Tal Shafik

Monsters in 19th Century Literature

The Science of Fear: Monsters and Science in the 19th Century

In this paper I wish to argue that the sudden and all encompassing appearance of

monsters in 19th century literature can be rationalized using the changing climates in

different scientific fields, both theoretical and practical. Using different novels discussing

this phenomenon, I hope to show that while monsters in and of themselves are not a new

phenomenon, the reasons for their revitalization creates an entirely new form of monster,

and with it – an entirely new form of fear. I believe that most “monsters novels” evoked

in their target audience an almost paralyzing fear of innovation, of the hitherto unknown,

strictly because these novels were – in some way or another - based on then-ground-

breaking forms of science, new philosophical or theoretical ideas or any other widely

based, zeitgeist altering phenomena.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula1 (1897), if stripped of all metaphor and thematic structure,

discusses the fear of blood, and all its connotations. On one side of the novel’s

dichotomist view of blood, there is a creature that uses it as sustenance and in the process

hurts and even kills others and in contrast – a scientist, who uses it to save lives but in the

process, also hurts and possibly kills others. Above these is a general and universal fear

of needles, in this case represented by the vampires’ fangs. Blood transfusions have been

attempted as early as the 15th century with varying degrees of success, but the first

documented procedure occurred in France, 1667, in which King Louis XIV’s physician

1
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
1
transferred the blood of a sheep into the body of a 15 year old boy2. It was only in the mid

19th century, however, that transfusions occurred with such a degree of success that they

entered the public mind as a well known phenomenon. Considering this, one could

assume their role in Dracula was viewed by the target audience as extremely ground

breaking and perhaps even futuristic. And because the blood transfusions ultimately fail

in the novel, the fear-everything-new tone of the novel is greatly enhanced. This hint at

the possible future of medicine (and thus - of man, as well) is enough, in my opinion, to

ignite a sense of almost paralyzing fear of the unknown, of the possibilities that exist

beyond. One could also easily argue that this same futurism might inspire emotions of

hope and curiosity, but I believe the very nature of the gothic novel proves human beings

are prone to fear the unknown rather than confront or accept it.

Another area of revolution during the 19th century is travel. Railways began to

proliferate during the mid 1800’s, connecting remote places and offering safer, faster

travel. They also allowed for faster escapes and concealment. Travel by sea was

revolutionized by the steam ship, extending the reach of vessels traveling to and from

England. Had Dracula been written a few decades earlier, such travel would not have

been possible, not at the quick rate the novel proposes. This beginning globalization – so

full of innovation - in which exploration is greatly advanced and rediscovered, and in

which a foreign enemy can enter London so quickly and quietly, is at the very heart of the

horror that is Dracula. Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea3 (1870) also

preys on the fear of unknown exploration, and although the means of travel described in

2
"Jean-Baptiste Denis." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica
Online. 10 Feb. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/157699/Jean-
Baptiste-Denis>.
3
Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. New York: Pocket, 2005.
2
Verne’s novel – specifically the Nautilus, were highly futuristic and quite impossible,

they drew upon the same revolutionary changes in sea travel of that era. And again, prey

on the same basic fear of innovation, change and the unknown.

Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species4 in 1859, changing man’s

place and order in the world forever. Evolution, though swiftly gaining support, battled

pseudoscience such as phrenology and physiognomy. The idea of a forward moving

process of evolution, of a system moving toward further complexity and intelligence,

mixed with a prevalent idea of the mental embodied in the physical, immediately evokes

the possibility of an alternate possibility: the devolution of a system, in which it moves

back with time, from intelligence to animalistic, primal urges. This is emphasized by the

fact that to accept Darwin’s work is to accept the animal within. In Robert Louis

Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde5 (1886), a perfect example of a true

London gentleman goes through a perfect process of devolution. We, as readers, are

afraid of the transformation itself, but even more we fear its magnitude. Jekyll was not a

common East-Ender. He was a doctor, thus considered a member of high society, losing

his modern, human, gentleman-like form. Again, it is not the science that the reader fears,

but its outcome, and the inevitable possibility of his own devolution.

Social devolution, as the result of shifting world views and varying value systems

can be as dangerous and frightening as biological devolution, as in Oscar Wilde’s The

Picture of Dorian Gray6 (1891). Based on a philosophical mix of Hedonism and

Aestheticism, the novel’s protagonist loses all sense of empathy or appreciation toward
4
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species: by Means of Natural Selection. New York:
Dover Publications, 2006.
5
Stevenson, Robert. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Norton, 2003.
6
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: W.W Norton and Co., 2007.
3
fellow humans, regarding even the foulest acts – Sybil’s suicide, for example – as a

passing “into the sphere of art” (91). Wilde supposedly based this blend of philosophical

views on Joris-Karl Huysmans’s À Rebour7s (1884), a book that for simplicity’s sake can

be described as a rather exhaustive description of the different tastes and experiences of a

certain French gentleman, and is considered an icon of Decadent writing. Another

possible and innovative influence is the work of Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud,

developing the basics of psychoanalysis and the effects of the subconscious. Once again,

fear is comprised of a innovation and its possible effects: (a) the fear of the industrial way

of life taking over the artistic, thus creating (b) a fear of the industrial way of life itself.

The solution is a retreat into a purely aesthetic fantasy world, which is what both

protagonists in the aforementioned stories do – which ultimately creates a fear of the

ensuing decadence. In this context, Dorian’s deformed portrait is rendered nearly

irrelevant to the actual plot (and possibly – moral) of the story. The obvious allusions to

homosexuality in the novel are also part of this changing zeitgeist, and prey fear of the

innovations that follow. To audience at the time of publication, the very fact that Dorian

had corrupted men as well as women made him appear far more frightening, completely

lacking the moral compass of the time.

The descriptions of the laboratory in gothic novels is can also be used as an

example of my argument. The language used is not frightening, but rather it is the fact

that science – in all its forms – is being practiced by private gentlemen, away from

criticism and moral restraints, that evokes in the reader a sense of dread. Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein (1890) and Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are both

shining examples of the dangers of the extreme privatization of science. It is as if anyone

all kinds of monstrosities in the name of progress. In this way, science itself - its

expanding availability and accessibility – becomes, in my opinion, the main cause of fear

for the 19th century reader.

The above examples are few but sufficient in showing that the rapidly

accelerating rate of change influenced and perhaps fueled the horror novels of the 19th

century. Any time a radical breakthrough is achieved; fear of its misuse seeps into public

awareness and influences every creation during that specific period, specifically using the

forms of monsters. Ishirō Honda’s Godzilla and other Kaiju8 are a direct influence of the

World War II bombings, John Sigel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a somewhat

paranoid response to communism, McCarthyism and the ensuing cold war, and Michael

Crichton’s Jurassic Park9 (1990) specifically criticizes the possibilities of scientific

discovery and innovation gone awry. All these are just facets of the universal human fear

of change.

Works Cited

Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species: by Means of Natural Selection. New York: Dover
Publications, 2006.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W.W.
Norton & Co., 1996.

8
Japanese for “strange beast”. Used as a collective term for Japanese monster
movies.
9
Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. New York: Knopf, 1990.

5
Stevenson, Robert. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Ed. Katherine Linehan. New York:
Norton, 2003.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Ed. Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1997.

Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. New York: Pocket, 2005.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Michael Patrick Gillespie. New York: W.W Norton
and Co., 2007.

"Jean-Baptiste Denis." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 15 Feb.