Essay Sample on Monsters: Creatures of Fear and Anxiety in Society

Introduction

Monsters are creations of the human mind and imaginations of creatures whose physical appearance and destructive nature threatens human existence. Monsters are a reflection of the fears and anxieties of people in society. Monster characters have existed from ancient times to the present days. Monsters play an important role in society and the culture of the people. In the cultural perspective, monsters are portrayed in a wide variety of domains like religion, biology, literature, and politics. Monsters are omens purposely created to give warnings. Monsters reflect concerns about morality and social responsibility and gives dreadful experiences to behaviors that are discouraged in society. There are enormous similarities between the ancient and modern depiction of monsters and monstrous concepts. Ovid's Metamorphoses and My fair lady are works of art that have significant similarities in the concepts about monsters in ancient and modern times.

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Similarities of monster concepts in modern and ancient times range from a wider perspective. Firstly, society both in ancient and modern times is dreadful of the destructive nature of monsters. People portray monsters as merciless creatures that aim at causing suffering and torture to human beings. The society believes that monsters are agents of death and torment to human life.

Secondly, monsters are portrayed to have supernatural powers and hence superior to human beings. The strange and frightening features of the monsters are the main sources of grief and fear among the people (Hanson 470). People believe that monsters have the capabilities to change in form and move in different worlds, including the underworld. Monsters are associated with strange features such as extra eyes, hands, legs, or having mixed body forms of different animals.

Additionally, monsters play the role of giving warnings to certain activities in society. In ancient times monsters were used to warn the people about unethical behaviors such as prostitution and murder. In modern society, monsters such as zombies and vampires give a reflection of capitalism and the results that may occur if workers are detached from their employment, and they end up being stumbling and undead slaves (Thanem 179). Zombies also portray the effects that may arise if viral diseases go beyond control and cause mutation to human beings and result in the infected people turning against their loved ones to kill and eat them.

Ovid's metamorphoses depict the monstrous concept in ancient times when people used to offer sacrifices and offerings to the goddesses. Ovid's metamorphoses outline the concept of monsters from a religious point of view and the cultural perspective in moral behavior. Ovid's metamorphoses create monstrous concepts through the use of curved hard stone to create life and turning the hard stone to the skin and ultimately resulting in a living being.

Ovid's metamorphosis is a narrative poem illustrating the life events of a sculptor called Pygmalion. Pygmalion was a sculptor who was repulsive to all the vices and disgraceful lives of women in society (Starr-Glass 513). Pygmalion made a decision not to get involved with any of the women since none of them was good enough to meet the behavioral standards that he expected.

Pygmalion's ideal beauty of a woman encompassed purity in behavior and blood. He thought of a perfect model of beauty in a woman who was to be a virgin and with no blemish in terms of character. Pygmalion, therefore, devoted himself to his artwork as a sculptor. Through his imaginations and ideal thought of a beautiful woman, he created a white ivory statue of a woman. The statue was made exceptionally beautiful than any woman that existed in the world. The image reflected a virgin, and the purity of the statue was displayed from the white color. The statue was a masterpiece of the ideal woman in the thoughts of Pygmalion.

According to Pygmalion, the statue had the qualities that could not be found in real women of blood and flesh. Later on, Pygmalion was attracted to the statue-his own creation and finally fell in love with it. Pygmalion was obsessed with the creation that he ended up treating it like a real woman. Pygmalion gave gifts and full attention to the statue in a similar way a man in love would do to his lover (Starr-Glass 516).

During the Venus festival, Pygmalion made an offering to the goddess and made a wish that his future wife should be like the statue. The goddess, upon Pygmalion's wish, realized that he truly wished for the statue to be his wife. Eventually, the caresses and touches of Pygmalion on the statue gradually brought life to it. The statue's eyes opened, and it finally turned to a human being with the gradual change of the hard stone into flesh and blood. The woman was named Galatea, and her identity stuck in the eyes of her creator and lover. She later conceived and bore a daughter who they named Paphos (Starr-Glass 519).

From the Ovid's metamorphoses narrative, the monstrous concept in ancient times is depicted whereby from human obsession and unrelenting desires, imaginary things come to happen in reality. The narrative depicts a monstrous concept that monsters are created from people's imaginations and affect their real life.

In modern life, the concept of monsters and their depiction is similar to ancient concepts. In modern times, monsters include vampires, zombies and witches and they play a significant role in helping human beings to cope with events and things they dread most. The agitation of monsters in ancient times brought the people in various communities together over the decades, and it still serves the same purpose at present. Different communities are united to prevent the occurrence of things that they dread to experience.

Monsters are depicted in the modern world to cause horrific feelings and help human beings in addressing their fears and anxieties (Hanson 470). Human fears range from wars, economic, political, and environmental disasters. Monster concepts are utilized in the society in historical and philosophical perspectives to disband and criticize what is deemed as doubtful and aberrant.

Monsters vary in characteristics and names, but their deviance is known in a society based on the communities' cultural practices. Monsters are not only imaginations of the human mind or aliens existing outside the normal world but are also real objects or people that may arise and live among the people (Ofshe and Ethan 374). Vampires in modern times represent monsters, and hence several ideas about handling them are brought up in movies. The ideas give people the courage and confidence in handling terrifying events that they dread in case they found themselves in such horrific situations. However, some vampires in the present time may not cause terror and instead evoke empathy, warranting people to embrace what they were initially taught to hate.

The witch is another symbol of monstrosity in the modern world, and most cultures depict a witch as a source of evil aiming at stalking and causing harm to the innocent (Ofshe and Ethan 369). Witches are associated with misfortunes, plagues, and the theft of children. The existence of witches in society play an important role in uniting people against witchcraft acts and also compels people to mind their social behaviors to avoid being suspected.

Modern monstrous concepts illustrate the influence of science in the creation and destruction of monsters. An example is the use of science in causing mutation in human beings and hence resulting in zombies and vampires (Ofshe and Ethan 365). Moreover, scientific knowledge is used in curing those affected by vampire bites. Monsters have duality characteristics whereby they have the capability to fake human form and later recover their evil form. An example is also the resting state of vampires during the day and their active state in darkness. Monsters also result in isolation and loneliness since monster behaviors do not allow peaceful coexistence with human beings.

Conclusion

In conclusion, monster concepts in ancient and modern times prove to be similar. In both modern and ancient concepts, monsters cause fear and anxiety to the people. Monsters also play an important role in ensuring ethical behavior is sustained in society. Ovid's metamorphoses depict the ancient concept that monsters are generated from human imaginations and that imaginations can be created to become real-life events. In both ancient and modern monstrous concepts the fears caused by monsters resulted in the development of cohesive and cooperative societies. Therefore, monstrous concepts in ancient and modern times are extensively similar.

Works Cited

Hanson, Christopher. "At Stake: Monsters and the Rhetoric of Fear in Public Culture." Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 2, 2002, pp. 470-471

Ofshe, Richard, and Ethan Watters. "Making Monsters." Society, vol. 35, no. 2, 1998, pp. 364-376. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02838164.

Starr-Glass, David. "The Voice of the Shuttle: Mythical and Organizational Transformations." Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 15, no. 5, 2002, pp. 512-522. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534810210440414.

Thanem, Torkild. "Living on the Edge: Towards a Monstrous Organization Theory: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory, and Society the Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory, and Society." The organization, vol. 13, no. 2, 2006, pp. 163-193. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508406061677.