Which Is the Real Monster - Essay Example

Within 24 hours of each other, the word monster appeared in the ledes of two newspaper articles. The first use referred to a dinosaur larger than theinfamous Tyrannosaurus Rex (Brandon Sun, 2006); the second use referred to a father who raped five of his 31 daughters (The Daily Record, 2006). The first will be enshrined in the Carmen Funes Museum in Argentina. The latter will be incarcerated in the Admiralty West Prison in Singapore. Which is the real monster? Literature and cinema has attempted to answer that question; from Beowulfs Grendel to Charlize Therons Aileen Wuornos, the definition of the word has been shaped and reshaped. On page 1036 of Oxford English Dictionarys volume IX, the first definition of monster is, something extraordinary or unnatural; a prodigy, a marvel. The next definition is, an animal or plant deviating in one or more of its parts from the normal type; spec., an animal afflicted with some congenital malformation; a misshapen birth, an abortion (Oxford, 1036). The third definition is, an imaginary animal (such as the centaur, sphinx, minotaur, or the heraldic griffin, wyvern, ect.) having a form either partly brute and partly human, or compounded of elements from two or more animal forms (1036). The fourth and final definition we will concern ourselves with is, a person of inhuman and horrible cruelty or wickedness; a monstrous example of (wickedness, or some particular vice) (1036). A common theme connects these definitions in that each contain an element of being outside of what is considered the human norm. The natural fear of being deformed or ostracized from society is one of the themes of "The Elephant Man," and is encompassed by the first and second definitions. The fear of depravity, or of exceeding societal constructs and having that depravity manifest itself physically, as in "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is addressed in the third and fourth definition. That excape from civilized rules gone amock, the fourth definition, is chronicled in "Monster", Charlize Therons portrayal of prostitute-turned-serial-killer Aileen Wuornos. Although based on a true story, this movie again struck fear in the hearts of men who seek sexual pleasure outside of a committed relationship, hitting harder than "Fatal Attraction." Why so many definitions and depictions of monsters? Because monsters are material to our exploration of the darker aspects of society or self; the resolution or destruction of monsters allow us to resolve conflict with possible problematic consequences of actions outside our experience. "People are frightened by what they dont understand," comments John Merrick in "The Elephant Man" (Lynch, 1980). His monstrous countenance prevents others from understanding him as a man, as a human being. Maslows hierarchy of needs would address the distress Merrick experiences, realizing that the needs of safety and love/belonging arent being met, disallowing Merrick to advance towards self-actualization and full inclusion into society. The breakdown of needs being met is allegedly at the basis of Wuornos descent into depravity as well. Because she is unable to make ends meet and provide for the most basic of needs, the physiological needs of food, water and shelter, she resorts to killing her clients. Through her actions, she creates the illusion of providing food, water and shelter with money stolen from her dead clients. Similarly, Merrick is recast as an erudite and polished member of the elite London society; an illusion cast by those around him who teach him to talk and walk upright and dress. An appearance at an opera results in the performance being dedicated to him by none other than the Princess of Wales. Despite the changes in their appearances, Wuornos remains a monster, possessing inhuman and horrible cruelty as each murder surpasses the last in gruesomeness; Merrick remains mishapen and inarticulate at times, forever condemed to be the animal afflicted with some congenital malformation, despite the amount of money spent on tailored suits or haircuts and colognes. The character of Bytes appears again and again as the sinister side of society, constantly reminding Merrick of his past and fomenting the derision and cruelty Merrick longs to excape from. Each character finds excape; Wuornos is turned in by her lover and is executed, both in the movie and in real life in 2002. Merrick is the victim of the illusion; dressed in a fine silken nightshirt and sleeping in a real bed with clean linens, he attempts to sleep lying down flat, and dies of asphyxiation. He had learned earlier, amid the filth and grime of the circus, that he needed to sit up in order to breathe whilst sleeping because of the misconstruction of his head. The banishment and resolution of these two monsters coincide with our sense of pathos and justice. Merrick didnt deserve to be ridiculed and reviled, and his passing is poignant. Wuornos is weighed by society and found wanting; her punishment is the cathartic purging of evil in a civilized world. Civilization was considered to be at its intellectual height during the Victorian Era, a time in history which spawned both a fictional and an actual monster. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" two years before Jack The Ripper surfaced and terrorized the streets of London in the 1880s. Hyde was described as "something troglodytic" by the novellas narrator, Mr. Utterson (Stevenson, 18). When we again encounter the sinister countenance of Hyde, it is through the description of a maid as she recounts the murder of her master, Sir Danvers Carew. She describes Hyde as having "broke out of all bounds" in battering Carew with cane and foot "with an ape-like fury" (Stevenson, 25). This continues the foreshadowing of Hyde as being something other than just human; as having a form either partly brute and partly human as well as the capacity for inhuman and horrible cruelty or wickedness. Dr. Jekyll described in a letter written before his death the release of a darker, more sinister side his experiements allowed: "At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing that was projected was Edward Hyde. Hence, although I had now two characters as well as two appearnces, one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll, that incongruous compound of whose reformation and improvement I had already learned to despair. The movement was thus wholly toward the worse." (Stevenson, 62) The unknown elements in which science introduced in the Victorian era creates the backdrop in which Hyde is unleashed from the civilized constraints of Dr. Jekyll. By slaying a member of high society, Hyde further distances himself from society and moves closer to social disorder. We see science as a catalyst for social disorder in another literary piece, Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. Paul Goetsch outlines Andreas Tudors binary system of basic oppositions in horror-movie narratives in his book, "Monsters In English Literature." His categories are simply, "known" and "unknown." In "Monster", we see the pairs of life-death and normal sexuality-abnormal sexuality. In "The Elephant Man," culture-nature and good-bad emerge. Science fiction movies depict the human normality versus the alien abnormality, using space as a metaphor for the unknown. Social order versus social disorder is also evident in this genre. Expanding the model into literature, the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde certainly create the duality of concious-unconcsious as well as sanity-insanity. (Goetsch, 14) Each of these illustrate the desire of the human conciousness to deal with the unknown through fictionalized accounts, allowing us to "guess and test" ways in which to resolve conflict in the best manner possible. "Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain," Mark Twain was quoted as saying. By doing what we fear most, through the creation and elimination of monsters in fiction, we ascertain vicariously what consequences the death of our fears would be. The resolution of the monster dinosaur is clear: to allow students of science and nature the opportunity to study the marvels of nature. The resolution of the monster father is also clear: to protect the safety of members of society from further violence and mayhem. Resolutions put forth in literature and cinema on how to deal with monsters give us guidance as to how to handle conflicts with monstrous issues within ourselves and within society. Works Cited "Dad From Hell Jailed." The Daily Record. 19 April 2006. 19 April 2006 . "Canadian Discovers Monster Dinosaur." Brandon Sun: Online Edition. 18 April 2006. Canadian Press. 19 April 2006 . Simpson, J. A. and Weiner, E. S. C. Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. Goetsch, Paul. Monsters In English Literature: From the Romantic Age to the First World War (Neue Studien Zur Anglistik Und Amerikanistik). Berlin: Peter Lang Publishing, 2002. Monster. Dir. Patty Jenkins. Perf. Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Lee Tergesen and Annie Corley. Columbia/TriStar, 2004. The Elephant Man. Dir. David Lynch. Perf. Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud and Wendy Hiller. Paramount, 1980. Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Ltd, 2004. Veeder, William and Hirsh, Gordon. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after One Hundred Years. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. Read More