Misery, by Stephen King - Annie Wilkes
What does it take to frighten an author of best-selling horror novels? In Misery, Stephen King embodies a writer's fears about himself as a writer and about the continuation of his creativity in a richly elaborated and horrifi-cally psychotic woman, Annie Wilkes. In the novel, Annie represents a mother figure, a goddess, and a "constant reader". In reality, however, An-nie merely represents a creative part of King's mind.
Annie Wilkes is a proud mother of two children--a historical-romance novelist, Paul Sheldon, and his extremely popular heroine Misery Chastain. Annie must nurse and educate Paul. Gottschalk elaborates, "Annie views Paul in a madly maternal way. Early in her custody of Paul, she brings him pills for his excruciating pain, but he must suck them off her fingers in a grotesque parody of a nursing child" (125). If she leaves him untended too long, Paul wets his bed, and she must change his sheets and clothes. When he is tired or frustrated, he weeps like a small child. Annie ensures his childlike dependence on her and an ""expression of maternal love" (King 159) with his addiction to pain killing-drugs. Annie's disciplinary actions contribute to her mother figure, also. Gottschalk writes, "When he has been bad, she disciplines him but in motherly fashion often comforts him while doing so" (127). Annie punishes Sheldon's attempts to get free by ampu-tating his foot and thumb with an ax, "exercising editorial authority over his body" (King 264). Annie acts as a virginal and protective mother of the vir-gin Misery, "Annie prevents Paul from letting Misery Chastain die in child-birth. She must live and a novel must be born" (Gottschalk 126). Annie nurtures Misery's return as well, "Nothing will interfere with [Misery's] safety or the birth of the book she is nurturing" (Gottschalk 127). There are no doubts as to the significance of Annie's maternal image in the novel.
Behind Annie's destructiveness lies a goddess figure--a goddess in charge of Paul's, as well as Misery's, life. Paul is at the mercy of Annie. He makes it through the days, but only in a complete fear of being murdered by Annie. Gottschalk illustrates Annie's powerful grip over Paul, "Annie 'raped' Paul back into life, and she will hunt him down if he tries to escape" (127). King compares Annie's powerful figure to a giant furnace,
"That's what it would look like…If you built a furnace inside the mouth of one of those idols in the H.
This essay will focus on how Robert Louis Stevenson presents the nature of evil through his novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. Using ideas such as duality, the technique used to highlight the two different sides of a character or scene, allegories, an extended metaphor which has an underlying moral significance, and hypocrisy; in this book the Victorians being against all things evil but regularly taking part in frown able deeds that would not be approved of in a ‘respectable’ society. This links in with the idea of secrecy among people and also that evil is present in everyone. The novel also has strong ties and is heavily influenced by religion. Stevenson, being brought up following strong Calvinist beliefs, portrays his thoughts and opinion throughout the story in his characters; good and evil.
Most authors use 4 utilities to make a story entertaining. They use the setting, mood, tone, and the archetypes to keep the author entertained. Cinderella by Jacob and WilHelm Grimm and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Marsha Hatfield were both scary because they showed how the tone and mood affected the story, themselves, and the readers at the same time. The horror genre is spooky and unlike other genres, because they are written to scare audiences. In order to do that authors and directors have to change settings, establish tones and moods, and use archetypes that are darker than all other genres. Multiple authors make similar decisions to create archetypes, setting, mood, and tones that uphold the horror genre.
As time passed, she eventually was given small bursts of freedom and allowed outside for short increments of time. She began to look forward to this personal time, not considering running away. During the middle of the story, Annie became pregnant. During one of her increments of outside freedom one day, she went into labor. The house had a sense of wellness and almost normalcy as Annie did her best to care for the infant. One night she woke up to ‘the Freak’ holding the baby, dead in his arms which he had murdered as she slept..At this point in the novel, Annie realized she had been victimized long enough and decided to fight back. She became a determined, angry woman and killed him with an ax. She took flight from the cabin and wound up at the police station where she was able to obtain the help she needed. As she tried to resume her prior life she, she was again the victim of an attempted kidnapping while walking home and a robbery at her home. She lived in constant paranoia; finding it hard to make amends and rebuild trust with friends and
Beloved is a story of heartbreak, supernatural forces, and love and hate and the balance between them. Beloved is one of Toni Morrison’s most highly recognized pieces of literature. Morrison accomplishes so much in writing the story Beloved. Morrison does not attempt persuade readers with this story. Beloved is a ghost story among other things. Morrison’s found a way to describe racism and slavery from an African American standpoint without having to completely bash white people. Foreshadowing is a common theme that Morrison uses. Sweet Home and 124 Bluestone are the only places that Sethe has felt to be a home.
While Annie still resides in Harlem, the film is influenced by the social and technological advancements of the time. One example of the influential power of social norms shines through in the form of foster care. Ditching a history of orphanage based child care, a modern Annie finds herself within the home of Colleen Hannigan. However, the current portrayal of a young Miss. Hannigan is consumed with the thoughts of her failed acting career and the search for love. With her sights set on herself, a new empowered Annie is able to slip through the cracks of Hannigan’s view. Taking advantage of her freedom, the young girl engages in a very manipulative and street smart nature by exploring the streets. Due to her almost pain free livelihood, Annie’s rise to the life of rich and powerful comes off as a small enhancement rather than a transformational change. Failing in both tension and climax, the modern adaptation takes away the inspirational nature of the
Throughout many of Toni Morrison?s novels, the plot is built around some conflict for her characters to overcome. Paradise, in particular, uses the relationships between women as a means of reaching this desired end. Paradise, a novel centered around the destruction of a convent and the women in it, supports this idea by showing how this building serves as a haven for dejected women (Smith). The bulk of the novel takes place during and after WWII and focuses on an all black town in Oklahoma. It is through the course of the novel that we see Morrison weave the bonds of women into the text as a means of healing the scars inflicted upon her characters in their respective societies.
Stevenson's Depiction of the Murder of Sir Danvers Carew in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Growing up is one of the most important stages of human life. It is the part when humans reach maturity, become adults, and attain full growth. Also, it means one more thing. It means understanding more about the society. Harper Lee's, To Kill A Mocking Bird, shows the different ways of growing up. There are three characters who go through the process of growing up, Scout mentally grows up, Jem goes through a mental growing up that every adolescent will go through and aunt Alexandra also goes through a mental growing up.
When you are seen as a negative person you feel negative, and after the many times Annie almost sabotaged Lilian’s wedding most of the bridal party deemed her a negative person that Lily shouldn’t even bother with. Ultimately Annie’s many freak outs landed her out of the bridal party as well as off the weddings guest list. This devastated her, not only was her friendship falling apart she wasn’t doing so well in the relationship department either and was also being forced to move home after losing her job. For Annie it was like hitting “rock bottom” and she became severely depressed over her foolish actions. On the day of Lilian’s wedding Helen visits Annie looking for Lilian and claims no one can find her, instinctually Annie helps find her. After locating her Annie visits her alone and discovers all the things Lilian I dealing with and how hard it has been for her not having her best friends support. During this scene Annie is able to see through Lily how she really is, a great, loyal friend who will always be there even if it makes her uncomfortable. Annie finally understands what is most important to her and how wrong she has been when she sees Lilian get into her honeymoon limo and drive
The reader is drawn to the plot of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through the literary devices Stevenson employs. Foreshadowing displays the sense of mystery throughout the novel, the foreshadowing of the actions of Mr. Hyde leaves the reader wondering what will happen next. The ironic nature of Dr. Jekyll relates to the reader as a person, no person is completely perfect and Dr. Jekyll exhibits the natural wants and desires of humans. The irony behind Mr. Hyde adds an enigmatic side to the plot. These two devices expose the readers to the complexity of the novel and reveal the inner meaning of the hidden details.
For a very long time, authors have been writing bone chilling stories, most of which share similarities. Some of these similarities include crime, mystery, obsession, suspense and a “mad man” character. According to Merriam Webster, the full definition of the noun “horror” is “a very strong feeling of fear, dread, and shock”. An example of story that possesses such a characteristic is “The Tell Tale Heart” written by the father of horror himself, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe resided in Boston and Baltimore during the spooky 1800s and his work reveals the mood of the era. He lived a life of depression and death, which in effect, is reflected through most all of his work.
Novril for his pain. Paul comes to like Annie; even letting her read his new manuscript. Annie doesn't like it.
b. Thesis Statement: Stephen King uses many different elements in order to scare his readers. The elements include supernatural elements, real life scenarios, and fear of the unknown.
Both Cassius and Brutus conspire against Caesar, yet Shakespeare depicts Brutus as doing a noble job compared to Cassius as doing a greedy and envious task. Cassius believes that he is stronger than Caesar. Therefore, Cassius does not understand why Caesar is in power and he is not. Cassius is also envious of Caesar. In Act I Scene II, Cassius describes to Brutus the time he had to save Caesar in a swimming race. Since then, Cassius feels superior to Caesar. In Cassius’ mind, kings’ right to rule should be based off of strength, not intelligence or virtue. On the other hand, Brutus knows that although a king should be strong, he must also be virtuous. Brutus always elaborates on the topic of honor. In fact, his first priority is to keep his own honor intact and Brutus fears that Caesar will change when he is crowned. Brutus says, “He would be crowned: How that might change his nature, there’s the question.” (Act II, Scene I, Page 49, lines 12-14) He senses Caesar’s greed for power, and ...
Stephen King is one of the most famous horror writers in this time. King is a very powerful author whose books are read by many. His fame is due to the amazing ideas he has in his head and from his life experiences. King’s stories are very popular to many people. His stories include many different characters and places. He went through many things in life which is shown in his books. King was very poor most of his early life including his college years. His first book took him many years to write, but life experiences he faced helped him finish his first horror book. The book started as a story called, Carrie which ended up changing his life tremendously.