Ferrara 1

Isabella Ferrara

Professor Mario E. Martinez

ENGL 1301-302

09 June 2022

Horror Literature: A Representation of Real-life Fears

In the late 18th century, horror literature gained momentum as authors developed stories

about supernatural creatures and their interactions with humanity. These stories purposely invoke

suspense and highlight internalized fears. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein

creates a monster without considering the consequences of playing God. On the other hand,

alone and afraid, the monster forcibly faces the horrors of the real world. Using dark settings,

characterization, and symbolism, horror authors induce terror because their supernatural stories

personify the darkest real-life fears that relate to all human beings.

First, horror authors create a suspenseful setting to represent the real-life fears of

loneliness and uncertainty of the future. Horror settings spark the anticipation that something

unknown will appear, and its anonymity stimulates feelings of insecurity and anxiety. It also

allows people’s imagination to picture the worst for the future, triggering the fight or flight

response (Kawin 2). Writers provoke these internalized responses by relating darkness to

familiar locations, such as forests or attics, because it develops the story’s context and explains

why characters behave in a certain way. Other details, such as raging storms or creepy

graveyards, may be included to emphasize the intensity of solitude and the unknown. Horror

authors instill these emotions because it teaches how humans were not made to be alone and

should create warm, personal connections. In Frankenstein, Shelley utilizes a dark attic as Victor

Frankenstein’s laboratory, describing it as a “workshop of filthy creation” adorned with body

 Ferrara 2

parts collected from slaughterhouses (46). This horror setting generates endless dark thoughts of

what might come as a result of Victor working in the dark attic, and the uncertainty of it is what

provokes fear. Shelley’s novel also illustrates the fear of isolation by describing the attic as

“solitary” and how Victor, working alone in his workshop, allows his dark passion to eat him

alive (46).

Secondly, authors use components of characterization, such as anatomy, origin, and

behavior, to represent personal insecurity and self-consciousness (Boyer 244). Writers create

monsters that anatomically have terrifying features that do not satisfy society’s beauty standards.

Additionally, monsters in horror differentiate from those in other genres because of how people

react to the monster’s appearance, which is fear and revulsion (Carroll 51). A monster’s physical

characterization illustrates society’s impossible expectations because it amplifies a person’s

anxiety and desperation to look perfect. It causes a person to feel self-conscious and live in fear

of looking disgusting. Horror authors use this fear because it teaches how appearance should not

determine how one should be treated, regardless of societal expectations. In Frankenstein, the

monster represents self-consciousness when discovering Victor’s sketches of itself in a journal.

The monster exclaims, “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from

disgust?” which illustrates the fear of not fitting into society’s beauty standards (Shelley 117).

A monster’s origin story builds on a characterization that represents human fallibility.

Horror literature reveals the human desire to be the perfect, all-knowing species, especially

during times of great scientific and literary innovation. However, writers unveil that humans are

bound to make mistakes, which can lead to horrible consequences. Typically, a monster’s

beginning is due to something unnatural such as “science gone wrong” (Carroll 53). Horror

authors use this origin to show how humans bring their own destruction when consumed by
 Ferrara 3

greed and excessive ambition. In Frankenstein, Victor obsesses over chemistry and the human

anatomy. His obsession leads him down a dark spiral in search of “the secrets of heaven and

earth… the physical secrets of the world” (Shelley 30). Shelley illustrates how Victor faced the

reality of his fallibility when he decided to act as God, resulting in the monster’s birth and his

own destruction.

Moreover, writers characterize monsters as violent, ruthless killers to represent how

frightening humans can be when blinded by revenge and rage. According to Noël Carroll, horror

literature makes monsters difficult to kill, intensifying fear (52). This illustrates how humans are

capable of committing actions that are terrible by human standards in order to satiate dark

desires. Authors also use this characterization to show how a lust for revenge can overcome the

idea of protecting the sanctity of life. For example, Shelley narrates how the monster murders

William Frankenstein upon discovering that he was related to Victor. The monster then gives

Victor an ultimatum: make a female monster or see other loved ones murdered. Upon Victor’s

refusal to create a bride, the monster threatened, “I will revenge my injuries… I will work at

your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your

birth” (Shelley 131). Shelley uses a violent characterization to show that the monster will stop at

nothing until Victor is destroyed.

Authors utilize symbolism to depict the monster as the real-life fear of inevitable death

and the afterlife. Horror literature recounts how monsters kill people, triggering the fear that

something more powerful than humans can determine someone’s fate (Sauchelli 39). It also stirs

the idea that what happens after death remains unclear. The concept of the afterlife terrifies

people because it is uncertain if, upon death, one is to be rewarded in heaven, punished in hell, or

completely vanish from existence. It is also possible that one can be forgotten after death. Horror
 Ferrara 4

authors utilize this fear because it shows how people should seek a meaningful life with good

relationships instead of a sinful one. In Frankenstein, the monster reveals his fears of the afterlife

to explorer Robert Walton after Victor’s death: “He is dead who called me into being and when I

shall be no more, the very remembrance of us both will speedily vanish” (Shelley 204). The

monster is aware that a lust for revenge prevented it from living a meaningful life, facing the

reality that its existence will be forgotten and its afterlife is entirely unknown.

Additionally, horror authors utilize monsters as a symbol of instability in society.

Unpredictability causes anxiety because people fear what is incomprehensible, and the

unpredictability of monsters creates chaos among society (Anker 795). A monster brings

disruption because it attacks all people, regardless of their identities. In a gruesome way,

monsters address social injustice because they do not discriminate when it comes to victims.

Although society is unfair, a disruption to the system would cause anxiety to those in power

because change is difficult. Horror writers artistically choose a monster to represent the urgency

of bringing equity to a broken society because monsters disrupt comfortability. Without change

and discomfort, society is unable to grow. For example, during his studies, Victor learned that

“strangely our souls are constructed and bound to prosperity or ruin”(33). Through this

discovery, Shelley references how the world functions in a system where some groups naturally

have power over others and how it is time to bring change to this unjust system. Shelley also

foreshadows how the monster will bring this instability and fear.

In conclusion, horror is a literary genre that harnesses terror to address real-life fears and

societal injustice. Horror authors, including Frankenstein’s Mary Shelley, use dark settings,

characterization, and symbolism to recount stories about supernatural creatures and their

destructive powers. The horror literature genre successfully uncovers the reality of dark human
 Ferrara 5

desires and the consequences of seeking sin. Through the exploration of different fears, authors

highlight the utmost importance of living meaningfully to avoid falling into darkness, isolation,

and a terrible fate.

 Ferrara 6

Works Cited

Anker, Elisabeth. “Liberalism of Horror.” Social Research, vol. 81. no. 4, 2014, pp. 795-823.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26549654.

Boyer, Tina M. “The Anatomy of a Monster: The Case of Slender Man.” Preternature: Critical

and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, vol. 2, no. 2, 2013, pp. 240-261.

https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.2.2.0240.

Carroll, Noël. “The Nature of Horror.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 46, no.

1, 1987, pp. 51-59. https://doi.org/10.2307/431308.

Kawin, Bruce F. Horror and the Horror Film. Anthem Press, 2012.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gsmz16.5.

Sauchelli, Andrea. “Horror and Mood.” American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 1, 2014,

pp. 39-50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24475369.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2019.