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’ 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 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 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.

Is someone still a ‘monster’ if they’re sorry for what they’ve done? 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?

Do you think that Adolf Hitler was born a monster? 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?

Why do deformities scare people? 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?

Was Victor born a monster or did he acquire the 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?

What makes someone become a ‘monster’? Aileen Wuornos was a prostitute who murdered six men. She claimed that it was in self-defense (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’?

Why do we judge a person’s character on their appearance? 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 "Society right from the very beginning started to make me an animal. . .” Albert DeSalvo, “The Boston Strangler”

Cultural Monsters