Mad Scientists

When someone first thinks of a gothic horror, the first thing that comes to mind, probably, is a movie like Frankenstein.  This is because when gothic films first started to become popular, most of the films were about mad scientists.  The first portion of my gothic horror class, we talked about the mad scientists and the monsters that are created.  We watched films like Island of Lost Souls, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,  Re-Animator, and The Black Cat.  Each of these films have the main protagonist as a mad scientist.  The article, "Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters," explained that when watching these mad scientists films, the spectator always looked at the monster to be the character that was corrupt and that brought fear into the film.  I want to bring up the debate that, yes the monster is corrupt, but in someways, the scientist who creates these monsters, is almost, if not even more corrupt than the monster that they create.

The way I look at it is, these scientists do anything they can to create this "art" or "experiment" just to prove people wrong, and to show the world how amazing science is, and science can do anything.  The scientists will do anything they possibly can to prove this to people.  They are willing to create these "monsters" even though they know it's not right.  For example, in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll creates Mr. Hyde (his evil side) and knows the constant rage that Hyde feels, yet, cannot stop thinking about Hyde, and needs to recreate Hyde again because his urge is to large.  This shows corruption because even though Dr. Jekyll knows that it's not right to have Hyde around because it puts people in danger, he does it anyways to benefit his needs and himself.  In Island of Lost Souls, Dr. Moreau is creating humans out of animals, once he sees that the humanistic feelings and love are occurring, he does everything in his power to make sure that Lota stays with Parker.  He wants to see if she can eventually become fully human after being a panther.  Once Dr. Moreau sees that it may not go as he planned, it almost seems as if he ignores it, in the hopes that the humanist qualities will make them go away.  Once Parker tries to leave, Dr. Moreau is not afraid to kill anyone or hurt anyone in order to see his experiment continue and flourish.  This is corrupt because he will literally not let anyone or anything bother Lota and Parker in the hopes that his experiment might actually be working.  He is putting himself, and his science in front of everybody else, no matter what the situation is.

Femininity and the Female Protagonist

In my Gothic Horror class, we have discussed how there is a slight change from the male to female protagonist in some more modern films.  For example in Rebecca directed by Alfred Hitchcock, also in The Innocents by Jack Clayton, and in Northanger Abbey by Jon Jones.  All three of these films have a woman as the main protagonist.  In my previous post, I discussed the male dominance in many gothic horror films.  This dominance is part of the major discussion in seeing if gothic horror can stay a gothic horror with a female as a protagonist.  In the article that we read for class, "At Last I Can Tell It to Someone!: Feminine Point of View and Subjectivity in the Gothic," it focuses on the gothic romances.  This right here is an example as to why a gothic horror automatically changes as soon as the female becomes the protagonist.  The woman, in film, is known to be a weaker character.  This only can change if the woman is shown as having masculine tendencies and features.

In the article stated above, it says "the central feature of the Gothic is ambiguity, the hesitation between two possible interpretations of events by the protagonist... Yet in Gothic this hesitation is experienced by a character who is female."  Which shows that the female character in gothic films always has a sense of hesitation which in turn makes them a weaker character.  Most protagonists in gothic films, are dominant and have a patriarchial role.  It is harder for females to take on this role, because woman, in film, do not usually dominate over men.  They are the weaker of the two, and because of their "hesitation" and fears, it always makes them look more of a victim than a "villain" so to speak.

From Hell

In class, we read the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore.  It really fit into the gothic horror theme of the class. Even without reading the story, you can tell from the pictures that the story will be criptic, creepy and eerie.  The pictures in the film really relate to gothic horror because throughout it consistently, has dark very shadowed pictures, also very explicit pictures.  The story line is the story of Jack the Ripper, which is a very popular story.  It is about a man, Gull who murders five woman, brutally, to show that the male is dominant.

Throughout the class, gender roles consistently come up with every movie that we watch.  From Hell is a prime example of this "patriarchy" and male dominance.  The men must stay in control, or else there will be an unbalance in the community.  Just as in From Hell, Gull believes that he is ridding the world of these whores, and making sure that in the future, male dominance is still assured.  This male dominance is seen in most of the films we have watched, specifically relating to Jack the Ripper, The Lodger, and Bluebeard.  Both of this films have men who are part of society, but feel the need to rid the society of woman because they are a distraction with their beauty.  They show their dominance over woman through fear, and then through overpowering them and eventually killing them.