Lesson 7: Monsters: Inside and Out
The monster, usually seen as something outside the self in horror plots, really comes from within. The subconscious creates for itself another, a monster, upon which to blame shortcomings. This theme is discussed with the work of Gaston Leroux in mind. The nature of salvation in the modern world, after the death of god, is explored.
Lesson Introduction
Lesson objectives
Learn about the monster as the other and the monster as self.
Discuss Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.
Recommended resources referred to: Stephen King, Page 32-41.
Please note: Books are recommended but not mandatory.
The monster is the scariest of the horror archetypes in terms of psychological fear. Monsters, like any other form of the other, can be seen from the perspective of the outside other, as in Lovecraft’s monsters. On the other hand, monsters can be seen as the monster within the self. Normally monstrosity manifests itself in physical deformity. How for example do you feel when seeing a severely deformed person? When I was young I had frequent nightmares of deformed people chasing me and wanting to touch me with their deformed hands. This to me was scary. Their “monstrosity” set them apart from what to me at the time was acceptible. Monstrosity inspires abjection, because of its physical appearance.
Monsters also inspire a kind of fascination. Think for example of freaks at the carnival. People pay money to gape at the horrible deformities of those considered physically outside of the norm. There is fear, but there is also a fascination in the monster. Perhaps this more than anything else proves that the monster is the other that is yet closest to the self of all the horror entities we have so far discussed.
The fascination with monsters is also, like the ghost, a projection. The monster is what we are glad of not being. What if you lost an arm? A leg? A finger? You would feel abnormal; monstrous. And it is likely that you would be regarded as such too. Anything that is not fairly close to the norm of the rest of the world is reacted to as monstrous. From Lovecraft’s fiction, the monster in horror literature has moved closer to the self. Where Lovecraft created monsters who were not remotely related to human beings, others, such as Gaston Leroux, have created a monster who is in fact human, but has a monstrous face.
With the depiction of monsters that are in fact human in horror literature, the theme of salvation moves from the monster to the observer, the normal, the reader. What does our reaction to physical monstrosity say about us as human beings? Here the other, the monster, shows us the other in ourselves. Recognition can start and salvation can be worked out without anyone being nailed to a cross for it. When one’s own monster is faced, a new beginning is reached.
Something to Think About
Think for a moment back to what scares you. What about abnormality? What if someone without a hand tried to touch you with his wrist? Would you pull away? What is you reaction to physical deformity? And what do you think this says about you?
