Essays

An Account on the Existence of Horror

Much has been said about horror. Every writer or character in a story always seems to have a distinctly unique philosophy on the existence horror and terror. Horror is said to exist on two planes; what’s out there on the boundaries of the living world and horror that exists on a subconscious level. While mostly using the latter as his primary form of horror, H.P. Lovecraft would also argue that horror exists on another plane; being the unknown. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” (Bloch VII). From the depths of Dante’s Inferno to the heights of the Overlook, horror exists on many different levels and is as old as H.P. Lovecraft suggests. Unfortunately for many scholars and the characters they examine or create, it is an amalgamation of the first two or sometimes even the latter most option. Depending on the circumstances of a specific story, the horror can be out there, such as ancient evil lying in wait in sunken cities, or the evil can exist within a human being; it is designed to make the human conscience feel uncomfortable. Many examples of all three forms of horror, and more times than not combinations of the three variations exist as can be seen in fiction as well as in real-life. In Stephen King’s The Shining, this combination philosophy is displayed perfectly.

Jack Torrance is perhaps one of the most unintentionally complex characters in recent horror literature. While characters in the various H.P. Lovecraft stories are subjected to many different circumstances where the horror starts outside of them, and inevitably seeps in, driving them towards madness, King presents a situation in which the Torrance family, and more specifically Jack have been subjected to a place that has inertly evil qualities while also examining the character’s (Jack) inner demons; which Jack seems to have no shortage of. Early on in the story Jack is displayed as arrogant, pompous and a drunkard, but there is something else there. While it is not obvious at first, Dick Halloran is quick to point it out. Mr. Halloran makes it a point to Danny Torrance that he (Danny) has an incredible “shine” to him, and that Wendy has a little shine, but that “all mothers shine a little” (King 126). Then Mr. Halloran lies to Danny by telling him that Jack doesn’t have a shine, which for all intents and purposes he does not possess, but Mr. Halloran has a brief internal monologue in which he mentions that Jack has “something” (King 126).

There exists a dark aura around and deep within Jack Torrance in much more than just an allegorical sense. Where Danny Torrance has a great shine, Jack Torrance has some sort of anti-shine as if to counterbalance the good with the evil. Jack could have reacted calmly when his former student slashed his tires (King 164), but instead he decided that taking physical vengeance for an act in which no one was truly hurt was a better idea (King 165). He also made the decision to break his son’s arm almost literally over spilt milk (King 23), or in Jack’s case a can of beer (King 23), but in both of these sequences he claims it was as if something took him over and each of these scenes happened long before the Overlook. Despite his own claim that something was taking him over, perhaps the same “something” that Mr. Halloran mentions early in the novel, Jack also appears consciously aware of his decisions to a certain degree as if in an extreme rage; Jack naturally gravitates towards violence. This goes far beyond Jack’s inert or inherent qualities of arrogance, pretentiousness and weakness. Jack is pretentious enough to refer to Edgar Allan Poe as the “Great American Hack” (King 227), weak enough to constantly fall victim to his vices in addition to being arrogant enough to assume he does not need help and yet there still exists “something” else (King 126). This something that King writes about remains unknown, just as the exact reasons why the Overlook is evil is never disclosed, leading the reader to maintain the belief that the mystical region of supernatural unknown exists. It is Gina Wisker who solidifies this point in her analysis by stating that occurrences such as these are the supernatural at work (Wisker 146) and it is in these occurrences on a continuum of horror that a person cannot possibly understand (Wisker 145). However, this is not the only place where horror can be seen in an unknown form. Where Stephen King shows us Jack Torrance and his inner demons, H.P. Lovecraft paints a very different portrait about the source of horror.

Within mostly all of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, the reader finds a situation that starts with a rational man, typically a scholar who has been subjected to situations that drive them towards madness, without any inner prompting. While At the Mountains of Madness is perhaps the best example within Lovecraft’s bibliography, other stories of his such as The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu also deliver extraordinary examples of Poe-esque prose that provide similar circumstances of madness and terror. In The Dunwich Horror, a small village-like town is plagued by an invisible monster that was born to a human mother and is fathered by an ancient God gatekeeper to another realm (Lovecraft 134-135). Three of the main characters of The Dunwich Horror, who bring about the destruction of this unnamed bastard-child, are academics and all are shown to be completely sane (Lovecraft 110). One of the professors of this group becomes obsessed with the ravings found in a journal that had insights about an ancient tome with sacred Armageddon knowledge (Lovecraft 123). By his colleagues, he is found in a state of near-delirium upon the acceptance of such knowledge as being true (Lovecraft 123). The Call of Cthulhu features a narrator who’s put together several deaths that appear to be unlinked, and finds the leavings of a cult hell-bent on raising an ancient God whose sole intention is bringing about an age of darkness (Lovecraft 85). At the end of the story, the narrator also begins to fear for his life, as he feels that he may know too much about the cult and their intentions (Lovecraft 97). Lovecraft solidifies his point time and time again over the course of his many Cthulhu mythos-related stories. A consistent theme of both stories and as is the case with most H.P. Lovecraft fiction, the unknown of the Cthulhu Mythos is something that the human mind can never hope to fully understand, only just barely scratching the surface of sacred knowledge that always ends in the doom of mankind (Lowell 47). Mark Lowell also adds the important point that while Lovecraft’s characters consistently maintain a lack of understanding other than the inevitable doom of mankind, it can be very likely attributed to the concept that his characters have toiled with a force that they cannot possibly fully understand and that this is what truly leads to their inevitable deaths or loss of sanity (Lowell 47). Of course, fiction is not the only place we have circumstances such as these. Unknown horror leaving the bound pages fiction is where it is truly terrifying. The unknown and a fear of the unknown as H.P. Lovecraft described it (Bloch VII), is poised somewhere between reality and the realm of nightmares.

In 1890, an Irish writer by the name of Bram Stoker woke from a horrifying nightmare from which he immediately embarked on a seven year journey that ended with the publication of what was destined to become one of the most terrifying and greatest horror novels ever written; Dracula (Frayling 301-302). While the novel itself is an enthralling masterpiece in its own right, it is typically the story behind its creation that scares readers the most. Sir Christopher Frayling wrote in his 1991 book Vampyres about the nightmare in brief, summarizing the mystery beautifully with the phrase “whatever Bram Stoker dreamed about, it must have scared the hell out of him” (Frayling 80). Frayling also makes it a point that no one is truly sure of the subject matter of Stoker’s nightmare and while many have speculated, none have the answer (Frayling 301). Over the course of Frayling’s study of Vampyres throughout history, it could be interpreted that whatever Stoker dreamt of, it scared him so badly that he never told anyone, much less ever wrote it down in full (Frayling 301). Despite the ambiguity of dreams, something did in fact terrify Stoker to the point where he still terrifies millions of readers to this day; with the product of his nightmares Stoker’s internal horror became the world’s external horror.

The nature of Stoker’s story can be spoken of in similar terms as his was the vision of Victorian upper-class nobles having to deal with ancient Transylvanian mythology come to life; men of reason fighting shadows in the dark (Frayling 80). “God preserve my sanity…if I be sane, then surely it is maddening to think of all the foul things that lurk in this hateful place…” (Stoker 30). Within the first few chapters of Stoker’s Dracula, the reader encounters a man called Jonathan Harker, who is on his way to finalize a real-estate deal with the eponymous Count Dracula, who is about to purchase a home in England called Carfax (Stoker 19). Though rather quickly, Harker finds himself being held as a prisoner within the confines of Castle Dracula (Stoker 22), located in the Carpathian Mountains (Stoker 2). Slowly, as exhibited in the quote from the novel, Harker is driven to a temporary insanity. For Harker, his horror came from an external source and even more specifically from the charming vampire lurking in the shadows. Yet, this horror stemmed from a fear of the unknown and that is the constant motif. No one can be truly sure of where this region of horror resides, but it typically stems from the unsolved mysteries of life.

It is this that is the most terrifying and most true form of horror; a form that has its roots grounded in reality outside the bound pages of fiction. The unknown form of horror can be found somewhere between what lies within human consciousness and what lies in the shadows. Contrary to what is seen in The Shining, H.P. Lovecraft’s short stories, and Dracula, not all horror is manufactured for fiction. The unsolved mysteries of life create the most eerie atmospheres and send chills up a person’s spine faster than goosebumps set in. It was in an introduction for a 2001 edition of The Shining that Stephen King wrote “monsters are real and ghosts are real too. They live inside us and sometimes they win” (King, VI).  King was speaking of Jack Torrance; potentially clarifying Jack’s hidden away “something” (King 126). However, this statement is also true of Bram Stoker’s nightmare. In accordance to a theory suggested by Gina Wisker, a horror from deep within the recesses of Stoker’s unconscious mind stirred (Wisker 145) and did not leave the forefront of his consciousness until Dracula was completed (Frayling 301); a horror that woke from the unknown. It is that undeniable region of the great unknown that is the true source of horror.

 

Works Cited

Bloch, Robert. Introduction.  The best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling tales of horror and the            macabre. By H.P. Lovecraft. 1982. New York: Del Ray, 1982. vii-xxii. Print.

Frayling, Christopher. Vampyres: Lord Byron to count Dracula. England: Clays ltd, St Ives plc.          Print.

King, Stephen. The Shining. New York: Anchor Books, 1997. Print.

—. Introduction. The Shining. By King. New York: Pocket Books, 2001. VI. Print.

Lowell, Mark. “Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.” The Explicator 63.1 (2004): 47-50.

Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 April 3013.

Lovecraft, H.P. “The Call of Cthulhu.” The best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling tales of horror         and the macabre. New York: Del Ray, 1982. 72-97. Print.

—. “The Dunwich Horror.” The best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling tales of             horror and the            macabre. New York: Del Ray, 1982. 98-135. Print.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Dover publications, 1897. Print.

Wisker, Gina. Horror Fiction: An Introduction. New York: Continuum, 2005. Print.