Commentary upon Mary Shelley’s statement: “What terrified me will terrify others”

Exposé Philosophie & littérature Littérature

Date de publication :

21/05/2007

Langue :

Anglais

Format :

.doc

Nombre de pages :

5 pages

Niveau :

expert

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2 fois

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Sommaire :

Sommaire

Terror and taboos in literary

Résumé :

In mary shelley's Frankenstein, the Creature in itself is not what is the most terrifying. Indeed, in her dream and in the novel afterwards, if Doctor Frankenstein is afraid at the sight of his creature, it is also its coming to life which creates fear: how can an amount of bones, skin, muscles - a dead body actually - come to life? Does it have a soul or at least, a conscience of itself? The very question, here, is: where does life come from? For it must be the essential questioning of mankind: even stronger than our wish to know what comes after life, we want to know where we come from, where conscience appears, where it all starts -
Indeed, the fear of what we see plays a part in fantastic literature, but it is not the main one: the unknown has a much greater power. As a matter of fact, it creates a terror which is rather felt than directly perceived by sight or other. Of course, our five senses participate in this perception of fear but we can only catch a glimpse at the unknown, otherwise it would be called horror. Horror is certainly useful in fantastic literature, but it can't be used at full length as the only way to convey fear because it does not create an effect of tension but rather a confrontation with this "unknown".
Then, when mary shelley writes "what terrified me will terrify others", we can't only see in it a need to show, but rather a need to suggest, a need to create something universal, which can apply to everyone and at any time. Her wish to write "[a story] which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror, one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart" shows that terror is not only in the text but in our imagination as we can share all the different elements of a same questioning: can it occur? We will ask ourselves what the specificity of fantasy is, which renders it timeless and universal. To answer this question, we will try to study the composition of fantasy and its having a foothold in everyday life. Then we will see how it can be recreated in literature and movies; and we will question ourselves about the involvement of the reader. To end up our study we will show the universality of fear and the necessity of it.