From deep within a dark cave on the opposite side of Galilee in the country of the Gadarenes the most hideous cry emanated. The cry was an audible sign for all travelers to keep clear of the haunted tombs. Those who knew better feared the shadowy figure that lurked there hidden within the rocks. There were stories being circulated that told the tale of an unconstrained madman who could not be held captive. With herculean strength he had repeatedly broken every restraint that his captors had executed. He not only easily freed himself from their tightly held bounds of shackles and chains, but had become an unpredictable lunatic on the loose. It was demons that had driven him into the barren wilderness. He had been a long time possessed by evil spirits. He had often made the most blood curdling sounds from deep within his assigned abyss. His cries reverberate across the land. The unclean spirits frequently seized hold of him with maddening force tortured him. He was like a puppet on their strings, being constantly preyed upon by unseen entities. They took great pleasure in making him to cut deep wounds within his flesh with jagged rocks and sharp edged stones. One day something unusual happened to the possessed man of Gardara. He left his dark tombs and entered the sunlight. He had the most dreadful visage. In a bizarre way he had decided to run nakedly towards the boat that had just landed upon the shore. What did he hope to accomplish by his naked appearance? A closer look revealed a twisted and contorted face with a body that contained many bloody contusions and deep embedded scars. He not only looked hideous, but he even also had a foul smell. He reeked with the stench of death. The demoniac was on a run, singling out a man w... ... middle of paper ... ...nless they find a man or woman to inhabit. We also learn that an exorcised man might even become worse than when he was first possessed. The story goes on to reveal that seven other spirits more wicked than the first, came along with the first demon and gone back to once exorcised man’s body and made a new home. The last state of the exorcised man became worse than the first state. It is a fact that we must remember that demons apart from the human body are not at ease but walk about through dry places, seeking rest but finding none. How thirsty they must feel outside someone’s body. Somehow demons attach themselves to a host and remain within them. To find a desirable host, the demons have a criterion to establish residence. It must be empty, swept, and garnished. To them a body meeting these conditions is the most enticing and alluring dwelling place to enter.
He was working in the steaming pit of hell; day after day, week after week- until now there was not an organ of his body that did its work without pain, until the sound of ocean breaks echoes in his head day and night… and from all the unending horror of this there was a respite, a deliverance- he could drink! He could forget the pain, he could slip off the burden: he would see clearly again, he would be master of his brain, of his
The influence of Plato’s “Allegory of the cave” is very evident in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The allegory illustrates are inability to look beyond our immediate reality; to look beyond ou...
Untouched and unhindered, he continued on a path, not yet discovered, towards the unknowing Prince Prospero. Although he had a slow pace, he made an unexplainable distance in a small amount of time. Some masqueraded man from the retreating group grew enraged and curious of this mysterious man. He ran up to the figure and placed a hand on his mask with the intent to tear it off of the ghostly man. The moment he laid his hand upon the mask, he screamed in agony and pain. Then, unable to pull his hand or the mask free, his fate was sealed. His scream withered away along with his final breath, as he turned old and crumpled onto the lustrous floor in a pile of black ash. Silence and absolute stillness filled the room before a wine glass, half full of a red drink, descended from the whitley g...
In the Christian tradition, Satan is commonly accepted as a hideous and monstrous being in direct contrast to God’s graceful mercy, often a shadowy figure with little depth. Yet there exists another very gothic view of this figure, as demonstrated by Milton in Paradise Lost, of a long suffering villain who appears more tragic artist than ultimate deceiver. The Monk, by Matthew Lewis, makes use of more tragic and mythical elements to make something altogether different, a Dionysian figure. Lewis uses such descriptive speech, symbols, and themes all connected to Greek myth to present a chaos creating character who transgresses not only God, but societal boundaries. While transgressions have been profusely researched in Gothic literature, the Dionysian myth connected to the Daemon spirit have been overlooked. I will reveal how much the scene of Ambrosio’s first meeting with Satan draws upon myths, symbols, and perceptions of the Greek God, and furthermore why these connections exist and reinforce the gothic genre.
The captain of the local guardsmen stood near the chained child and took a deep breath. "Citizens and guests of Eir Village!" he yelled as if he was going to announce his proudest achievement. "This runt has plagued us for years. One of the Cursed Generation denied by the gods and blessed by demons. He has committed a numerous amount of crimes within the past twenty-four hours: Theft and vandalism are among the minor occurrences," he glared at the boy. "He has eluded us for too long and now, he's here because of murder."
‘Are you sure?’ asked the Savage. ‘Are you quite sure that the Edmund in that pneumatic chair hasn’t been just as heavily punished as the Edmund who’s wounded and bleeding to death? The gods are just. Haven’t they used his pleasant vices as an instrument to degrade him?’
Every cultural tradition and major religion has formed the idea of possession and has had the need for some form of exorcism. Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Islam’s, Buddhists and scientists all have different views on exorcism. Although these religions believe in the idea of exorcism, science proves to have different explanations to this phenomenon.
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Pantheon, 1965.
The controversial topic of insanity manifests itself commonly in Romantic writing, and has been one much disputed over time. Some say that people who seem crazy are so above our own level of thought and understanding that we can’t possibly begin to identify with them and that we can find genius in the form of ordinary lunatics who connect to God and divinity in ways “normal” people don’t comprehend. Throughout works such as “The Cask of Amontillado and “The Castaway”, the authors question insanity with ideas that show the possible outcomes when one looks deep inside themselves for a divine spark or intuition. Both of these stories address madness in different forms, and madness itself is Godly experiences gone wrong; the person who receives the divine vision is unable to handle its raw truth.
This tribe brings nothing but death and destruction to the island. Moreover, the newly formed group of warriors even develop a dance that they perform over the carcass of the dead pig. They become so involved in this dance that that warriors kill one of their own kind. By chance, Simon runs from the forest towards the group that is already shouting “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’” (152).
Some people are forced to go to a mental hospital because they are doing too much harm to themselves by trying to kill themselves or by even hurting the people they most love. Many patients have said that they have been treated like animals and that they were abused by both physical verbal. They were also given strong medications so they could be quiet and fall asleep so that it could make the job easier so the they wouldn’t give the staff problems. Usually when the patient was given too much medication by the nurses they had more problems because they weren’t able to sleep due to too much medication, the patients also got sick frequently because again they were given too much medication. Sometimes because there was too much medication in a person’s body it made the person more wild and to not allow the person’s mind to think right, so they would kill themselves because they hallucinated things and would usually jump off the building, sometimes there were even assassinations where they would kill someone because they had hallucinated something. Now a lot of mental asylums have closed because of suicides and assassinations. It is believed that most old, closed mental asylums are haunted by the spirits who were killed or who killed themselves because of the bad treatment they received from the the doctors and the
There are many places in the Bible that clearly show how impossible it is to be a believer and be demon possessed. First, in I Corinthians 6:19 it states that ?your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you...? Something holy and something evil cannot indwell the same person at one time and once you are a believer, the Holy Spirit is indwelling in you at all times even during those times in your life when you may not be filled with the Spirit. Another verse that I find to be helpful in this issue is I John 4:4, ? Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.? Christ is in us and Satan is in the world so I would have to say we are Christ possessed. Satan uses this idea people have that we can be possessed to his advantage I think and people start looking to the wrong places for comfort and salvation. All along we need to look inward to focus on Christ and not on the world.
Unearthed skulls dating back to 6500 BCE have been discovered by archeologists to have large holes drilled into the sides of them. (1) The purpose of the drilling was to release the demon spirits that ruled inside these unfortunate beings. (2) The thought at the time was that strange, disruptive, or unexplainable behaviors demonstrated by individuals was a direct consequence of demons controlling the persons soul. These behaviors were seen not as a medical condition of any kind, but primarily relating to bad morals. There are Biblical references that Jesus cast out devils in those demonstrating irrational or crazed behaviors. Of course there are also Biblical reference that describe maniacal behavior that Jesus also healed and those individual were thought to simply be ill.
Although the cottagers were unaware of his presence, he took it upon himself to collect wood for their fire, clear snow paths, and other various helpful acts which show his growing concern for their wellbeing and learns there is some good among the bad. As time passed, the Creature grew more frustrated with his lack of companionship when he questions, “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses...What was I?” (120) He had grown to admire the cottagers, but when they began to add more love and happiness into their lives, the Creature learns that he will never obtain what they have. This positive situation turned into malignant comparison that generated negative, intrusive thoughts and once again amplified his hatred towards the abandoning Victor. In attempt to relieve his loneliness and associate with the cottagers, he decides to talk to De Lacey, the blind old man and as a result was attacked by his family, he claims, “I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sunk within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained”
When they first find the old man, the villagers claim that “he’s an angel” (Marquez 1). There is no denying the man’s divinity but he seems to represents much more than your average angel. In fact, the old man doesn’t resemble the typical image of an angel at all. Rather than being a young and pure angel, he is “much too human” with his “unbearable smell”. His angelic wings are even “strewn with parasites” with mistreated feathers (2). This contrasting imagery, however, doesn’t completely undermine the old man’s divinity; rather it draws attention to his lackluster appearance. The disappointments we feel towards the old man along with his particular characteristics make him remarkably similar to the one of bible’s tragic heroes; he is th...