Rod Sterling’s classic show The Twilight Zone has long elicited feelings of deep-seeded eeriness in its viewers. From its familiar, daunting music to its obscure, often sinister plot lines, the program holistically embodies the Freudian principle of “the uncanny.” In other words, the show depicts what psychologist Sigmund Freud calls “that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar” (2). One specific episode, “The Dummy,” exemplifies this definition of the uncanny through the story of small-time ventriloquist Jerry Peterson and his inexorable descent into madness at the hands of his dummy, Willie. Through these characters, uncanniness is portrayed through animism, the idea of heimlich and unheimlich …show more content…
In the opening of the episode, Serling describes Willie as Jerry’s “brash alter-ego,” a sentiment that confirms the inextricable link between the two. Willie’s further uncanniness as a double is confirmed by Freud, who, citing Otto Rank states, “...the ‘double’ was originally an insurance against destruction to the ego, an ‘energetic denial of the power of death’” (9). Willie, being a wooden puppet, is immune to criticism, making him the perfect candidate to protect Jerry’s ego. The distortion of Willie into a source of security increases his uncanniness: “From having been an assurance of immortality, [the double] becomes the ghastly harbinger of death” (9). Indeed, Willie becomes the vessel for certain “death” as he maliciously causes the destruction of Goofy Goggles, Jerry’s back-up puppet, at the hands of Jerry himself, no less. This vivid death closely foreshadows the ultimate death of Jerry, though, as his failure to confront his fear of Willie results in his worst nightmare: the episode concludes with Willie and Jerry having switched roles. Jerry has literally become the puppet that he always was, helpless against the literal control of the now-human Willie. This is the ultimate fulfillment of the uncanny: Jerry is no longer trapped in his prison of flesh, but in one infinitely more confining--a prison of wood that he tried in vain to trap Willie
...ing horror movies. Stephen King’s “Why We Crave Horror Movies” is a well written essay with convincing analogies, comparisons, and urban humor. With the use of logos, ethos and pathos in unison he easily wins his argument persuading his audience to believe his thesis, convincing normal people they are mentally ill. Kings argument convinces his readers not only that mental illness lies within us all, but that without horror movies we wouldn’t have a way to fix our mental state. If sanity is being normal, and insanity is madness, then how is it that being normal is watching insanity repeatedly?
In the movie, The Voices, Jerry (the main character) seems like a friendly and happy guy. He functions normally until we see a scene where he is having a conversation with his pets. He lives with
During the era of P.T. Barnum, the stars of the freak show were those that were visibly deformed, the more extraordinary their disability, the more successful of an act they were (Thomson). Thomson notes that eventually the extraordinary moved from “portent to pathology”, the freaks of the 19th and 20th-century became the medical specimens of the 21st-century (Thomson). As moral values shifted in modern day society, Rose
In ‘Death off a Salesman’, it is clear from the start of Act 1 that Willie is ashamed of the way his life turned out and ultimately how he ends up treating his family poorly from his own shame.
Illusion can be defined as a distortion of the senses, of reality, and the perception of a dream like world that consumes us. James Baldwin author of the short story “Sonny’s Blues” uses the unique creativity of illusion to therefore draw in his readers. He uses several literary elements including characterization, plot, and setting to express his elaborate use of illusion in this story. Likewise Nathaniel Hawthorne author of the most controversial short story “The Birthmark” also uses illusion to draw attention to an almost magical setting of mystery and morality. Both of these authors use this theme in their works brilliantly, but in contrasting styles, which on the contrary makes their works masterpieces in distorting the beauty and truth in the world.
Have you ever experienced that feeling when your heart beat goes into hyper drive, your palms start to perspire, and your muscles tense up? Fear is an emotion that everyone has succumbed to at least once in their lifetime. Our fears are like our shadows, for they follow us around to wherever we may go. They are lingering in the back of our minds from the moment we wake up in the morning until our heads hit the pillow at night. Fears are so powerful, however, that they can even crawl into our dreams and manifest into other beings. We, as humans, like to put names or concepts to either faces or objects; we like to possess the ability to visualize what something or someone looks like. As a result, our fears are personified into monsters. Prolific essayist, Chuck Klosterman, points out how “Frankenstein’s monster illustrated our trepidation about untethered science” and “Godzilla was spawned from the fear of the atomic age.” In Klosterman’s article, “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” he tackles the
Throughout our existence, there is one emotion that we all must have or at least experience and that is compassion. The gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley introduces appearance vs. reality. However, we get to know that Victor Frankenstein comes from a respectable family and ideally good. As time passes he goes on to pursue his education. Frankenstein created what he thought would be beautifully turned out to be horrendous. Then on we notice a reaction from Frankenstein and flees as a result. People judge or judged based on appearance. Like everyone else, we want to be accepted, we want to be of value. The monster yearns for it but being the way that he is, it made it much harder for him to reach.
One of the main characters, Dr. Frankenstein or Victor created a “new human”, the monster known as Frankenstein to advance in science and to prove his superiority over the people. Victor created this monster thinking that people will praise him for coinciding life and death, but people judged Frankenstein based on his appearance and were traumatized at what Victor had made. Frankenstein realized that he was not like the other humans and even his creator, Victor ran away from it and left Frankenstein in complete despair. To have revenge against Frankenstein’s creator, it decided to kill the people that were dear to Victor because Victor promised another creation for
In his essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” King attempts to bring understanding to the phenomenon of the horror film genre. He states “sanity becomes a matter of degree” eluding to the theory that sanity is relative and that all humans are relatively insane. Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Torso Murderer were the examples of humans on one extreme of the spectrum of sanity; saints represent the other safe end of the sanity spectrum. He illustrates the thought that in order for human kind to stay functionally sane there needs to be some sort of outlet for our violent “mad” thoughts. In King’s view horror movies provide a stable outlet and mental relief for innate madness. King argues that his insanity/ant civilization emotions are ingrained
White, Sadie. "Making a Monster: The Biological, Social, and Artistic Construction of a Serial Killer From Psychosis to Sondheim." Making a Monster: The Biological, Social, and Artistic Construction of a Serial Killer From Psychosis to Sondheim. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
“Why We Crave Horror Movies,” an essay by the legendary Stephen King, explains two challenging concepts to understand: why people like gory horror movies and how people are able to control their darkest desires. “I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all.” King opens the essay by addressing the hard truth- we are all insane. People have dull lives, and often it’s the little bit of crazy within in us tha...
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
One of the main themes in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is the importance of appearance and acceptance in modern society. In today's society, and also in the society of Frankenstein, people judge one often solely on their looks. Social prejudice is often based on looks, whether it be the color of someone's skin, the clothes that a person wears, the facial features that one has and even the way one stands. People make snap judgments based on these and other considerations and they affect the way that they present themselves to one, and also the way that the treat the judged person. In Frankenstein the society of that time is much like our own today. It is an appearance based society, and this is brought to the forefront by the extreme ugliness of Victor Frankenstein's monster to a common human being.
Miller states, " . . . the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life . . . to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity" (1021). Willie is no exception. Willie's sense of personal dignity is primarily found in his family, most notably his son Biff. Willie transfers his dreams of being great onto Biff and, when Biff is a failure in the world, these dreams affect Willie's self-image and sense of personal dignity. To regain this personal dignity, Willie must make Biff great. In the end, it is the love for his son and the belief that his insurance money will make Biff "magnificent" that give him the needed excuse and cause him to end his life.
The text King has written states, many reasons as to why we crave horror. I plan to correlate his idea to, “show that we can, that we are not afraid, that we can ride the roller coaster”, to the emotional roller coaster of the two main characters (King1). In The Doll, Amelia starts the movie as a very happy ...