the childish mindset fear causes, the horror artist can easily beset us with things we fear as children, as much like social fears, what scares a child is likely remain similar no matter how far into the future we go. Horror is timeless, as Lovecraft said, ‘The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear’[9] (p. 2) and the horror tale will evolve side by side with the mediums we enjoy it on.

[1] The Mist (2007) Film. Directed by FRANK DARABONT. USA: Dimension Films.

[2] Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin Books, 1982), p. 269-73

[3]H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of The Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories(London: Penguin Classics, 2002), p. 1-6

[4] H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of The Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories(London: Penguin Classics, 2002) p. 139-69

[5] G.W. Thomas ‘Scare the heck out of your readers—and other horror-writing tips.’ Writer, 121, 4 (2008), p. 15

[6] Timothy H. Evans, ‘A Last Defense against the Dark: Folklore, Horror, and the Uses of Tradition in the Works of H. P. Lovecraft’. Journal of Folklore Research, 42, 1 (2005), p. 100

[7] Silent Hill (1999) Video Game. Japan: Konami

[8] Resident Evil (1996) Video Game. Japan: Capcom

[9] H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature. [Ebook] Amazon Media, Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supernatural-Horror-in-Literature-ebook/dp/B005IZD612/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334933516&sr=1-3 [20/04/2012], p. 2

 

Poe, Lovecraft, and The Movies: Part VII

The Masque of the Red Death is a 1964 film starring Vincent Price as the evil Prince Prospero. The Poe story is a mere five pages long, so expanding that into a ninety minute film required the writer of the screen play to insert some new elements into the narrative. The narrative here is interpolated, the new material required to make a film of the master narrative joins seamlessly with the information we are given by Poe. The vast majority of this additional material focuses on Prospero and portrays him as a truly evil Devil worshipper. Played by the ‘suavely menacing’[1] Vincent Price, from the opening, Prospero is portrayed as a despicable person. Roger Corman makes his adaptation of Poe’s tale a commentary for the purpose of film. Corman has to alter the narrative to give us a protagonist in order to keep the story interesting for the audience. In the short story, Poe refrains from passing judgement on the Prince. Although the idea of isolating yourself from your people in order to survive while they suffer would seem evil, Poe does not imply this is the case. Nor does he state the opposite, saying only that Prospero gathers a thousand people from his court and ‘retired to the deep seclusion of one of the castellated abbeys.’ (p. 269). The opening scene sees him ride into a village neighbouring his castle, and threatening to kill two of the villagers that oppose him, before ordering for the entire village to be ‘burnt to the ground’ after discovering someone suffering from the red death. Prospero offers no sanctuary to the villagers and simply leaves them to burn in their own homes. This is one area in which the film betters the book. Lovecraft said ‘Poe excels in incidents and broad narrative effects rather than in character drawing.’[2] Vincent Price makes Prince Prospero his own, creating a truly horrible character that creates emotion in the audience. When he finally gets what he deserves, the audience cheers his demise. As the credits roll however, the audience is challenged to ‘look inside himself,’[3] recalling a technique visible in Poe’s prose, leaving an uncomfortable feeling in the audience as they leave the cinema.

One of the main tactics used by the director to create fear is to carefully choose the characters which are placed in danger. Throughout the film, it is women and children who are placed in danger more frequently than their male counterparts. It is usually the scorn of Prospero himself that is the cause of their anguish. When Prospero learns that his wife has betrayed him he orders one of his trained hawks to attack her until she bleeds to death in front of the congregation at the party. This is just one of many scenes where Prospero is built up to be seen as evil as possible. Although it is argued ‘discerning writers often evoke the fear response through the power of suggestion rather than with graphic descriptions’[4], this is difficult to pull off on the big screen, and the violence committed against Prospero’s wife is certainly graphic. However it works to great effect in this instance as it is the only real scene of violence in the film, and contrasted to the other graphically tame crimes in the film it leaves a lasting impression. This results in the audience feeling ‘drawn into the violence, we want it to be over because it lingers too long.’[5] However the scene does not last forever; and herein lies one of the problems with horror on screen ‘to see, to endure, such a shocking spectacle of violence enables us to overcome the horror, to enjoy it and expel it in a moral sense’[6]. Actually seeing these events is scary at the time, but films have helped us become desensitised to such horrors. Coming at the start of the final act of the film, it raises the fear level amongst the viewer as they know events are building to a crescendo.

 

Suspense is used to great effect at the end of the film. The Red Death appears at Prospero’s masquerade ball, and after a lengthy scene of the prince trying to catch up with him, they have a confrontation in the black room. Prospero is lead to believe that he is the only one who will survive by the personified Red Death, however when he is told that he too shall perish, he panics. Not knowing the face of death becomes too much for Prospero, and he rips the mask off his tormentor, only to reveal his own face. This is an interesting technique, as though it is not used in the hypotext, it runs with the common theme of Poe’s work that forces the audience to look at themselves and their own reactions to the narrative.

 

Film has a tendency of aging quicker than literature. Prose creates an individual image in each of our own minds. Film has to rely on special effects, cinematic techniques and even the quality of the print to create an image. The Masque of the Red Death has unfortunately aged faster on film than it ever could in print. Though The Mist is relatively young compared to the aforementioned, it is hard not to imagine it also ageing to its detriment in decades to come. There is nothing stopping either film from being enjoyed decades after release, movies such as The Exorcist[7] and The Shining[8] are still regarded by some as scary despite being released over thirty years ago. Yet social fears change over time, and as image in film is definitive, it is harder to reapply changing fears to the same text. As popular as Vincent Price was in the horror genre, his acting, whilst remaining sinister at points, has an exaggerated style that could garner more laughter than fear from a modern audience. The same can be said of the special effects in The Mist. These effects will not be as advanced in decades to come, and may look unrealistic to an audience in future decades. Again this would result in the audience failing to take them seriously. Both films use techniques popular in horror; the isolation of the shoppers and Propsero’s revellers, and the threat of something which we have no control over and little understanding of. However the fear created by these texts can be taken away over time a lot quicker than the fear instilled in us by writers such as Poe, Lovecraft and King.

 

[1] Peter B. Flint, ‘Vincent Price, Noted Actor Of Dark Roles, Dies at 82’. New York Times, 27, 10 (1993), p. 23

[2] H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature. [Ebook] Amazon Media, Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supernatural-Horror-in-Literature-ebook/dp/B005IZD612/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334933516&sr=1-3 [20/04/2012], p. 23

[3] Richard Badenhausen, ‘Fear and Trembling in Literature’. Studies in Short Fiction, 29, 4 (1992), p. 491

[4] John Edward Ames, ‘The art of terror: Tap into readers’ fears with 5 techniques for an emotionally rich story’. Writer, 123, 5 (2010), p.22

[5] Fred Botting, ‘Future Horror (the Redundancy of Gothic)’. Gothic Studies, 1, 2 (1999), p. 147

[6] Ibid.

[7] The Exorcist (1973) Film. Directed by WILLIAM FRIEDKIN, USA: Warner Bros. Pictures

[8] The Shining (1980) Film. Directed by STANLEY KUBRICK, USA: Warner Bros. Pictures

Poe, Lovecraft, and The Movies: Part VI

Cinema has undoubtedly overtaken literature as the most popular form of entertainment in the last century. Academics agree, stating ‘film is a better medium than fiction for the delivery of gothic sensationalism.’[1] On the screen however it is harder to accomplish the restraint in horror beautifully accomplished by Poe and Lovecraft in literature. The audience has a visual representation of horror now, and although it is possible for the director to pull the camera away at the scariest moment, some directors choose not to, showing blood and gore in excess. This removes the tool used most effectively by Poe and Lovecraft. The Mist[2] is a 2008 film directed by Frank Darabont, and is an adaptation not of a H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe story, but one by Stephen King. King was however strongly influenced by the aforementioned, and Lovecraft’s influence is strongly felt in this adaptation of his novella. In contrast, The Masque of The Red Death[3] is an adaptation of the Poe story[4] already analysed. In ‘Dark Dreams’ it is stated horror films;

represent not only a rebellious rejection of adult values, but also a titillating glimpse into the forbidden contents of the id, especially the sexual and violent impulses that so dominate the contemporary genre.[5]

 

This attitude seems to contradict the restraint and poetic prose employed to create terror in literature. This contrast between mediums opens up new approaches to creating fear in an audience, which is evident in the two aforementioned films.

Stephen King makes no secret of the fact that he was heavily influenced by Lovecraft, which is evident in Frank Darabont’s 2008 adaptation of his short story The Mist. Though not an adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s works, it is certainly an appropriation of his literature that dealt with creatures from another time, such as Dagon[6] and The Call of The Cthulhu[7]. The film shares many traits with the work of Lovecraft. The doorway to another dimension is opened up due to military experiments, and the creatures that inhabit the other dimension cross over into our world under the cover of a thick mist that engulfs a whole town leaving people trapped inside a supermarket. Both the film and King’s novella can be considered analogies of The Call of The Cthulhu according to Wagner’s taxonomies. All three stories focus on what happens when unfathomable creatures from another age or dimension are awakened and interact with the human world as we know it. All three also deal with how vulnerable mankind actually is, and the weakness of the human mind to correlate events of this type if they were to happen.

The most Lovecraftian elements of the film relate to the monsters. The audience first sees evidence of what is in the mist when large tentacles enter the store through a rear shutter door, dragging one poor character into the mist. We are not shown what the tentacles belong to, but their size hints at something much larger than anything that lives on Earth. This links in with Lovecraft’s use of monsters that are of incomprehensible size, with his characters in The Call of The Cthulu confessing ‘acute fear of the giant nameless thing’ (p. 145). It is a smart move on behalf of the director too, by implying the size of the creature but not actually seeing it, the audience is able to conjure up the worst thing imaginable in their mind as the source of this terror. Lovecraft himself said ‘A few sinister details like a track of blood on castle stairs, a groan from a distant vault, or a weird song in a nocturnal forest can conjure up the most powerful images of imminent horror.’[8] If Darabont had shown the whole creature, the audience wouldn’t be able to imagine anything other than what was given to them. This is a common problem when moving a horror novel from page to screen. Words on a page can create an image of horror, but as it can’t actually show the reader what the terror looks like, it is left to the reader to imagine what they can from the words they have been given. The best horror films are the ones that do a similar thing, and leave horrible events to the audiences’ imagination. This is especially true of outdated horror films, where special effects were less advanced, resulting in unconvincing monsters, or creatures with zips visible on their costumes.

The film also plays into the human fear of isolation. The people trapped in the supermarket cannot see out the windows due to the thick mist enveloping them, and the few people who leave the supermarket to try and get home can be heard screaming in agony once they leave. There are elements of the uncanny at work here, but what makes the situation much worse is that as the film progresses, the smaller creatures in the mist try to enter the supermarket through its entrance side, which is mostly made up of glass. This creates a terrifying situation where what is outside can see the people trapped in the supermarket and easily get to them through the glass, whereas the humans cannot see what is outside. One of Stephen King’s greatest skills as a writer is creating characters that we can empathise with. Darabont manages to transfer this onto the screen, leaving the audience feeling the fear that our protagonists face, another element of literature that isn’t always successfully transferred onto screen.

There are also reflections of Poe visible in the story too. One character at the beginning of the film leaves and goes to into the mist to get back to his family at home, however, much like when Prospero goes alone to confront the Red Death ‘none followed him on account of a deadly terror which had seized upon all’[9] (273). This is not the only parallel that can be drawn with Poe’s works. A character bitten by an uncanny insect develops symptoms very similar to those of the Red Death, and perishes in a similarly short time frame. Despite the dangers waiting outside, the humans on the inside manage to split themselves into two groups, one side descends into madness, much like our narrator in The Black Cat[10] resulting in one group murdering a member of the other, and throwing him outside with the monsters. This proves that ‘all horror stories are really about the incursion of disorder on order.’[11] A group of shoppers who were behaving as society expects one moment, suddenly act completely differently as soon as things begin to stray from the status quo.

The ending forces the reader to reflect on themselves, in the same way The Black Cat does. The protagonist, his son, and two people he has bonded with drive out into the mist hoping for the best. Eventually, tired, and out of petrol, they resolve to take their own lives. With only three bullets available to them, the protagonist bravely volunteers to leave himself at the mercy of the mist. However shortly after he has taken the lives of the others, including his young son, the mist begins to disappear and he is taken to safety by the military. The true horror in the film comes from this ending. Using his best judgement he resolved to kill those closest to them in what seemed like the kindest, most humane act at the time. However had they waited a short time longer they all would have survived. The film forces you to look at yourself and consider what you would have done in the same situation.

[1] Fred Botting, ‘Future Horror (the Redundancy of Gothic)’. Gothic Studies, 1, 2 (1999), p. 141

[2] The Mist (2007) Film. Directed by FRANK DARABONT. USA: Dimension Films.

[3] The Masque Of The Red Death (1964) Film. Directed by ROGER CORMAN. USA: Alta Vista Productions.

[4] Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin Books, 1982), p. 269-73

[5] Charles Derry, Dark Dreams 2.0: A Psychological History of The Modern Horror Film From the 1950’s to the 21^st Century, (London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2009), p. 22

[6] H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of The Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories(London: Penguin Classics, 2002), p. 1-6

[7] H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of The Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories(London: Penguin Classics, 2002), p.139-69

[8] H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature. [Ebook] Amazon Media, Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supernatural-Horror-in-Literature-ebook/dp/B005IZD612/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334933516&sr=1-3 [20/04/2012], p. 8

[9] Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin Books, 1982),p. 269-73

[10] Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin Books, 1982), p. 223-30

[11] Chuck Miller and Tim Underwood, (eds), Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror With Stephen King (New York: Warner Books, 1989), p. 203

 

Poe, Lovecraft, and The Movies: Part III

In The Black Cat our narrator ‘refuses even to acknowledge a disengagement from the human race’[1] This is the source of terror in the tale, the detachment our narrator shows throughout does not affect our opinion on events. Lovecraft claims the best horror authors are ‘always acting as a vivid and detached chronicler rather than as a teacher, sympathiser, or vendor of opinion.’[2] Poe clearly understood this, and extended that detachment to the narrator. When writing from a first person perspective it is difficult not to create a character whose views and characteristics affect the readers’ mind-set. The opening describes how as a child our narrator’s ‘tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions.’ (p. 223), and later he claims ‘I blush, I burn, I shudder’ (p. 224), as he writes of gouging out Pluto’s eye. The ‘fear of damaging or losing one’s eyes is a terrible fear of childhood’[3], and this plays into this story with the narrator depriving his first cat Pluto of one of his eyes. The fact that atrocity is committed to a domesticated animal increases the horror created in the mind of the reader. However as the narrator’s mental health diminishes in the narrative, so does the amount of guilt he shows for his deeds. By the time he buries an axe in his wife’s skull, he gives very little input regarding his feelings as he reflects on the horror he has been through going as far to say ‘I soundly and tranquilly slept; aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul’ (p. 229) with no sense of remorse.

This story is the perfect example of Poe refusing to blame evil on an outside force but instead placing responsibility on man. The protagonist of the story commits murder for no reason other than an irrational hatred for his victim. There is a definite air of insanity surrounding the murderer, something that is also a big theme in the work of Lovecraft. It has been said that Poe’s tales, ‘characteristically short and impatient, tend to plunge into the dreamscape straight away’[4] and this story is a perfect example. Poe’s narrator holds up the black cat as a source of external evil, causing us to empathise with the narrator, before finally at the conclusion ‘the trapped reader finally must face himself in the same way as the imprisoned and condemned narrator.’[5] We have been sympathetic throughout, convinced that this cat is evil, when in fact it is not. Our narrator is insane, and there is ‘no externally influential force, no abstract definition of evil to direct the characters.’[6]

The insanity of our narrator is clear as ‘fear is comprised of tangible worries, like the fear of death, which rational creatures can distance through various strategies and thus remain sane’[7], and by placing the focus of his fear onto the cat that troubles him so much in the story, he is projecting his fears onto a household pet which is not distanced from him at all. His inability to cope with this grows larger as the story goes on, to the point that he later projects his fear onto another cat after he has disposed of the first. His inability to rationalise what it is he is so scared of causes him to lose his sanity, and leads to the terrible events in the story, and his casual attitude to the atrocities he has committed as he retells the story to the reader. It is in part this attitude that makes the story seem so real. Indeed that is part of the appeal of Poe. His writing displays the quality of ‘the Fantastic made Real, instead of being accepted simply as fantastic.’[8]

Poe uses the uncanny to great effect throughout the story, focusing mainly on the cats. After the narrator murders the first cat, and burns his home to the ground he is confronted with a horrible image left on one of the walls. On this wall our narrator sees ‘as if graven in bas-relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat.’ (p. 225) His italicisation of the word cat emphasises the fear caused by this image and helps pass that fear onto the reader. The image of the cat is familiar, yet unfamiliar because of its size, and this use of the uncanny allows the reader to experience the same fear of the cat that the narrator felt whenever he witnessed it. Later in the story a second black cat enters the life of the narrator. This cat is almost identical to the previous, even deprived of one of its eyes like Pluto before it. However this cat has ‘a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast.’ (p. 226) Whereas Pluto was black all over. The uncanny element of the cat is introduced here, but Poe increases the terror related to this second cat as the white splotch begins to resemble ‘the GALLOWS!’ (p. 227), and it is the combination of the uncanny and the imagery conjured up by a cat with gallows on its breast that causes the reader to empathise with our narrator, and fear an innocent cat.

[1] Richard Badenhausen, ‘Fear and Trembling in Literature’. Studies in Short Fiction, 29, 4 (1992), p. 490

[2] H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature. [Ebook] Amazon Media, Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supernatural-Horror-in-Literature-ebook/dp/B005IZD612/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334933516&sr=1-3 [20/04/2012], p. 20

[3] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny in Art and Literature, (London: Penguin Classics, 2003), p. 7

[4] Jack Morgan, The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film (USA: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002), p. 217

[5] Richard Badenhausen, ‘Fear and Trembling in Literature’. Studies in Short Fiction, 29, 4 (1992), p. 497

[6] Chuck Miller and Tim Underwood (eds), Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror With Stephen King (New York: Warner Books, 1989), p. 7

[7] Richard Badenhausen, ‘Fear and Trembling in Literature’. Studies in Short Fiction, 29, 4 (1992), p. 492

[8] Chuck Miller and Tim Underwood (eds), Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror With Stephen King (New York: Warner Books, 1989), p. 11

Poe, Lovecraft, and The Movies: Part 1

Fear is one of mankind’s strongest emotions. It is a natural instinct that allows us to protect ourselves from threats. As centuries have passed, fear has become something we no longer feel on an everyday basis, leading academics to reason that when we watch a horror film, or read a horror novel ‘we are hunting for the sensation of fear because we lack it in life’[1]. The world of entertainment has stepped in to provide us with a safe environment within which we can experience fear. Audiences continue to seek out this thrill, and although historically the horror genre is looked down upon and seen by many as being trash, with one critic going as far as to claim ‘ghost stories, or other horrible recitals of the same kind, are decidedly injurious under all circumstances’[2]. Despite this horror continues to make money and draw in a large audience. Being scared causes us to regress. Our senses heighten and we return to a primitive fight or flight mentality. Furthermore ‘there is something about fear that returns us to a state of childhood’[3]. Life is simpler as a child, and returning to that state through fear ironically takes us back to a time where instead of being scared by ‘social fears’[4] we are transported back to a time where we fear ‘monsters and the dark’[5]. Two things that are no longer unknown to us and that we can comfortably overcome.

It is suggested that ‘we must judge a weird tale not by the author’s intent, or by the mere mechanics of the plot; but by the emotional level which it attains at its least mundane point,’[6] and this statement exemplifies why someone would read or watch something from within the horror genre; to experience fear. The works of Edgar Allan Poe and Howard Phillips Lovecraft are both popular in horror literature. The Masque of The Red Death[7] and The Black Cat[8] are two famous works by Poe with different subject matter that create fear in very different ways. The former deals with the timeless social fear of disease and epidemic, whereas the latter looks at madness and how irrational behaviour brought about by the illness can have a devastating effect. In contrast, Dagon[9] and The Call of The Cthulhu[10] share similar subject matter, yet their methods of creating fear are slightly different. The works of these two writers have inspired many over the years, including film makers. The Masque of The Red Death[11] is a 1964 work based on Poe’s short story of the same name, whereas The Mist (2007)[12] is a film not based on any particular story of Lovecraft’s, yet his influence is clear throughout. By studying these works of Edgar Allan Poe and Howard Phillips Lovecraft, as well as the cinematic adaptations of their work, I will explore how fear has been created in the past, and how and why this has changed over time in accordance with new social cultural and historical contexts.

It would be naïve to suggest that what fills cinema audiences with dread today is the same thing that would terrify the theatre audiences and readers two centuries ago. The social and historical context that an audience is part of plays a huge part in constructing their fears and desires. This has been shown most effectively in cinema, as in the sixties horror focused on invasion and mind control, reflecting fears brought about by the cold war. In the 1970s America was horrified by killer Ed Gein and his collection of skeletal furnishings[13]. Suddenly the danger wasn’t across the ocean, but in your own neighbourhood. Hollywood latched onto this and filled the cinemas with films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)[14] and Halloween (1978)[15]. The different eras of horror cinema all come back to one thing though, no matter what form it takes, ‘we relish fear of the stranger – the mysterious murderer, the monster running untamed.’[16]. If the root of our fears can change that much in the space of ten years, how different would they have been several decades ago?

Sigmund Freud and Edmund Burke both published work on fear, looking into The Uncanny[17] and The Sublime[18] respectively. Freud defined the uncanny as ‘something that is familiar and old fashioned in the mind and which has become alienated from it through process of repression’[19]. The Uncanny is something familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time, and this is what causes fear. It is a technique used frequently in gothic literature and horror movies, and the same can be said of the sublime, which Burke described as similar to horror, but ‘the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.’[20] anything that can ‘excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime.’[21]. The sublime is a fear that renders the person experiencing it frozen, unable to do anything but feel the terror running through them. Both of these techniques were discussed with a reference to literature, and they are visible in the writing of both Poe and Lovecraft. Since the theories were written they have also been applied to film, and any occurrences of these theories that arise in The Masque of The Red Death and The Mist will be discussed.

[1] Kate Williams, ‘Monsters Ink’. New Statesman, 141, 5088 (2012), p. 50

[2] Rendle, W. (1833) ‘On The Moral Education of Youth’ The Imperial Magazine, May, p. 219

[3] Kate Williams, ‘Monsters Ink’. New Statesman, 141, 5088 (2012), p. 51

[4] G.W. Thomas ‘Scare the heck out of your readers—and other horror-writing tips.’ Writer, 121, 4 (2008), p. 15

[5] Ibid.

[6] H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature. [Ebook] Amazon Media, Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supernatural-Horror-in-Literature-ebook/dp/B005IZD612/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334933516&sr=1-3 [20/04/2012], p.4

[7] Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin Books, 1982), p. 223-230

[8] Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin Books, 1982), p. 269-73

[9] H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of The Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories(London: Penguin Classics, 2002), p. 1-6

[10] H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of The Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories(London: Penguin Classics, 2002), p. 139-69

[11] The Masque Of The Red Death (1964) Film. Directed by ROGER CORMAN. USA: Alta Vista Productions.

[12] The Mist (2007) Film. Directed by FRANK DARABONT. USA: Dimension Films.

[13] BBC NEWS (2007) Ed Gein – The Orignal American Psycho [WWW] BBC News. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A21605636 [27/04/2012]

[14] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Film. Directed by TOBE HOOPER, USA: Vortex

[15] Halloween (1978) Film. Direct by JOHN CARPENTER, USA: Compass International Pictures

[16] Kate Williams, ‘Monsters Ink’. New Statesman, 141, 5088 (2012), p. 50

[17] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny in Art and Literature, (London: Penguin Classics, 2003), p.363-4

[18] Edmund Burke (1757), Of The Sublime. [WWW] Bartleby. Available from: http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/107.html [27/4/2012]

[19] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny in Art and Literature, (London: Penguin Classics, 2003), p.363-4

[20] Edmund Burke (1757), Of The Sublime. [WWW] Bartleby. Available from: http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/107.html [27/4/2012]

[21] Edmund Burke (1757), Of The Sublime. [WWW] Bartleby. Available from: http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/107.html [27/4/2012]