Similarities Between Frankenstein And Suffer The Little Children

There is a fine line between sane and insane monsters in people. Sometimes, it is a mental issue, other times it is just one simple thought that provokes the monster inside of people. Just one thought could change a person and their actions entirely. Just one person’s doings could make someone else feat evilly upon them. Just one sight, feeling, or a wrong message. Just one mistake. Just one. Just one incident or thought can change a person and their actions. With textual evidence and examples from “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell, “Suffer the Little Children” by Steven King, and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, the monsters inside of the characters will emerge with a provoking element.

Just as a thought can

change a person, a feeling can as well. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, the antagonist, General Zaroff feels that hunting animals “had become too easy” (26). The General faces all kinds of animals, including some of the most destructive, and had success, too much success, stating that “there is no greater bore than perfection” (26), he wants to fight against an animal that has the instinct to defend itself. Zaroff traps vulnerable sailors on his island, where he then charms them into a ‘game’ of hunting. Zaroff creates “a new animal to hunt” (26), that acquitted animal is the sailors. Consequently, when a more intellectual hunter, Sanger Rainsford, is confined and forced to hunt, Zaroff is dumbfounded because, to his surprise, Rainsford applies intelligent tactics to outwit the general, instead of killing him. The big game hunter sees Zaroff’s game as murderous, however Zaroff visualizes it as a rational act because he thinks that people should be strong enough to survive. Why does this make him an insane monster? The general is insane by society’s standards: he slaughters people because he perceives them to be strong enough; he captures people and puts them in biased hunting conditions; and he believes himself to be unbeatable in his own game, putting his importance before other’s lives. Zaroff is malevolent like a devil, he simply does not possess a moral perspective for killing innocent humans; he is only uninterested in hunting animals.
Another character that possesses similar characteristics of an insane monster would be Miss Sidley in “Suffer the Little Children”.

However, she is aware that she is mentally absurd by uttering to herself, “it was all in your mind, Emily” (6). Miss Sidley is a 3rd grade teacher who is quite wise and uses her skills prudently. She uses the reflection in her glasses to distinguish what undertakings the students commit behind her back. Miss Sidley has one student in particular that is relevant in creating her inner-monster, that student is Robert. Miss Sidley notes that she saw a “glimpse of Robert’s face changing” (2) which is the first sign of her viewing her students as fiends, she believes that Robert’s face actually morphed and melted into a monstrous creature. Her thoughts make her ponder that Robert and the rest of the children are horrors. Robert then gives her another sign of the class being monsters by telling her “there’s so many of us” (5), making Miss Sidley to ruminate that all of her students are immoral beings, even though she has only witnessed Robert changing into a beast. She makes the judgment to eradicate the ‘monsters’ she continues to generate in her mind. Therefore, she creates a “special test” (6) where the test takes place in another room, she transports each student into a different room. The room permits no noise to be received outside of it, giving her the opportunity to shoot each of 12 students with her brother’s gun, with no one hearing it. What

makes this insanity and monstrous? Miss Sidley is psychologically crazy, the kids were not actually monsters, and it all rests in her mind. This builds the monster inside her, making her murder twelve guiltless children. Although she thinks the kids are the monsters, however in reality, it is her.
Finally, insanity also acts in the deranged, revenge seeking, Montresor from “The Cask of Amontillado”.

Poe gives this villain features that allow him to be viewed as sane or insane due to the fact that Montresor acted in retaliation. Fortunato, a friend of Montresor, insulted him, giving Montresor a motive. However, even though he has a motive, he torments Fortunato, which is an inhumane characteristic. Montresor desires more that to just kill Fortunato, he yearns for making him agonize. While at a carnival, Montresor forages wine to Fortunato, tricking him into following him into the catacombs. With Fortunato intoxicated in the undergrounds, Montresor “fetters him to the granite” (10) leaving him there to distress. Finally, after “the yells of him [Fortunato] clamored” (11), Montresor built tiers of plastered stone, keeping a barrier between Fortunato and the aboveground. Leaving the reader with uncertainty of what happens to Fortunato, Poe later gives the statement from Montresor “in pace requiescat!” (12) reassuring the reader that he commits homicide to Fortunato. How does this make him a monster? He does not want just revenge, he wants to make Fortunato suffer for his doings. He can be perceived as sane mainly because of the reason behind it; making one feel for his faults. However, he can be perceived as insane because he imprisoned a man to make him deteriorate and slowly rot in the

crypts.
In all of the suspense, short stories, these reasons give the characteristics of an insane monster for each of the antagonists: they do not attain reasoning that is logical or ethical; they are all ruthless and execute people that do not deserve those horrid acts; and they each believe that it is reasonable, they do not think it is psychotic, irrational or cruel. The character’s souls as sinister as a dark, eerie alley. In conclusion, everyone has monsters inside of them that are waiting to be provoked by thoughts, actions, or feelings. Some people choose to act in violence, while others choose to be rational and communicate.