Lovecraftian stories are undoubtedly known for their willingness to traverse through territories often viewed as taboo by more traditional authors. Herbert West – Reanimator, Lovecraft’s magazine periodical of the 1920s, is of no exception. Although lacking in what some may call the Lovecraftian theme of powerful demi-god like beings, cults worshiping these beings, and other unique mythos, the themes of an obsession with the supernatural unknown, the obtaining of life-shattering knowledge and an unnamed narrator dragged into it all are still present throughout the work. Herbert West – Reanimator, in itself, through its description of the ‘reanimated’, the mental and physical regression of both West and the narrator, and its questioning of the …show more content…
As West becomes increasingly immersed in his research with his serum, his unrequited ambition begins to build within him and, although he himself has not died and undergone treatment, his humanity is slowly sapped away by his work. He begins to distance himself from his original goal, instead developing sociopathic tendencies with the narrator saying that he “gradually came to find Herbert West himself more horrible than anything he did” and West more or less becoming a typical example of a mad scientist. West’s reanimated had no choice in the matter of reanimation and the transition to an animal like state but West himself seems to need it – to crave it – up unto the point where he begins to view others not as people but as potential victims for his studies. During his research he “gloated calmly over artificial monstrosities which would make most healthy men drop dead from fright and terror” showing that while he may not have transformed into a reanimated physically, but due to his loss of ethics, he is almost the same mentally. The narrator, though not to the full extent of West, is right along with him. They begin to describe how they “followed the local death-notices like ghouls”, implying their non-human, monstrous behavior of the time. At this point, both West and the narrator are both still human physically but, due to their loss of humanity, they are very close to becoming the creatures that they themselves will eventually bring to
Green, John. "Don't Reanimate Corpses! Frankenstein Part 1: Crash Course Literature 205." YouTube. YouTube, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Gothic literature, such as The Night Circus, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, and “Masque of the Red Death”, are known for incorporating gothic elements such as the supernatural, death, and fascination with the past.
Art has been the reflection, interpretation and representation of artists' beliefs and morals eternally. Various artists stand for different matters that quite possibly affect their lives, or might be of an interest to them. Norval Morrisseau is an artist that I was intrigued by his portrayal and the techniques used in his paintings. In this paper, we are going to look at the implementation of Morrisseau's painting style used to expose his philosophies of different aspects in his life.
In a psychoanalytic view of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Robert Walton develops, during a “dreadfully severe” trip through the Arctic, a type of schizophrenia; this mental condition enables him to create a seemingly physical being representing each his superego and his id (9). In his mind, Walton creates Victor as his very own superego and the monster as his id. The superego and the id battle throughout the story to produce the final result: Walton, the ego.
Frankenstein, a novel by Mary Shelley, illustrates the trials including Victor Frankenstein's triumphs, a character who owned a lovely with memorable life experiences that shaped the independent college student he became. Despite Victor growing up in a welcoming setting, he struggled to find the intellectual purpose of acquiring a college education in his physical science interest to generate the likelihood of reviving a dead corpse with electricity to acquire the comfortability to feel like God. Mary Shelley used diction and imagery to convey shifts in mood that supported the plot of chapters one through five in Frankenstein to inundate the reader with the feelings the characters of the story were facing.
Written in 1818, the latter stages of the Gothic literature movement, at face value this novel embodies all the key characteristics of the Gothic genre. It features the supernatural, ghosts and an atmosphere of horror and mystery. However a closer reading of the novel presents a multifaceted tale that explores
In Winesburg Ohio, the reader is first introduced to “The Book of the Grotesque”. This introductory chapter, provides the reader with what might be considered a summary of the characters in the novel itself. The elderly writer, who has obviously seen and experienced a lot of the world’s turmoils, e.g. The Civil War , has been haunted by the faces of all the people he has ever known. The faces of these people are twisted and distorted, and ultimately appear “grotesque” to the elderly writer: It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood.” (p.24).
In this essay, I will be critiquing two articles “Monsters and Messiahs” by Mike Davis and “My Zombie, Myself: why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead” by Chuck Klosterman, to show the different fallacies along with the argumentized style that is being used. Both of this articles can be found in the book Monster A Bedford Spotlight Reader by Andrew J. Hoffman.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein depicts how ideals can be received once they are fulfilled. As a cautionary example of negative reception of an ideal, Shelley uses Victor Frankenstein’s achievement of animating a lifeless corpse of mixed body parts. The actions and reactions of Frankenstein and the Creature highlight how making a dream a reality does not always yield a desired effect. Frankenstein’s images of unendurable ice emphasize Shelley’s admonishment of the danger of realizing an ideal.
Throughout history and literature women are often referred to as birds, especially those of domesticated species. Women being referred to as a pet corresponded to the rise of patriarchal society, “… from this point, civilization has seemed to trap women in stereotypes related to nature which are domesticated, like caged birds” (Clark 342). Women had to fit into the roles society formed for them, trapping them in a lifestyle not appealing to all women. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses avian symbolism to emphasize Edna’s entrapment, so as to show the stages of Edna’s awakening.
Lovecraft, H.P.. “The Beast in the Cave.” The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road to
Monsters embody brutality, twisted morality, and irrationality—the banes of human existence, yet the children of man’s inner demons. Monsters are, in short, projections of man’s wicked id. The term creature may suggest monstrosity, and Frankenstein’s creation in Mary Shelley’s novel may be perceived as a personification of the Freudian id. In this case, however, the creature also mediates between its neurotic creator and societal values, just as the Freudian ego, conditioned by the reality principle, mediates between external reality and inner turmoil through practicality. The ego is the psyche’s driving force and, arguably, the real protagonist of Frankenstein. But in the fierce tug-of-war within the ego between the id and its law-abiding opposite—the superego—lies the true battlefield of Shelley’s novel. For ironically the man of science embodies an ego-ridden id, a man-monster, but creates a monster-man that embodies his counterpart: an id-ridden ego. In the wake of his mother’s death, Frankenstein’s tinkering with reanimation unconsciously shapes a symbiosis between himself and his creation—between two tortured halves of one neurotic mind. In fact, Shelley’s novel sinks deep into the crevices of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, oozing into pits of neurosis, repression, parapraxes, dream symbolism, and the Oedipus complex.
Baldick, Chris. In Frankenstein's Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-Century Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Print.
The Stephen King’s short story, “The Reaper’s Image,” is considered by many to be one of the best pieces of American Gothic Literature. The story is centered around a mysterious, rare mirror called The Delver Glass. Sometimes, when people look into it, they see a haunting reaper. All who see it run away and mysteriously disappear. Its dark, bleak setting, supernatural events, and psychological torment makes the story a classic in the genre.
One of H.P. Lovecraft’s many short stories, “The Outsider” has been praised since its publication as his most profound and meaningful. This story has been interpreted many different ways, varying from an autobiography of Lovecraft himself to several different philosophical analyses. One such interpretation, by Dirk Mosig compares the plot and settings of “The Outsider” to Lovecraft’s own doubtful views of religion and an afterlife. Mosig supports his interpretation with many facts from the story, I believe he pinpoints one very possible meaning of the story. His argument successfully uses the plot and details to convince the reader that his hypothesis is correct.