 Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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Inhuman monsters
| Document Type |
Paperback Novel |
| | | Category |
Horror |
| | | Conventions |
- monsters in human form
- dissembling, doubles
- psychological horror |
| | | Examples |
- Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives
- Sigmund Brouwer, Double Helix |
| | | Description |
Inhuman monsters evoke a sense of horror in the line of Freud's idea of the 'uncanny.' The shock in plots of this type comes from a sudden realization that what is apparently normal is in fact monstrous. The enemy has been misrecognized as an ally, and the protagonist is left vulnerable to his attacks.
The outer human form of the monster belies its rotten, or absent, moral core. For this reason, the inhuman monster lends itself well to psychological horror stories and meditations on the darker side of human nature lurking inside every seemingly-normal person. Currently, stories of cloning and genetics, when presented for purposes of frightening, fall into this category as well.
See also: Monsters
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Genre record edited by Andrea Hasenbank at 2004-05-27 13:13:34
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