In this post, I decided to try to find and understand
how someone can turn into a human monster. There are two aspects I want to
explore with you, hoping you will enjoy it!
The first aspect that could influence this
transformation is loneliness. I think that when someone is forced to stay on
his own without seeing nor earing others, he or she might develop violent or
thoughts that are disconnected from reality. For example, in the movie I Am Legend, the main character is left
alone in New York City, due to the apocalypse that happened. Since he did not
ear nor see other people for a long time, he became really fearful and
tormented by the evil creatures that were outside his house at night. He was
constantly thinking about how he could kill or fight them, which finally lead
him to a form of madness. The proof is that when someone finally arrived with
him in New York, he rejected her immediately, even if he wished company for so
long.
Another aspect would be duality in personality. I think
that when someone tries to hide a side of his or her personality to other
people, it will surely come out eventually, maybe creating some negative
events. What I want to express with this statement is that people who have two
sides of their personality might, eventually, get tired of playing around with the
perception of others and mix both parts together, sometimes creating a human
monster. A good example of this duality would be Dr. Jekyll in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
In this story,, the main character Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde at night, who
has an evil and monstrous personality, the complete opposite of his day-time
personality. With time, his personalities come to mix altogether, changing
whenever they want. This causes evil behavior, linking him to a human monster.
I suggest you do not stay alone for too long and hide a
certain part of your personality because you might turn into a human monster! 😉
Recently, I have read several short
stories written by Edgar Allan Poe. One of them really marked me with the exploitation
of the theme of madness, and it is called The
Fall of the House of Usher. Whether you have already read it or not, I think
you will understand the extent of this particular theme.
The most important aspect of the
theme, in my opinion, is the disconnection from reality. In fact, the man,
Roderick Usher, thinks everything in his environment is constantly looking at him.
He thinks the rocks and the windows are always looking and checking out each
and every one of his actions. His fear of ending the family line leads him to
disconnect with the reality, leading him to extreme madness.
Another form of disconnection is when the narrator of the story himself is reading a story to Roderick. While the narrator reads the story, hiding his own fear and madness, Roderick keeps staring at the door, fearing the return of his wife Madeline, talking to himself. If this is not proof of disconnection with reality and madness, I do not know what it is!
I hope my little introduction to the story helps you understand how important this theme is in most of Poe’s story, especially in The Fall of the House of Usher.
In Edgar Allan Poe repertory, there are a lot of pure masterpieces. One of the most popular ones is called The Raven. In brief, it is the story of an old man who fears not to see his beloved one again. One day, when he hears knocking at his door, he automatically thinks it is his wife, but there is simply nothing at the door. The next time, he hears a noise on his window and expects that there is nothing like the previous time. When he comes to the window, a raven immediately enters his house. At that point, the man only considers it as a thing.
However, a little later in the story, the man now begins to consider it as a stupid bird. This judgment is created by the fact that every time the man asks a question to the raven, it only responds by “nevermore”. This special bird follows him throughout his journey facing his biggest fear of loneliness.
More towards the end of Poe’s story, the man comes to view the raven more as a prophet and a leader instead of as a stupid bird. The man comes to see the bird as a symbol of knowledge, which influences some of his decisions.
Finally, at the end of the man’s journey, he realizes or believes that the raven he had lived with since the beginning, was the embodiment of the devil himself. The man believes that the bad things that happened in his life were entirely due to the presence of the raven, leading to this quite surprising conclusion.
I surely recommend you read Poe’s short story, The Raven, because there are so many subtilities and details, which makes the story even better. Afterward, I invite to share your impressions on the evolution of the symbolism of the bird with us!
Hannibal Lecter… For those who
know who this man is, does the only mention of his name give you goosebumps? What
do you feel when hearing about him if not fear? Well, maybe you think he is
somehow nice, and you feel empathy for him, but either way, Lecter is a very
interesting character, and this is why I decided to see what makes him so
frightening for most people. The novel I will take as a reference in this post
is The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas
Harris, originally published in 1988.
The first thing is that he is
in fact a very charismatic man. For example, when Clarice Starling, the
investigator, goes to the psychiatric hospital to meet with Lecter, a patient
called Miggs talks to her in a crude and rude way, which would suggest that
this man may be mentally deranged. On the contrary, during her first visit at
the hospital, Lecter is extremely polite with her, and acts like a gentleman.
Indeed, his gentleman-like behaviors make him even more scary since there is no
way someone can know whether he is “good” or “bad” without previously knowing
from the beginning that he murders people to eat them afterwards.
Lecter needs information to use
his psychological power. Without information, he is lost. This means that
without information, he has nothing. This reminds us slightly of Dracula from
Bram Stoker’s novel, right? Dracula’s power comes from the information he
obtains from the blood he drinks, or from the years he has lived. Hence, to
stay alive in this modern world, he seeks information. It is similar in the
case of Hannibal Lecter. He is indeed a surgeon, but also a psychiatrist. Psychiatry
requires a superior knowledge of how the human brain works, and also of social
behaviors, which can often be associated to different mental illnesses. Therefore,
a psychiatrist must know his or her patients in order to help them properly. The
problem in Lecter’s case is that he may be too good at his job, for he
instantly knows much information even before the person tells anything.
Moreover, once he is told some information, he is able to play with one’s mind
to make him or her do what he wants to a certain extent. An example of his need
of information is when Clarice Starling investigates the case of Fredrica
Bimmel, and for all the information he gives her, he asks for information about
her in return, despite the fact that Crawford clearly told her to avoid revealing
to him any personal information.
Briefly, if you are boring,
according to his standards, you will not last long. The issue is, we do not
know how Lecter defines “boring”. This means that there is no way we can adjust
to him to avoid being killed because we do not have any clues as to what he
considers as boring or not. Therefore, we are kept in obscurity when it comes
to Hannibal’s thoughts while this knowledge is the only thing that could
possibly save us from a horrible death. In other words, Hannibal does not need
to have a motif to kill. It does not matter to him whether we did something
wrong or not. That is, he can decide to kill someone because that person did
something he disliked, or just because a person is not entertaining enough for
him.
Finally, the previous
characteristics make him the “perfect” serial killer, but they also show that
from the outside, he is the most ordinary human being. Hence, from this fact,
another frightful thought arises: there could be a Hannibal Lecter everywhere
we go. We do not know what is going on in other people’s minds, and if Lecter
is able to hide his true nature so well, then, how many people are able to do
it too?
After reading these traits of
character, are you now scared of Hannibal Lecter? I know there are many
opinions about whether he is good or bad, and it is actually quite interesting
to see that a serial killer can make people hesitate in that manner.
Are you one of those who think he is fundamentally good, or fundamentally bad? Or neither?
In this post, I will provide you a little explanation of the
evolution of the gothic genre through time with different examples of books
that were really popular in this genre.
First of, I will describe how The Castle of Otranto set the standards for the future gothic
pieces. This story was written by Horace Walpole in 1764. It was the first story
that follow the gothic genre we know today. This story really set the standards
for this genre and, even nowadays, some gothic pieces are inspired from it. At
first, the gothic genre really focused on the aspect of setting. The setting of
a story is really the base because it will decide whether or not the reader
will be frightened by the piece or not. In The
Castle of Otranto, the setting is, in my opinion, the most important
elements of the story. Actually, the fact that it is set in strange places really
far from anything else is what makes the reader afraid. On the contrary, if the
story was set in the middle of the city in a beautiful house, the tension in
the book would certainly be destroyed.
Following the same idea, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, written in 1897, also put emphasis on the setting of the
story. In this book, the fact that Count Dracula’s castle is far from the city
makes the readers believe even more in the “evilness” of the character. Even in
the story, the protagonist, Jonathan Harker, is afraid to go to the Count’s
castle because it is set in a far and strange place and no one is really sure
of what’s happening there. Once again, the tension found in the book is
essentially created by the setting of the story.
On the other hand, more recent gothic pieces put emphasis on
completely different motifs to create tension. For instance, Stephenie Meyer’s
Twilight, published in 2005, created tension based on the archetype of the
damsel in distress and forbidden love. The forbidden love situation is mainly
represented in Bella and Edward’s relationship. The fact that he is a vampire
and she is a human, makes it technically impossible for them to fall in love,
even though this is exactly what happens. Adding to this situation, Bella, one
of the main characters, is essentially represented as a damsel in distress.
Meyer puts Bella in different situations that sometimes put her in danger, but
mainly creates vulnerability. It is in those cases that the archetype of the
damsel in distress will create tension for the readers because they will fear
what will happen to the girl.
With this glimpse of information, I hope you understand a little better the evolution of the gothic motifs through time and that it makes you realize how the authors create the tension you like so much about gothic novels.
There are two main sources
from which vampires were inspired. The first one is Greek mythology, and the
second one is Vlad the Empaler. My guess would be that the story of Vlad the
Empaler is considerably more known by people than the one from Greek mythology!
But still, both are interesting.
Greek Mythology:
Delphi, place where the Oracle lives.
This legend from the Greek
people has been found in the “Scriptures of Delphi,” which are said to have
been written by the Oracle of Delphi. Delphi is an ancient Greek city that has
been inhabited since 1600 BC. It was considered by the Greeks to be the center
of the world, due to Greek mythology and Zeus’ eagles, which he released in the
wild, and which met at Delphi after encircling the world. The scriptures tell
the story of Ambrogio, an Italian adventurer that was going in Greece to have
his fortune told by the Oracle of Delphi. The words of the Oracle were the
following: “The curse. The moon. The blood will run.” Preoccupied by the words
of the Oracle, Ambrogio spent the night outside the temple thinking about their
meaning. When daylight came, he saw a beautiful young woman: Selene. She was
the Oracle’s sister and came to the temple everyday to take care of her sister (the
Oracle). He fell deeply in love with the woman and asked her to marry him. Here
is where the problems begin: Apollo, god of the Sun, was also coveting Selene,
and to show his anger, he cursed Ambrogio by making his skin burn whenever he
was exposed to sunlight, which forced him to hide in a dark cave, unable to
warn Selene of what happened. Thus, to try to escape and communicate with
Selene, he made a pact with Hades, the god of the underworld: Hades would give
him a bow and arrows so he could offer his kill to Artemis, goddess of the hunt
and sister of Apollo, to win her favor and eventually steal her silver bow. If
he failed to do so, he would have to give his soul to Hades forever, and
indeed, he did fail. From there, many things happened but at the end, Artemis
proposed he become immortal, which he accepted. However, for Selene and himself
to live the afterlife together, she had to be immortal too, and the way to
achieve immortality was for him to drink her blood, which would kill her mortal
body, but assure them they would be together in the afterlife. Therefore, he
drank her blood, and she became goddess of moonlight, and every night, she
would come down from the heavens and touch her beloved Ambrogio.
Vlad the Empaler:
Vlad the Empaler
Vlad the Empaler’s real
name is actually Vlad Dracula. He was born in Transylvania, Romania, and ruled,
on and off, the region of Wallachia in Romania between 1456-1462. He fought
against the Ottaman Empire, an empire in which the leader, Sultan, had absolute
political and religious power over his people. His nickname comes from the fact
that his favorite way to kill his enemies was to impale them on a wooden stake.
The legend says that Vlad enjoyed dipping his bread in his victims’ blood.
However, no one knows whether this is real or not; one thing is certain, Romanian
people do not consider him as a monster, but a hero.
Other sources of inspiration:
Abhartach
Of course, many other things may have influenced Bram Stoker to create Dracula’s character. Indeed, an Irish legend about a tyrant called Abhartach relates that this monster was killed and buried three times before asking for the help of the Christian saint to stop him forever. Moreover, it was said that the tyrant asked for sacrifices of blood from the wrists of his subjects.
It is also said that on
February 1896, the New York Newspaper featured an article about vampires, and
in this article, a section was written about vampire bats. Bram Stoker, who
read this article, was thus inspired by science in the creation of the vampire
Dracula.
Furthermore, Bram Stoker was
well aware of Eastern European folklore as well as other stories talking about
vampires that were written before he wrote his own.
Finally, Bram Stoker created a monster from various sources of information he found from different time periods. Even though Dracula has been invented, where do all these legends come from? Why were people so afraid of vampires for about three hundred years? Would it be possible that, even if some characteristics of the “classic” vampire are missing, a creature close to the definition of a vampire would exist somewhere?
Not so long ago, I
read a thriller that is so far, one of the best books I’ve ever read. It is
called The Good Girl, written by Mary
Kubica. This literary piece is a very high-intensity thriller because the
actions you expect to happen are definitely not the ones that actually happen.
This novel is mainly considered as a psychological thriller, but I still found
some gothic elements in it and I wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to
explore a specific literary genre while including some gothic elements in it.
First of, the
archetype of the damsel in distress is the main element of gothic literature in
this thriller. Mia, the main character of the book, is in complete distress
after she’s been kidnapped by a certain guy named Colin. Even if she tries to
escape, it is impossible to achieve it and waits for the help f the police and
her family. On the other hand, Mia’s mother could also be considered as a
damsel in distress. She constantly tries to find ways to find her daughter but,
because she is depressed by the loss other daughter, she waits for the police
to help her out. In that way, she qualifies as a damsel in distress.
Colin Thatcher, Mia’s one-night stand, turn
out to be a sociopath who kidnaps her. Here, the monster archetype found in gothic
pieces is a human monster. Colin’s purpose to take Mia away from her family was
simply to hurt her. The monster generally generates terror and horror to the
victim, in this case Mia.
That is what leads
me to explain you the aspects of terror and horror in this psychological
thriller. On one hand, Mia is completely terrorised by Collin because she
anticipates what he could do to her. Terror is defined as the anticipation of
the scary, and that is exactly what Mia is doing and feeling. On the other hand,
there’s horror. Horror is the realization of what is scary when seeing it in
front of your eyes. In this case, Mia also feels it when she realizes that she
had been kidnaped and that she’ll probably never see her family again.
Simply, I suggest
you read this psychological thriller that can also enter in the gothic genre
because it has a lot of suspense and you’ll have difficulty to stop reading it,
I swear.
Who does not like vampires? We must admit that they always are a good distraction; we pretty much never get tired of the stories or movies of which they are used as principal “creatures” to create some fear and suspense. However, there are two types of vampires; indeed, there is the terrifying one known as the one who sucks all the blood from human necks (in other words, the killer vampire), and there is the cheesy vampire known as the one who lives in harmony with humans. Which one do we prefer? Are we actually obligated to have a preference? I would say we do not, and that is the reason why I want to share this series of novels I discovered 3 years ago.
Written by Phyllis Christine Cast and Kristin Cast, the first volume of a series called the House of Night was published in March 2009 and was titled “Marked” (just so it is said, the last volume, “Lost” was published recently, in July 2018). The 18 volumes of this series (yes, indeed, 18 volumes!) contain all of what is necessary to entertain anyone who is interested in fantasy, love, magic, mystery, action and of course, vampires. I assure you, we can find them all in the same series! Isn’t it simply amazing?
You must wonder: Ok well, but what is this about? Overall, this is the story of Zoey Redbird, a 16-year old girl who is Marked to become a vampire and complete her Change, or die. The story mostly takes place in Tulsa, in the state of Oklahoma in the United States (yes, I know, another American fantasy, but I swear, it is a good one). The issue from which the story starts is that she does not have the same mark as other vampires do; indeed, she has been marked as special by the vampire Goddess Nyx and it is for you to discover why.
In brief, here are some reasons
why you should take the time to read this series:
There are some vampires (this reason by itself is enough to convince you, right?).
Well, if you need some more…
2. There is a love triangle (oh yes, you’ve read well!).
3. There is suspense (sometimes, you just won’t be able to stop reading, I can testify).
4. There is death.
An extra one for you: you do not need to wait for the next episode to be released (you know what I’m referring to, don’t you?), once you finished one tome, you can start the next one right away!
R&D Gothic Discoveries 