1. Introduction
Murder is considered one of the worst acts a person can commit; yet in fiction murder is a highly popular theme. From ancient tales to modern thrillers, stories of people being killed seems to always have had a fascinated audience. As society progresses entertainment with real deaths ceases, however fictional ones flourish. The strange interest in death seems to never lose its hold on fiction. Some explain this fascination with murder as a combination of survival instinct and the strong emotions murder stirs in us.
2. Background
Since Cain slayed his brother Abel murder have always been present in fiction. Homer, Shakespeare and Chaucer all contributed to the theme, and with Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle murder nearly got a genre of its own – detective fiction. However, murder as a theme can be found in more than the now classic “whodunit”-stories (where a protagonist solves a crime mystery), almost every genre conceivable has its murder stories. There are murder comedies, like the 2012 movie “Sightseers” (about a serial killing couple on holiday ) as well as stories focusing solely on gruesome deaths. Murder is perhaps the form of death and dying most depicted in fiction; therefore, to be able to understand the fascination with murder one must first understand the fascination with death.
3. Why are we interested in death?
An explanation to why we are interested in seeing and reading about death is that it may be a way of coping with dying. Andrew Taylor, author of several crime novels, calls this a “literary comfort blanket”, which helps us deal with the violence in the world. In “Death, dying and the dead in popular culture”, author Keith Durkin explains it as:
“[…] our insulation from death c...
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... life away by force must be the worst crime, and for the victim the worst way to die. Furthermore, as death happens to us all it is something everyone can relate to, and many probably fear dying a brutal death. Murder in fiction will most likely not disappear; our interest for it is too well rooted in our human nature.
Works Cited
Durkin, Keith, Death, dying, and the dead in popular culture. In Handbook of death & dying,
(pp. 43-50), SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003.
Mattiuzzi, Paul, Why are we so fascinated with murder?, Everyday Psychology, 25 May 2011, http://everydaypsychology.com/2011/05/why-are-we-so-fascinated-with murder.html#.UyBhsPl5MVC, 12 Mars 2014.
Sightseers, DVD, StudioCanal UK, UK, 2012
Taylor, Andrew, ‘The Strange Appeal of Crime Fiction’, Shots, DATE, http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/feature_view.aspx?FEATURE_ID=120, 12 Mars 2014
She opens up her essay by saying “How surprised [Yorick] would be to see how his counterpart of today is whisked off to a funeral parlor and is in short order sprayed, sliced, pierced, pickled, trussed, trimmed, creamed, waxed, painted, rouged, and neatly dressed transformed from a common corpse into a Beautiful Memory Picture.”(Mitford) Funerals are meant to protect people from seeing what kind of toll death has on their loved one; to remove the scars of being human. Kubler-Ross touches on this when she says “The more we are making advancements in science, the more we seem to fear and deny the reality of death. How is this possible? We use euphemisms, we make the dead look as if they were asleep” (Kubler-Ross) which connects to her opinion that death is feared and people take responsibility when a loved one dies, even if they had no impact on their death. The eradication of the sense of death is the key reason why the deceased are embalmed. Clifton Bryant discusses that the reason why people want to have their dead embalmed is because of “death anxiety”, that it is the collective phrase for all the different and complex fears of death. He later states that death anxiety is why we tend to have “death denial” and why we tend to avoid it wholly. “Likewise, the use of metaphors or euphemisms that serve to soften the harshness of death (e.g., passed away, deceased, expired) clearly represents a culturally approved attempt to deny or camouflage death's impact on our daily lives.”(Bryant) This reflects well on the point Mitford makes, when she says “[The funeral director] put on a well-oiled performance in which the concept of death played no part whatsoever” (Mitford) Kubler-Ross feels that death being ever increasingly more taboo the more
Violence is regularly used in novels because, “It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent. ...Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is usually also something else. That...punch in the nose may be a metaphor,” (Foster 49). There are two types of violence found in literature: intentional violence and authorial violence. The first type of violence is typical violence such as shootings, stabbings, drownings, and hit-and-run accidents to name a few. In this category, characters will inflict this type of behavior on themselves or on another character. The second type of violence, however, is meant solely to further the plot without another character’s intention. An example of this “narrative violence” is a death resulting from natural causes or a tragic accident that did not involve another character. Violence created by a specific injury that authors cause characters to visit on one another or on themselves. Both types of violence have similarities and differences. In both, the characters are killed off with the same goals of furthering plot or creating stressful situations for the characters. A difference between the intentional violence and narrative violence is that narrative violence does not involve a guilty party like intentional violence does. To Kill a
There are many short stories in literature that share a common theme presented in different ways. A theme that always keeps readers’ attention is that of death because it is something that no one wants to face in real life, but something that can be easily faced when reading. “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both exemplify how two authors use a common theme of death to stand as a metaphor for dystopian societies.
One of the most famous authors in American history is Edgar Allen Poe, thanks to his intricate and unsettling short stories and poems. One of the strongest aspects of Poe’s writing style is the allure and complexity of the narrator of the story. These narrators, ranging from innocent bystanders to psychotic murderers, add depth to such a short story and really allow Poe to explore the themes of death and murder which he seems to have an unhealthy obsession towards. Furthermore, he uses these narrators to give a different perspective in each of his many works and to really unsettle the reader by what is occurring throughout the story. The narrators, whether an innocent witness of death as in "The Fall of the House of Usher" or a twisted murderer as in "The Cask of Amontillado" are used by Poe to discuss the themes of death and murder within these stories and, depending on their point of view, give a different take on such a despicable act such as murder.
O'Brien, Tim. "The Lives of The Dead." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. 213-233. Print.
This paper is based on the life of Ed Gein. He was an unusual character, born on a farm, and raised by a religious crazy, domineering mother. In the space of a few years his entire family passed away and he was left to take care of his farm all by himself. In the next few years he became a grave robber, a necrophiliac, a cannibal, and also took up arts and crafts in body parts. He is known as one of the weirdest serial killers of the twentieth century. He also inspired movies like Psycho, Silence of The Lambs, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
John L McIntosh. (2003) . Handbook of Death and Dying. Volume 1: The Presence of Death. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference.
In America, violence has always been an integral part of national culture. Crime and bloodshed are glorified both on and off screen. The more disturbing the act of violence, the more enthralled the public seems. The most prolific of crimes, those committed by infamous serial killers, inspire the most attention. As said by Jeff Lindsay, creator of the book series that inspired the wildly-popular television program, Dexter, “We’re sickened and disgusted, but we need to know. And the more we know about the scene, the more we really are horrified” (“Sympathy for the Devils”). Violence, especially committed by this special class of felons, is enthralling. News reports play a role in this strange attraction, as it is through the news that people even have knowledge of such killers, but the evolution in the “serial killer genre” (Lindsay, “Sympathy for the Devils”) of film and television helps to desensitize people to the gruesome murders that are committed. This begs the question of whether this disturbing trend should be stopped, lest the American “culture of violence” (this has a source) continues to grow stronger. Through news reports, film, and television, criminals are constantly romanticized through use of sympathetic characterization and gratuitous depictions of their crimes, which lends to peoples’ increasingly positive attitudes toward violence and, in turn, feeds the growing culture of violence in America.
After examining “The Most Dangerous Game,” and “The Interlopers,” it is apparent that adding a death scene into a story helps to convey the story’s whole meaning.
For each of us, death is a subject that not only fascinates, but creates fear in our hearts as well. Death is something we avoid in our minds with the hope that it will not touch us. As a society we all fear death; especially in violent cases, which occur naturally and arise through the unusual forces in our society. When such an event takes place we want revenge. In Dead Man Walking, the parents of the murdered girl are left with so much anger that they verbally attack Sister Helen Prejean, when they find out she is still on Matthew Poncelet’s side.
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