Humanities 101

I truly enjoyed this class, the discussion based style of teaching is organic, free flowing and overall very interesting. My favorite instructor by far. As for what to keep, The Victorian Monsters section was my favorite, with emphasis on Dracula and Great Expectations. I have honestly never thought in depth about monsters and how they relate to our culture. I think our current society has become so inundated with vampires, werewolves, mutants, freaks, etc. that we don’t think of a deeper meaning anymore. We don’t stop and ask why a character looks and acts the way they do. We just see superhero and villain. Is it good acting or not? And of course, what are the reviews like and is it worth my time to read or watch? The Victorian Monsters sections made me look deeper into the meaning behind these abnormal characters.

When I think of Victorian Monsters and how gender roles help shape them, my thoughts immediately fly to Great Expectations and Ms. Havisham. She is pictured here seemingly frozen in time, wearing her wedding dress and veil, with nothing of her home changed from the moment of her, supposed to be, wedding day.

I would say that she is a product of the betrayal she suffered. This, however, does not excuse what she has done in response to those around her. Because she was betrayed by a man, her fiancé, she in turn finds a way to make men suffer. She takes a child, a young girl, Estella, and manipulates her, molds her and teaches her that love is meaningless and that men are prey. Ms. Havisham takes the role that women are meant to play and ensures that neither Estella nor her future husband will be content in their position. Ms. Havisham’s teachings also take from Estella the one thing that most people want; love, the ability to give and receive love. Estella has been so corrupted that she is now toxic and unable to change.

Ms. Havisham is also unable to change and as we see in the book and movie, her only redemption comes from her death. Purification by fire, very biblical.

Pop culture is obsessed with vampires. There are movies, tv shows, books, fan fiction; a number of things that show just how many ways we can take a basic vampire (blood sucking undead) and mold them to a certain storyline. I think that vampires represent our dark desires, primal instincts and the “Hyde” that we want to keep locked away.

Our first vampire, introduced by Bram Stoker was, in my opinion, a warning to society. He was everything that they current culture shunned. Today however we have turned this being, which should terrify us and scar us away, into a seductive temptation, and more often than not, a protector of humanity. Perhaps this is societies way of saying that monsters do not need to look like a monster to still be one. Or it could simply be the fact that people are still fascinated by vampires and turning them into a teenage fantasy (cough twilight cough) is very profitable in our money driven world.

I think that Bram Stoker would be horrified to see his version of Dracula, and vampires in general, mutilated beyond recognition. Vampires are not supposed to be sparkly protectors of humanity, they are not supposed to be human at all. They are supposed to be antithesis of humanity, that darkness your mother warned you to stay away from, the Hyde that murders without remorse.

I do feel that the movie scene was not as disturbing as the book. I think this is very much due to the fact that most people are horrified by the idea of injuring or killing a baby. In the movie they show Dracula giving the crying child to his wives but the horrific death of the baby is not shown. I personally would not wish to see that and I assume that the movie producers thought that the general knowledge of what happened to the infant would be enough without actually showing what happened. I’m not sure i’d want to keep watching if they went all “national geographic” with this scene.

Jonathan Harker was not what I expected. Stoker’s mental issues really come out with Harker because he is Stokers representation of himself. He is a married man who towards the end of the book finds himself unable to save his wife. He is stuck in a trance, impotent and weak minded. He is unable to defend his madonna of a wife from this monster; from Dracula. And at the end he is only able to defeat Dracula with the help of Quincy. Quincy is the epitome of what Stoker considers a man to be and you’ll see that for Harker to finally reclaim his manhood, Quincy must die.

I admit everything that I know about vampires comes from movies such as Dracula (not Bram Stokers), Van Helsing and (cringe) Twilight. What I know about Dracula, from all of the movie researching i’ve performed, is that he was a vampire, a monster, had 3 wives, lived in a secluded castle and was feared.

I think people are fascinated by vampires because they are unnatural, they are fantastical creatures that do not fit the mold of your average husband/lover/boyfriend. Vampires are dark, seductive, dangerous, passionate and ultimately your death. Everything that I heard about vampires is that, if you want to be with one, you cannot remain the same person that you currently are. A vampire is a monster that either kills you or changes you into a monster as well.

I think that they are so attractive because they represent youth and immortality. But the downside is that you give up who you once were. Vampires feed on others to remain young, they are killers. They no longer partake in food and cannot venture into the sunlight. They are unnatural, they are sinners, they are predators. They are a Victorian monster.

Victorian technology launched society into, almost, a new world. They went from the the fastest mode of traveling being horse back to a train that could reach up to 80mph. A speed that Queen Victoria found terrifying. Ease of travel enabled the spread of medical advancements, food and tradable goods. People could now travel, communication was easier. It was revolutionary. For a society that was decadent in their love for material items, these advancements provided so many opportunities.

Technology today would be the stuff of science fiction (a precursor to science fact) to the Victorians. However, I believe they would have loved it. I can see the queens court tweeting about whose dress was the most fashionable and gossiping about whatever new scandal was occurring. Our technology in the Victorian Era could have had downfalls though. The British Empire was massive, imperialism (which is bad) was at the center and new age technology would have made the Victorians unstoppable.

While I believe they would have loved it, I do not however believe that it would have been used appropriately. Ethical judgment and morals and laws to regulate people were severely lacking and the ability to use advanced technology would have been detrimental to other societies.

I think that people have a public face and they have a private face. We behave how society thinks we aught to when out in public. This way we are not seen as an outcast, we fit in with the herd and do not give anyone a reason to question or contradict who we are.

While we are alone however, we become a different person. We have no reservations, I can crunch on my chips with an open mouth, use the restroom with the door open, belch or fart whenever i please. I can forgo makeup and proper daytime attire. I can relax and not conform to societies standards.

I believe that people hide who they truly are (with exceptions, of course) and present to the world, a mask, that avoids upsetting others and going against the grain. This is what society teaches us is appropriate.

What would you do with invisibility? Would you abuse the power? I personally think it would be difficult not to abuse the power. Work smarter, not harder. If I were a detective this power could be used to good. Think of how much information you could collect for a case if the bad guys never knew you were listening.

However, I would most likely listen in to see what people really thought of me. I mean come on, people don’t speak frankly anymore, I would love to know what people really thought. And if you had the ability to walk into a bank vault and make your life easier (cough, rob the bank, cough) who wouldn’t think really hard about it while they walked in the direction of the bank.

It would be fun to perform some harmless pranking and make your friends think they have a poltergeist but I could see that becoming boring quickly. And you definitely would be the undefeated hide and seek champion.

This good and bad concept make me think about the invisible girl in the X-Men movies versus the invisible man in the new tv series The Boys. The girl is good and saves lives with her talent while the man seems to use his ability to spy on women in the restroom.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is the personification of the Victorians and us. This is the story of social propriety and prudishness versus vulgarity.

Every child is taught how to behave in public. Don’t say that – it could offend someone. Don’t do that – its not appropriate in public. The Victorians taught their children what was socially acceptable behavior and we do the same thing today. We don’t speak about sex or reproduction in public – good lord, how scandalous. We act as if those things simply do not happen. Just sweep it under the rug and we’ll worry about it later.

This story is about what happened when your shoved your Hyde down so much that he finally breaks free. Every wonder about that abused woman who just took the abuse for years, until she finally snapped and killed her husband. She finally let her Hyde out. Her husband lived by his Hyde. Overall, bad things tend to happen when you let your Hyde out.