Monsters
The monster is best understood as an embodiment of
difference, a breaker of category, and a resistant. An other
known only through process and movement, never through
dissection… Jeffrey Cohen, PhD
Dictionary definition of ‘Monster’
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1.a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form
or having the forms of various animals in combination, as a centaur,
griffin, or sphinx.
2.any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people.
3.any animal or human grotesquely deviating from the normal
shape, behavior, or character.
4.a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etc.
5.any animal or thing huge in size.
6.Biology. a.an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure, as
from marked malformation or the absence of certain parts or
organs.
7.anything unnatural or monstrous. –adjective
Monster Theory
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The Monster is an embodiment of culture
The Monster always escapes
The Monster is the harbinger of social crisis
The Monster is societal/personal “difference” made
flesh
The Monster polices the borders of possible
Fear of the Monster is really a kind of desire
The Monster stands at the threshold of becoming
What is a Monster?
Questions to consider:
How does someone become a monster?
1) Can a ‘monster’ change?
2) How does someone’s appearance affect
our perceptions of them?
3) What are your first impressions of each
picture?
Frankenstein’s Monster
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Initial realization coincides with the basic
“needs” outlined by Maslow
His first physical encounters with humanity
are met with violence, disdain, and hatred
Do you feel sympathy for the creature?
Is there justification in his “revenge” upon
Victor?
All men hate the wretched;
how then, must I be hated,
who am miserable beyond
all living things! Yet you,
my creator, detest and
spurn me, thy creature...
You purpose to kill me.
How dare you sport thus
with life? Do your duty
towards me, and I will do
mine towards you and the
rest of mankind.
Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all
human kind sinned against me?
Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but
I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no
misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am
irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery
made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be
virtuous.
I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and
humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone?
You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I
gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me
nothing? They spurn and hate me. The desert
mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I
have wandered here many days; the caves of
ice, which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me,
and the only one which man does not grudge.
These bleak skies I hail, for they are kinder to me
than your fellow beings. If the multitude of
mankind knew of my existence, they would do as
you do, and arm themselves for my destruction.
Shall I not then hate them who abhor me? I will
keep no terms with my enemies. I am miserable,
and they shall share my wretchedness.
At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in
the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster
that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and
mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable
deformity.
You accuse me of murder, and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy
your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man! Yet I ask you not to
spare me; listen to me, and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of
your hands.
Myra Hindley In 1966 Hindley was convicted of murdering
Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey, and for being an
accessory in the John Kilbride murder. In prison she claimed to
have found religion and repented her sins. Her lawyers told the
press that Hindley was truly sorry for what she did. She had
always portrayed herself as a remorseful sinner, but knew that
few people were willing to forgive her. Her lawyers told the
press that Hindley was truly sorry for what she did. In 2002
Hindley died in prison.
Is someone still a ‘monster’ if they’re sorry for what they’ve done?
Are they a monster if they say someone else made them do it?
Adolf Hitler. Leader of the Nazi party who systematically killed
about 11 million people, including about 6 million Jews,
during the Holocaust in WW2.
Do you think that Adolf Hitler was born a monster?
Hitler found justification in his actions. Does that
make him more or less a “monster?”
Were the people who carried out Hitler’s orders also
monsters?
Joseph Merrick ‘The Elephant Man’. He was deformed as he
suffered from a genetic disorder also known as von
Recklinghausen's disease. Born in 1862, he spent most of
his life working as a circus ‘freak’, where he was humiliated
and mistreated. He was later discovered by a doctor who
cared for him in the hospital and Merrick began a new life.
He died at the age of 27 as a result of his condition.
Why do deformities scare people?
Why do we judge people on their appearances?
Victor was a 12 year old boy who emerged from the forest
in France in 1800. His appearance and actions indicated
that he was raised in nature as he had no knowledge or
aptitude for language and had physically adapted to a life in
the outdoors. He did not have the same reactions to heat
or cold and was labeled a “freak” or “monster” for the rest of
his life.
Was Victor born a monster or did he acquire the
monster label due to his abandonment?
Aileen Wuornos was a prostitute who murdered six men. She claimed that it was in selfdefense (one of the men she had murdered had spent 10 years in prison for the
violent attack of another woman). She had also had an extremely abusive
childhood, having been abandoned by her mother at an early age and subjected to
various tortures as a young girl. She was executed in 2002. Documentary film
maker Nick Broomfield said of Wournos, ‘Aileen Wuornos led a tortured, torturing life
that is beyond my worst nightmares.’ Before she was executed, Wuornos said that
she was ready to die.
What makes someone become a ‘monster’?
Is Wuornos a monster, given that her life was ‘tortured’?
Ted Bundy. Confessed to murdering 30 women in
the 1970s. Said that pornography had driven him
to it. People were shocked that someone who
looked so ‘normal’ could be a serial killer.
Why do we judge a person’s
character on their appearance?
"Am I just an extremely evil person or is it
some kind of satanic influence, or what? I have no idea. I have no idea
at all. Do you? Is it possible to be influenced by spirit beings? The
Bible calls him Satan. I suppose it's possible because it sure seems
like some of the thoughts aren't my own, they just come blasting into
my head… These thoughts are very powerful, very destructive, and
they do not leave. They're not the kind of thoughts that you can just
shake your head and they're gone. They do not leave.“
Jeffrey Dahmer
"I will in all probability be convicted, but
I will not go away as a monster, but as a
tragedy." Joel Rifkin
"Hello from the gutters of New York City, which are filled
with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood."
David Berkowitz, “The Son of Sam”
"Most of the people at the ranch were just people you did not want…
Look down on me, you will see a fool. Look up at me, you will see
your Lord. Look straight at me, you will see yourself."
"Society right from the very beginning started to make me an animal. . .”
Albert DeSalvo, “The Boston Strangler”
Cultural Monsters