The Horla Comparison

Monsters have always been written about in various forms and types. They range from Dracula the vampire to Scylla the water monster to Pennywise the evil clown, each having its own special type of abilities and dreadfulness. Throughout the horror genre, these monsters are highly focused on to make the story or movie as horrific as possible. Usually these can be divided into two categories: the humanistic ones and the supernatural or horrific type. Each of these two groups makes its story better suited to the effect that author wants to achieve. By using a humanistic or horrific monster, the theme and effects on the character and reader differ depending on the type.
“The Horla” by Guy de Maupassant is the story of a man who believes that

he is being watched and eventually controlled by an invisible being. It controls his actions and thoughts, not allowing him to go out into town at the end or even really leave the house. This unseen menace harasses the narrator to the point where the narrator believes he has to kill it, and in doing so, kills all his servants while burning his house down. The narrator then believes that he has actually not killed the Horla and ends with, “he is not dead.. I suppose I must kill myself.” (Maupassant, “The Horla” Pg 27) The two main themes in this short story are isolation and the possibility of mental illness. Throughout the story the narrator is almost constantly alone, allowing his thoughts to always be of the Horla. His isolation is one of the key factors in the progression of the story because if he had gotten help or someone had noticed that something was wrong, the story probably would’ve ended a lot differently. The other theme is the possibility that this was all just in the narrator’s head. Due to his isolation, what the narrator has written cannot be determined to be true or not which leaves open the possibility of him having some sort of mental illness and the Horla is just a figment of his imagination. Both themes contribute to the ambiguous ending of the story where it is not clear whether the narrator is actually going to kill himself and if the Horla is real or not.
“The Birds” by Daphne Du Maurier is the story of a small town that is suddenly overrun with birds that attack and kill people. Nat, the main character, and his family are the focus of this story and survive by using their instincts. As soon as the attacks start, Nat begins to worry and starts fortifying his house by barricading the doors and windows. As the story continues, military planes attempt to take down the birds but instead are taken down themselves and Nat’s neighbors end up dead after attempting to go on a bird killing spree. By this time, the family knows they are pretty much alone since the radio has stopped broadcasting and as far as they know, there’s no one left around them. The end of the story doesn’t explain very much as it stops with Nat planning on how to make a stronger fortification around the house while smoking his last cigarette. The main three themes in this story are isolation, man vs nature, and survival. Isolation was what took away hope from Nat’s family. When humans are together in large numbers, they feel safer but as soon as it’s just a few, that safety net is gone just like how it was for his family. Once all the neighbors were dead, and the radio went out, the feeling of isolation brought them down, especially the mother and children. Man vs nature is the most prominent theme due to the birds being the stories monsters. Birds usually represent ideas such as freedom and beauty, they aren’t expected to start attacking people as they did in the book which is why it took so long for people to start realizing that this wasn’t normal, but by that time it was already too late. The last theme is survival which is mainly focused on Nat. Nat is one of the few people who actually think to do something to protect his family. Throughout the story, he is one of the only ones actively worried and trying to make sure his family is safe which is why he is the only one who seemingly makes it. All three themes are what turns this story into one that is very bleak at the end because it is unknown if the family will survive, what’s causing the birds to attack, and if anyone else is alive.
“Spunk” by Zora Neale Hurston tells the story of Spunk, a bug man who thinks he can take whatever he pleases, and Joe Kanty, a weaker man who is losing his wife to Spunk.

Joe is egged on by some townsfolk to do something after his wife, Lena, and seen walking with Spunk. Joe takes out his pocket knife and takes off after the pair, into the forest from which he does not return. Instead Spunk appears and says “he sneaked up an’ tried to kill me from the back, but ah got him good.” (Hurston, Pg 3) After Joe has died, Lena and Spunk are to be married and to move into a new house together. One night a black bobcat shows up at Spunk’s house, who is convinced that is it Joe. From then on he is scared and while working his dangerous job at the saw-mill, he is fatally injured. His last words were that Joe had pushed him from behind like a coward. The two major themes in this piece are courage vs cowardice and fate. Spunk was always seen as a man with no fear, he was able to operate the dangerous job at the saw mill and took whatever he liked but when Joe possibly attacked him with a little knife, he shot him and made up a story to protect his masculinity. Even when he was dying, he blamed Joe for pushing him from behind which may or may not have been true. In reality, it was Joe who had courage because even though he knew there wasn’t much he could do, he still went after a guy like Spunk to try and get his wife back. The other theme is that of fate because Spunk got what was coming

for him. After stealing another man’s wife and then killing him even though he didn’t need to, it was only fair that he lose it all, possibly because of the man he stole everything from in the first place. This story is basically a representation that people will always get what they actually deserve, not what they think that they deserve.
“I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson is about a man named Robert Neville who appears to be the last human on a planet swarming with vampires.

He protects himself by barricading his windows and doors and hunts these vampires during the day while they cannot attack him. His life consists of this same pattern every day, while searching for the scientific reason behind the vampire outbreak. One day, he sees a girl, Ruth, and chases her until she is caught and he brings her into his house. He finds out that she is a different type of vampire, not like the ones who stand outside of his house all night. She knocks him unconscious and leaves him alone for several months. He is then sought out by several of these new vampires and is taken back to the new society’s jail where Ruth visits him and tells him that her kind are afraid of him and gives him pills so that he can die by his hands rather than theirs. The story ends with Robert taking the pills and stating that “I am legend.” (Matheson, “I Am Legend” Pg. 170) The themes of this story are isolation, survival, and insignificance. Robert is isolated in his home with no human company and he is almost positive that he is last human on the Earth. Due to his isolation and repetitive daily behavior, Robert begins to feel insignificant in the world, leading him to want to give up and throw himself to the vampires that taunt him every night. There are several instances where he actually starts to give in to those thoughts until his survival

instincts take over. It is the survival instinct that has saved him up until the end. He boarded the house, got a generator, made food runs, killed the vampires, and even worked on figuring out what the vampirism was. These themes were the qualities that made Robert Neville into the legend he states himself to be at the end of the story.
“Don’t Look Now” by Daphne Du Maurier is about a married couple, John and Laura, who take a trip to Venice after losing their child tragically. At one of the first restaurant they go to, psychic twins tell Laura that they can see that her daughter is with them. John does not believe them and is upset that they would say such a thing to his wife, but Laura on the other hand is thrilled. Later on, they see the twins again and John believes that they are following him. This time they tell Laura that John is in danger and must leave Venice, and also that he is a psychic. Back at their hotel though, they receive a telegram saying that their other child, Johnnie, is sick and may need surgery. Laura decides to fly back immediately, while John will take a train back. On the ferry to his car, John sees Laura in the crowd on the street even though her flight was supposed to have already taken off. After he goes back to the hotel, he gets a phone call from the school headmistress and his wife and later on, he talks to the twins and they tell John that seeing his wife was a vision from the future. Later, he goes out and sees a little girl who he follows, trying to help. The girl turns out to be a dwarf that kills him. The two main themes here are the fear of the unknown, and insignificance. John’s skepticism and fear of the psychic twin is what eventually lead to his demise. If he had believed them and done what they had told him, he would have been far away from the murderer, instead of being killed. For insignificance, John felt it at the beginning after losing his child. He didn’t know how to help his wife so when the twins made her happy, he was upset and mad at them because that was his job. It is also seen at the end when John is killed. All he had wanted to do was help this child, possibly since he could not save his own daughter, and it ended up killing him. The ending line states “what a bloody silly way to die,” (Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now” Pg. 58) which is a perfect portrayal of both themes because of the tone of helplessness and his realization of how stupid he had been to not listen.
The themes in these stories have a common pattern in those for the human monsters and those of the horrific monsters. The stories with horrific monsters include the invisible being in “The Horla,” the birds in “The Birds,” and the possibility of Joe coming back as a panther in “Spunk.” A horrific monster in a horror story creates a helpless world in which the characters aren’t sure how to handle this monster or protect themselves from it. Taking ordinary things like birds and turning them into killers will leave the reader flinching when they see or hear a flock of birds outside. For both the reader and the characters, the thought of not being helpless against ordinary creatures or unseen forces is what’s scary. It is only human to want to believe that we are the top species in this world and that nothing can mess with us, especially not little things like birds. This plays into the common theme of isolation because humans are better in groups, not single handedly fighting against hordes of beings. Being alone makes humans helpless against many assailants so by placing the family or person in an isolated setting, it plays into the fear of being alone and even dying alone.
The human monsters include the vampires from “I Am Legend,” the dwarf from “Don’t Look Now,” and Spunk from “Spunk.” These have a different effect on the reader because it is scarier to see humans as monstrous. In our society, humans do not like to think about the awful things that could happen, like John being murdered by a psychopath in “Don’t Look Now.” By having a human like monster, it creates disarray for the characters and reader because humans are thought to be the most intelligent and strongest race, so to be bested by ourselves, or something that seems like us is almost unimaginable. The common theme of these types in that of insignificance. As a species, humans go their whole lives wanting to be something, not just another dull face washed into a crowd. To be unable to do anything but die is just not enough so when life doesn’t go according to plan and gets cut short, it’s only natural to feel insignificant especially when it’s at the hands of another person. Just like with the horrific monsters though, the scariest part of these stories is the thought of humanity perishing or turning on each other.
It is the type of monster that determines where a horror story is going to go and how it is going to effect the people around it. For humanistic, the fear of our superiority being taken away from us by other people or things that appear human is what drives it and it is the idea of being insignificant that really drives the nail in the coffin. While for horrific monsters, it makes the humans feel helpless to protect themselves and being isolated only adds fuel to the fire. Monsters, horrifyingly enough, are all around us and it is the realization that we could do absolutely nothing about it that scares the characters and readers the most.