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! 😉
I hope you understood the irony in
this statement! Of course, I am talking about the fact that what was supposed
to be cute fairy tales are, in fact, scaring children. One example of this is Rapunzel
from the Grimm brothers. The brothers are renowned for their gothic and gloomy
fairy tales.
First, I will summarize you a little
bit the essence of the brothers’ story. It is the story of a couple who are
going to have a child. To make sure the mother does not die, the husband needs
to pick up fruits that are on the other side of a wall, where an enchantress
lives. In order for them to have access to the fruits, the woman will take
their child as soon as the mom gives birth. When she takes the child away, she
brings her in a tower where no one will be able to see her, ever. One day, the
enchantress realizes that Rapunzel, the child, is helping a young man entering
the tower to spend time with her. As soon as she realizes it, she cuts the hair
of the child and plays a trick on the young man. When the man climbs on the
hair the woman had let down, she pushes him down in the rose bushes, where he
gets his eyes pierced. In the end, we read that the young man finds Rapunzel
back with their two children and live happily ever after. A quite long and
rough journey to be able to live happily ever after!
Some gothic motifs can be analyzed in
this short tale. There is the monster, of course, that is represented by the
enchantress. She is considered as a human monster because she takes the child
away from her parents to only do bad to her, in addition, to almost killing the
young man.
Another motif would be gloom,
especially towards the end of the story. When the young man gets his eyes
pierced, it is quite gloomy and disgusting for the target audience that is
supposed to be children.
I suggest you read the brothers’ tale
and after compare with the newest version by Disney, you will realize how it
was changed and how it is more directed towards the young target audience.
In Tom Harris’
novel The Silence of the Lambs, as
well as in the movie adaptation, hubris is one of the most important motifs.
The term hubris is a Greek word referring to the importance of pride,
arrogance, and anger in one’s personality.
First, in this work,
hubris is considered as a monster and as well as an ancestral curse. Since it blinds
the mind of people who have hubris in their blood, it complicates and impairs
the well-being of the society.
For instance, Jame
Gumb is a great example to demonstrate how hubris leads to blindness. When
Clarice enters in his house at the end of the story to catch him, he thinks
that the only way to have control over her is to turn off the lights. Since he
has night-vision goggles, he thinks that he would certainly be able to escape
from Clarice without any consequences. Obviously, as ironic as it sounds, Jame is
totally blinded by his hubris. Indeed, Clarice still has control over him and
over the situation; that is, she is the only one who sees clearly.
This example
accurately shows how hubris can affect someone’s view of a situation compared
to what it really is.
Another example of
a character that has to face his hubris is Hannibal, the main character. Throughout
the entire novel and movie, Hannibal is trying to overcome his own hubris, as
well as his desire to transcend the classification of scientists. All of this
to say that hubris is clearly a gothic motif in Harris’ writings and that it is
mostly defined by blurring certain characters’ vision, making them act without
a proper consideration of the consequences beforehand.
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?
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.
Recently,
I watched the new animation movie titled Coco.
This gothic animation piece revolves around the theme of death, but especially
the death of family members. I really appreciated this movie because, even
through animation and humour, the producer was able to convey an important
moral. This movie teaches the kids that they need to follow their dreams even
if there are many obstacles that prevent them of doing so. Furthermore, the
movie puts emphasis on the expression “seize your moment”, which teaches the
kids to wait for the right moment, and when it comes to take advantage of it.
Also,
through the adventures of Miguel, the main character of the movie, the author
of the movie show the dilemma that some people might have concerning the
realization of their dreams as opposed to the family values. For instance, at
the beginning of the movie, Miguel wants to realize his dream and become a
renowned musician; but because his entire family banned music from their lives,
he cannot achieve it. During the whole film, we could see Miguel go through
different obstacles that make him realize a lot of things, like the fact that
he could both achieve his desire to become a musician as well as being good and
helpful to his family.
The
psychological evolution of the different characters involved in Miguel’s quest
of music is an aspect that I really loved in this animation movie. In general,
his whole family really changes psychologically during the course of the movie.
At first, they are all “afraid” of music because they think it is the reason
for the break up of their entire family, but then, they realize that music
could have benefits for them. We could interpret this as a paradox because
instead of being the source of all the problems of the family over multiple
generations, music is actually what reconciliates the family.
Besides
the moral and familial aspects of the film, I was able to observe some elements
that correspond to gothic art and literature. First of all, the main theme is
certainly death, which corresponds to one of the main gothic elements. Next,
the elements of monster and terror are also found in this movie. For instance,
I considered De la Cruz, the international singer, to be the monster in this
story, since at the end, we learned that he was the cause of the family break
up and that he had killed his own best friend. On the other hand, the aspect of
horror is mostly represented when Miguel arrives in the afterlife and realizes
that dead people are talking to him and that he is not in the real world
anymore. Also, there are supernatural elements in this story, like the presence
of different colorful animals with superpowers, like the giant panther with the
wings. We generally don’t see this in our lives! 😉
For
all these reasons, I think that the movie Coco
is a surprisingly good movie. Even though it might seem only dedicated to a
young audience, it also reaches an older audience. Even if it is meant to
entertain the kids, this film still contains gothic elements that make it, in
my opinion, a gothic animation movie. If you’ve never watched it, I sincerely
suggest you do so.
P.S: I almost cried at the end of the movie. Another reason to take the time to watch it haha!
R&D Gothic Discoveries 