Similarities among Mordern Monsters

                                               

What better way to expose the monster in human than to display human feelings in monsters? Modern books and movies are inclined to present similarities among monsters and the human emotions in the monsters. The Count Orlok from the German expressionist movie Nosferatu dwells in a castle that is in the corner of the Carpathian Mountains. I found it interesting that this character shows resemblance with Grendel from the books Beowulf and Grendel, as Grendel attacks the mead-hall of Heorot built by Hrothgar. Although, both monsters are from entirely different descend they share the same kind of setting which is a luxurious building.

There are several other parallels between these monsters. Count Orlok is displayed in the movie as an ugly vampire with a frail human-like body and is shown to move at a slow pace carrying coffins. Grendel resembles Orlok as he has many animal and human features in addition to the monstrous appearances. Grendel is depicted as a huge creature with claws, two legs, and one head. Similarly, both Grendel and Count Orlok are guided by human emotions and instincts in certain instances. In the movie Nosferatu, when the guest accidentally wounded himself with a knife at the castle, Count Orlok rapidly moved towards the guest to lick the blood muttering “your blood is precious”; however, he controlled himself when he saw the picture of the guest’s attractive wife. Comparably, in the climax of the movie Hutter, the guest’s wife realizes that the only way to stop the vampire is to distract him therefore, she sacrificed her life to save the city and her husband. I think this scene of the movie portrays the strong human feeling of romance in Counter Orlok thereby, confuses the audience about the identity of Counter Orlok. In Beowulf, I assume one of the reasons behind the aggression of Grendel against the Danes when they sang songs and enjoyed, was his hidden feelings of isolation. Furthermore, in Grendel, Grendel is humanized by contrasting him from his mother by emphasizing his urge to communicate and his feelings of separation from his mother. Moreover, the dragon's advice to Grendel that his reactions to him are like human’s reactions to Grendel encouraged Grendel to stop scaring the humans for sport. This plot in Grendel serves to reflect the human quality of sympathy in Grendel.

Both monsters are also portrayed as terrifying characters. For example, Orlok is exhibited as an ugly rat-like creature who carried the plague along with him. As Orlok traveled to Wisbourg, plague descended with him which lead to the death of crew members and the townsfolk of Wisbourg. Orlok’s sleeping chamber was a coffin which was filled with rats. Throughout the movie, Orlok had a dark shadow hanging over him. In parallel, Grendel is envious towards humans and once when the men in the mead-hall fell asleep Grendel slaughtered thirty men. Grendel is described as a strong creature that tore the door from its hinges with bare hands before the fight with Beowulf. Thus, both these characters are shown to have evolved over time from the typical evil monsters who just cause destruction to monsters who also shows sympathy, romance and other human feelings at certain circumstances. I think the goal of showing monsters exhibiting human feelings in modern books and movies, is to show that humans may also eventually start exhibiting monstrous behaviors.