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Embodied Monsters: from Fear to Domestication in Gothic Monster Literature

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Embodied Monsters: from Fear to Domestication in Gothic Monster Literature EMBODIED MONSTERS: FROM FEAR TO DOMESTICATION IN GOTHIC MONSTER LITERATURE By ERIC W. RIDDLE Bachelor of Arts in English Education Weber State University Ogden, Utah 2013 Master of Arts in English Weber State University Ogden, Utah 2015 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December, 2020 EMBODIED MONSTERS: FROM FEAR TO DOMESTICATION IN GOTHIC MONSTER LITERATURE Dissertation Approved: Dr. Tim Murphy Dissertation Adviser Dr. Martin Wallen Dr. Lindsay Wilhelm Dr. Apple Igrek ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to pay special thanks to my dissertation committee: Drs. Tim Murphy, Martin Wallen, and Lindsay Wilhelm. They provided invaluable feedback and saw countless drafts as I worked through my ideas until I could settle on what it was about the Gothic that drew my interest. Without their support, this project would have taken a much different direction. I would also like to thank Josiah Meints, Dillon Hawkins, and Alex Hughes for their friendship and support throughout my entire PhD program. I would also like to express my gratitude to Megan Riddle, my loving wife whose scheduling skills and support kept me on track and motivated. She allowed me to focus on my writing and research at the cost of personal sacrifice and picking up my slack. I cannot put into words how much she helped. And lastly, I would like to thank my parents for believing in me, for never giving up whenever I changed majors, and for teaching me the value of education and hard work. iii Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. Name: ERIC W. RIDDLE Date of Degree: DECEMBER, 2020 Title of Study: EMBODIED MONSTERS: FROM FEAR TO DOMESTICATION IN GOTHIC MONSTER LITERATURE Major Field: ENGLISH Abstract: This dissertation argues that over the course of the long nineteenth century, Gothic antagonists moved from supernatural but disembodied beings into more physically monstrous entities. The shift to monster follows traceable lines as the Gothic monster drifted from beings of terror to beings of horror. Directly related to the movement from terror to horror, we find that Gothic monsters become more physically present, and their bodies become sites of meaning and power. With an embodied self, the monster becomes capable of more physical harm. However, such a physical body brings with it a powerful negative characteristic. When protagonists encounter an embodied monster, they can impose meaning onto the monster. The can classify and apply pre- existing taxonomies onto the monster, rendering the monster knowable and, eventually, defeatable. After defining key terms and foundational frameworks in the introduction, Chapter One explores the evolution of the monster in Gothic poetry from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries. Chapter Two focuses more closely on a singular monster: the vampire. Tracing the literary history of the vampire from its Eastern European folkloric roots, through the nineteenth century, I explore how the vampire evolves through time to become more autonomous and powerful, but also more defeatable. The end of Chapter Two argues that once a monster loses some of its ability to inspire fear, society will begin to domesticate the monster until, as seen in Twilight or The Vampire Diaries, the monster becomes our romantic partner. Chapter Three builds off the previous two chapters, exploring how Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plays with the embodied monster in atypical ways. Then, the chapter moves on to explore how stage and screen adaptations of Stevenson’s work represent the monster in a visual medium. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 Gothic Fears and Domesticating Monsters ........................................................... 1 Etymology of the Gothic ...................................................................................... 4 Identifying Evil in the Monstrous Body ............................................................... 5 Suspense and Fear................................................................................................ 7 Key Terms and Hypotheses................................................................................ 11 Chapter Summaries ............................................................................................ 22 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 26 II. EMBODIMENT AND FEAR IN GOTHIC POETRY ......................................... 28 III. VAMPIRES, FROM REVENANT TO DRACULA ............................................ 78 Romantic Vampires (1801-1810) ....................................................................... 83 The Regency Vampire (1811-1820) ................................................................... 90 Victorian Vampires (1832-1870)........................................................................ 98 Mid- and Late-Victorian Vampires (1867-1890) .............................................. 102 Fin de Siècle Vampires (1890-1900) ............................................................... 110 Contemporary Social Anxieties ........................................................................ 118 Modern Vampires ............................................................................................ 120 v Chapter Page IV. JEKYLL, HYDE, AND THE EMBODIED DOUBLE ..................................... 127 Analysis of Jekyll/Hyde .................................................................................. 130 Reception of Novella and Stage Play ............................................................... 138 Film: Terror/Horror.......................................................................................... 140 Adaptation Theory ........................................................................................... 142 Hyde as Racialized Other ................................................................................. 148 Hyde as Gendered Other .................................................................................. 160 Hyde as Allegory for Internal Strife ................................................................. 167 V. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 179 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 187 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Richard Mansfield as Jekyll and Hyde ............................................................... 147 2. Still of James Cruz as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1912 ........................................ 149 3. John Barrymore as Dr. Jekyll (Left) and Barrymore as Mr. Hyde (Right) ........... 151 4. Fredric March as Hyde and Jekyll, 1931 ............................................................ 153 5. Fredric March’s hands as Jekyll (Left) and Hyde (Right) ................................... 154 6. Left, promotional picture for Victor Flemming’s 1941 film. Right top: Michael Rennie as Dr. Jekyll. Right bottom: Michael Rennie as Mr. Hyde ...................................... 156 7. Michael Caine as Jekyll (Top) and Hyde (Bottom) ............................................. 159 8. Ralph Bates as Dr. Jekyll (Right) and Martine Beswick as Sister Hyde (Right) .. 161 9. Tim Daly as Richard Jacks (Left) and Sean Young as Helen Hyde (Right) ......... 164 10. Jerry Lewis as Julius Kelp (Left) and Buddy Love (Right). .............................. 168 11. Eddie Murphy as Sherman Klump (Left) and Buddy Love (Right, in Mirror) ... 168 12. John Malkovich as Hyde. Jekyll breaks free from Hyde’s Body ....................... 170 13. Jason Flemying as Mr. Hyde from The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (Left. 2003). Robbie Coltrane as Mr. Hyde from Van Helsing (Right. 2004) ................... 172 14. Bill Bixby (Bottom, Left) and Lou Ferrigno (Top, Left). Eric Bana (Bottom, Center Left). Edward Norton (Bottom, Center Right). Mark Ruffalo (Bottom, Right) ....... 175 15. Mark Ruffalo as CGI Hulk/Bruce Banner hybrid ............................................. 176 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Gothic Fears and Domesticating Monsters The field of Gothic Studies has made a turn in recent years to an exploration of supernatural folkloric myths and the allegorical power such mythic monsters represent. Scholarship addressing representation of race, sexual deviance, Catholicism, and the Uncanny in Gothic fiction have had a renaissance of late1. This fascination with the Gothic monster and its ability to invoke fear while representing some allegorical anxiety, both contemporary and modern, led to the major themes present here. This dissertation argues that supernatural Gothic antagonists evolve in definable ways through time, each evolutionary step in accordance with the time period in which the antagonist appears. Because the term monster does not apply to all early Gothic antagonists or folkloric creatures, I will address them as Gothic antagonists until the turn to the more monstrous occurs sometime in the late Romantic period. Supernatural Gothic antagonists largely begin as disembodied ghosts or specters, haunting residents of castles and reinforcing the idea that the past cannot die. In early Gothic texts, wrongdoings perpetrated
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