Battles within Man and Nature - Literature review Example

BATTLES WITHIN MAN AND NATURE Battles within Man and Nature: Discussion of the personification of evil in Frankenstein, War of the Worlds and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde July 17, 2009 Battles within Man and Nature A common theme that runs through many gothic horror works of Victorian times is the presence of the arch villain who represents all that is evil in the world. The villain may be a freak of nature as in Frankenstein, an alien species that seeks to enslave earth or a docile scientist who undergoes a transformation into an alter ego, which is exceedingly malevolent as in Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Each of these stories has a villain who embodies the evil side of nature and humanity, a central character who has become what he is due to forces beyond his control and creates an atmosphere of dread and horror as the reader waits for another desperate act to happen. Again in each of these stories, the good side fights and triumphs over the evil after an extended battle. This paper discusses these three novels in the perspective of the Gothic tale to identify the various themes that run through them. The themes that would be discussed are loneliness, doom, morbid fear, helplessness and loathing, frailty, duality, good and evil. Frankenstein by Shelley (1818) was one of the first gothic horror stories that used instances of chemistry, galvanism and medicinal surgery to create a monster that thrilled and scared people more that two centuries back and which still finds relevance today. The Gothic novel has pictured the arch villain as the creation of scientist who set about to create life. He attempted to tamper with nature and then created a horror he does not wants to face. Baldick (1987) points out that the original creation by Shelley was designed to be an outcaste, something created in ignorance and then the creator realizing the mistake, tried to discard it. The theme very well stands for what many of us do, act in haste, enter or create a situation that we cannot handle and then attempt to hide the mistake or run away from it. Again, there have been many remakes of the story along the centuries, with the monster being depicted increasingly as a pervert, a psychopath, a sexual predator, a murderer and so on. The real fact is that the monster created by the scientist called Frankenstein was a lonely and tortured soul that did not know why people were scared of him. There is a deep struggle as the monster tries to redeem itself and come into the mainstream of society by doing good deeds, however, that would not happen and it continues to be feared. Miles (1993) comments that loneliness is a theme that often comes to the fore, both the scientist and the monster are lonely, and the scenery, the gloom filled castles depicted are often bland and stark with darkness, doom and misery being the main undercurrents. Both the scientist and the monster attempt to find a way out of the loneliness, the scientist finds a way by traveling and the creature by forcing the scientist to create a female version. However Frankenstein realizes the horror he is about to add should he create a female version of the monster and abandons the experiment, leaving the monster disconsolate. In one of the later scenes, to ward off loneliness, the monster tries to make friends with a five-year-old child, since the child is too young to despise the monster. Yet, the child is the brother of the scientist Frankenstein and when the monster finds this out, kills the child. Thus the monster is shown to grow deeper into its nature and then we have the scientist attempting to hunt the creature in the arctic regions. Another classic is HG Wells, The War of the Worlds (1880). When HG Wells (1880) wrote the story, he had joined Jules Verne in being the pioneer of science fiction and set in motion a huge science fiction and fantasy genre of entertainment. The story had some endearing elements of gothic fiction – horror; unknown, intense speculation and a morbid sense of doom, helplessness and loathing that gripped the readers. Wells made use of the legends and tales about Mars being inhabited with aliens. Science and technology was limited in those days and Well’s imagination of the alien technology was limited. However, the master storyteller however managed to weave a stirring drama that churned people into a deep sense of horror. The story is about alien ships from Mars that land on earth and these aliens have a vastly superior technology. These aliens move around in huge tripod legged vehicles and unleash devastation and horror across the cities, culling people and harvesting the blood and plasma. The human race is helpless and can only run around, trying to escape being slaughtered. Yeffeth (2005) comments that Wells is trying to show tongue in cheek, the cruelty of the aliens as they go about harvesting the human race. In fact, Wells is trying to show that the aliens are behaving just like humans, who capture, breed and harvest animals as food, simply because the animals have a lower intelligence. Humans presume that they have a divine right to kill and feed as per their needs, the aliens are just behaving in the same manner, and man is powerless. Yeffeth (2005) notes that what surprised everyone were the manner in which the novel ends and how the aliens are vanquished. One sees a common theme that in the three novels, the villain has scant feelings of mercy, humanity and regard for life and it believes in satiating it own lust for power and blood. In the end, ordinary microbes and bacteria, invisible and plentiful on earth infect the aliens who then die off. Wells is again attempting to show the frailty of man when he is faced with a vastly superior force. In the end, it is the tiny microbes kill the aliens while man with his war machines ran helpless. The aliens are depicted as soulless and faceless creatures, which stand for extreme ruthlessness and cruelty and there is no reasoning with them as they exterminate humans. When faced with such a horror, mankind cannot think and plan but run helter-skelter, like ants whose anthill has been destroyed. The tripod vehicle with the spring like tentacles that help the creature to tower above the buildings and which cut and pull apart humans is worth a special mention as it fills the reader with a deep loathing. The tentacle or tripod is something man sees everyday but its transformation into an alien appendage is horrifying. Stevenson in his book, The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), plays on the duality and inherent craving of a good person to vent out the hidden fantasies of an evil person. Stevenson has presented split personality of a single person who assumes both the good and evil roles alternately. Man is presumed to have a dual nature and one part may be that of a saint while another that of a sinner. Much depends on which side is stronger and this side decides the personality. Ellis (1989) says that the author is showing that all things remaining equal, man enjoys having the evil side as dominant as it allows the person to act his worst fantasies, indulge in wanton and cruel behavior, act in a very depraved manner, something that a normal person would find loathsome. However, after Dr. Jekyll, a peaceful and genial doctor drinks some potion he has made and is turned momentarily to an evil and lustful person called Mr. Hyde. The split personality would occur each time the kind doctor drank the potion and soon the doctor was drinking it more and more as he enjoyed being the depraved and lustful Mr. Hyde. Gradually, the personality of Mr. Hyde began to take control over Dr. Jekyll, even without drinking the potion. The story plays on our deepest fantasy of role playing and everyone would want to be act out the wildest fantasy and it would seem that evil has many followers (Kathrine, 2003). The paper has examined three classical works by Victorian era authors who brought in horror to the world of fiction by placing the arch villain as the main character in the stories. The villains relied on loathing and morbid fear in the reader to keep them engrossed to the story. There is a certain duality of characters and a constant struggle to show their behavior and how they have been fighting for. References Baldick. Chris, (1987)., "In Frankensteins Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-Century Writing". Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis. Kate. Ferguson,(1989), "The Contested Castle: Gothic Novels and the Subversion of Domestic Ideology", Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Kathrine. Linehan, (2003). "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". Norton Critical Edition. Miles. Robert. (1993). "Gothic Writing 1750–1820: A Genealogy". London: Routledge. Shelley. Mary. Wollstonecraft, 1818, Frankenstein, (Etext, 1993) At Project Gutenberg, Retrieved 7 July 2009 from http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/84 Stevenson. Robert. Louis, 1886, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, (Etext, 1992) At Project Gutenberg, Retrieved 7 July 2009 from http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/42 Wells. H.G, 1880, The War of the Worlds, (Etext, 2004) At Project Gutenberg, Retrieved 7 July 2009 from http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/36 Yeffeth Glenn, (1 May, 2005), "The War of the Worlds: Fresh Perspectives on the H. G. Wells Classic", Benbella Books. Read More