Horror Literature

Lesson 3: Nightmares

Nightmares: Your fears made real

When you read the Introduction of The Return of the Repressed by Clemens, you will learn about the Gothic nightmare. Discuss how this nightmare compares and contrasts with what constitutes a nightmare in the modern world. Nightmares are closely related to the mind's fears. Previously fears have been identified as fear of the unknown, abandonment and darkness. Many of the creatures that we fear represent the fear of these ideas. Look at Stephen King's Danse Macabre, Chapter III: "Tales of the Tarot". Here he discusses the various archetypal images manifest through our fears. Specifically he deals with the ghost, the monster, the vampire and the werewolf as "Tarot" images of our most primal fears. King makes some interesting points about how these creatures make our worst nightmares come true. Compare this with Chapter V: "The Industrial Demon" by Clemens. Do you think man has held any particular nightmare image since the beginning of time? How has the view of the nightmare changed?

Horror and nightmares, and horror fiction particularly, are results of the human need not only for feeling fear, but also for dealing with fears. Fear is very much linked to the subconscious. It is the growing knowledge of this part ot the human mind that also gave horror fiction its boost at the beginning of the twentieth century. A greater understanding of psychology and the subconscious brought about an advance in horror literature. Edgar Allen Poe was the first to recognize the human need for an inescapable nightmare. He understood that the more powerful emotion is pain, fear and gloom rather than health, beauty and pleasure. And thus he sought to scare people out of their wits by using a more poignant imagery and subject-matter than had ever before been the case.

Indeed, because they understood the importance of the subconscious and the way that it deals with fear, both Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft frequently used their nightmares as a springboard for horror tale ideas. Lovecraft even wrote down one of his dreams exactly as he dreamed it and used it for a short story. This is now discussed in Section 3.

  1  2  3  4