A Monstrous Fascination during the Fin de Seicle - Essay Example

A Monstrous Fascination during the Fin de Seicle In coming to understand the world around us, we are more accustomed to looking out and judging what we see based upon ideas that exist on the surface of our being instead of why we might feel that way. This is as true today as it was during the start of the 20th century, the period now referred to as the fin de seicle. Discovering these monsters within is much like finding a sleeping dragon in a cave, unaware it was there and finding ourselves confronted with a fire-breathing, claw-wielding giant that must be subdued or defeated before we can move on. In describing the human experience during the fin de seicle era, sociologist Marshall Berman says “they are moved at once by a will to change – to transform both themselves and their world – and by a terror of disorientation and disintegration, of life falling apart” (Berman, 1982). Through this statement, it is easy to see the conflicting emotions of an individual experiencing the type of rapid change that has characterized society since this period. As the people living during this period became more familiar with the concepts of Sigmund Freud and the hidden recesses of the mind and the ideas of Charles Darwin and the processes of natural selection and evolution, it became a necessity to examine the beliefs and customs of their inner selves. No longer was the world considered stable so the only center of gravity had to be found within, yet the world within was even more threatening. Many of the old values were shifting as factories rose and cities were built. Women were gaining new freedoms and the old aristocracy, with its life of leisure and waste, was slowly falling into disrepute as enterprising and hard-working individuals from the lower classes began to make names for themselves, building up a middle class that valued work above play and based wealth upon monetary measures rather than the size of one’s property holdings. The resulting clash of values also constituted a meeting between the self and the other, as landed gentry struggled to come to grips with the new boldness of the rising middle class. It was during the fin de seicle era in particular that the question of the inner nature of man and his ultimate direction in life were made the focus of scientific study at the same time that the pace and direction of life were thrown into chaos, explaining this period’s fascination with the concept of the monstrous. The novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886, presents the ultimate instance of a monster as a means of exploring this inner, other self that was the central concern of the fin de seicle period. In Stevenson’s story, a scientist discovers a potion that enables him to separate himself into two distinct personalities that operate independently of each other, but only one is permitted to act at a time. The purpose of this potion is to provide the scientist with a means of separating the good portion of his nature from the evil and it is successful, but the evil proves too strong and he becomes completely unable to control it or withstand it. In the end, the good doctor loses his life in abandoning himself to the strength of the monstrous evil portion of his being even as the story illustrates the degree to which the fin de seicle society erroneously believed inner character was necessarily reflected on outer appearance. The evil in Mr. Hyde is immediately apparent upon his first entrance into the story as the talk of the town after he tramples a young girl in the street. This half of the good doctor was left without any kind of conscience or other reason to restrain his actions and is thus free to commit any sort of evil he might choose to engage. Regardless of what the respectable and good-hearted Dr. Jekyll might have felt about these actions, Hyde is capable of carrying them out without feeling any remorse or guilt as it is described, “And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot” (21). He is prevented from being associated with Dr. Jekyll based upon his actions even though the character is housed within the same body. In an age when manners and comportment were of primary importance in determining the worth of the individual, Mr. Hyde makes it a point to forego such niceties. As Mr. Enfield tells Mr. Utterson, “my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of your fellows who do what they call good” (6). This illustrates not only the evil of the man Mr. Hyde, but also the level to which manners and proper behavior were held sacred as an accurate indication of the individual’s inner worth. The insecurities of the society as it began to recognize these differences between appearance and behavior was thus expressed in terms of the monstrous even as science, the force that was changing the world, became the key to these demons. As the story progresses, Dr. Jekyll is seen to exercise some control over the creature by stopping the potion, but the evil, once released, cannot be so easily contained, highlighting the power of the hidden self in the mind and the uncontrollable nature of science in the modern world. Mr. Hyde begins emerging in Dr. Jekyll’s sleep and, once released, this constrained evil bursts out in even greater force, this time committing murder. The details provided from the maid’s story indicate that “all of a sudden he [Mr. Hyde] broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman.  The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth.  And next moment … he was trampling his victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway” (Ch. 4). Despite all attempts at control, the inner self acts of its own mysterious volition. At the same time, science works even as the people slept, to continue transforming the external world into something unrecognizable each morning. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray depicts a man who is accepted as part of the elite society in every way possible except in his moral behavior, again illustrating the dual inner nature of man that was emerging to terrify the fin de seicle society. When Dorian Gray is introduced, it is done in a piecemeal sort of way, focusing first upon the perfection of his outer form in the presentation of the portrait on the easel in Basil’s studio and then of the perfectly trusting nature of the individual himself. Basil tells Henry Wotten, “The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul” (Ch. 1). This statement sets up the underlying exploration of the story in which the monstrous is discovered to be the magnitude of evil that can exist hidden beneath the otherwise acceptable, again tackling the concept of the duality of man as Stephenson did. However, where Stephenson blamed science, Wilde looked to art as the key to releasing the monstrous. Realizing after his first act of evil toward Sybil Vane that he will be able to retain his beauty while his portrait takes on the stain of his sins, Dorian resolves to experience pleasure as deeply and fully as he can in whatever form he can, giving in completely to the concept of hedonism without the control of conscience. The tendency toward decadence was as threatening to decent society as the advancements brought about by science and its machines. Because he is intent on the selfish exploration of his own impressions and experiences, Dorian actively shuts out any impressions of the feelings, emotions and experiences of others and becomes less human as a result. He is incapable of any compassion and unwilling to make the effort to develop it. During the course of the story, it is made clear that Dorian has the education, intellect and natural charm to ease his way into any company he wishes to keep, but finds himself also the force of destructive evil in the lives of the young people he knows, eventually leading to the destruction of the one true friend he had ever really had. From the beginning of the novel, the readers form an opinion of Dorian Gray as being someone who belongs naturally to the upper classes. At the beginning of the novel, he is literally placed upon a pedestal as a shining example of the best of the race, “In the center of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself” (Ch 1). His innocent expression and striking good looks were interpreted by many throughout the story as it would have been in the general public during fin de seicle era, to indicate that he was of an exceptional inner character. During much of this period, it was generally believed any dark acts the character might have performed would necessarily have been reflected upon his face, but the recent discoveries about the human psyche opened up the way for new questioning of these ideas. As the years go by, Dorian is revealed to be a gentleman indeed as he inherits a large home in London and collects numerous treasures that he studies and then tucks away in chests along the walls. Thus his appearance and his social class both combine to provide him easy and quick access to the high society of London despite the ‘otherness’ of his authentic nature. Despite the early understanding of the reader regarding the evil inner nature of Dorian, it is only toward the end of the book that Wilde begins giving dark hints regarding sneers in the streets and other activities among the book’s London society that culminates in Basil’s final confrontation with Dorian: “Staveley curled his lip, and said that you might have the most artistic tastes, but that you were a man whom no pure-minded girl should be allowed to know, and whom no chaste woman should sit in the same room with … Why is your friendship so fatal to young men?” (Wilde, 1891, p. 117). This questioning of his character brings out the monster again in Dorian and he kills his friend, destroying another young man in the process of hiding the evidence. Considered his first major breakthrough in writing science fiction, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine introduces its main character, known only as the Time Traveler, as an eccentric inventor and trickster, who finds himself in possession, through careful study and application of theory, of a time machine that allows him to travel back and forth along the fourth dimension he calls duration in much the same way as one might travel through space. Much of the story he tells regarding his first experimental trip to the future centers around the future inhabitants of the earth, whom he calls the Eloi and the Morlocks. These two very different peoples inhabit different parts of the world, the Eloi on the surface of the planet and the Morlocks underground thus opening the possibility of the monstrous by suggesting a more complete separation of natures within man. While the Eloi seem to live idyllic lifestyles in a paradise-like garden planet, the Morlocks live in perpetual darkness powered by great machines both providing for and preying upon the innocent Eloi. Building upon what had been discovered of the monstrous within the human mind as well as the theories of evolution that Darwin had brought forward, Wells explores the ultimate end game of the human society. Upon his arrival in the land of the Eloi, the Time Traveler describes his surroundings as being almost Eden-like except for the few remnants of mankind’s efforts in the form of a white marble sphinx on a brass pedestal and the great ruins of grand palaces dotting the countryside. “Here and there rose a white or silvery figure in the waste garden of the earth, here and there came the sharp vertical line of some cupola or obelisk. There were no hedges, no signs of proprietary rights, no evidence of agriculture; the whole earth had become a garden” (48). The Eloi are the first group of people he meets upon his travels, and he describes them in terms of child-like innocence, experiencing no fear, no jealousy, no need and no illness. The Eloi are provided with plenty of fruit to eat whenever they wish it, shelters of immense size and comfort and the temperate climate made it unnecessary for such mundane things as fire or artificial heat from anything but the sun. “The air was free from gnats, the earth from weeds or fungi; everywhere were fruits and sweet and delightful flowers; brilliant butterflies flew hither and thither. The ideal of preventative medicine was attained. Diseases had been stamped out … I saw mankind housed in splendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found them engaged in no toil” (49). Evolution had created an Eden where man was able to become almost completely mindless. The Morlocks, on the other hand, are described as under-ground dwellers, who have lived in the dark for so long that they have changed into another species altogether from that of the Eloi who live above ground. The Time Traveler describes them as having extremely white skin, flaxen hair and large reflecting eyes that cannot stand even the light of the moon. “They were just the half-bleached colour of the worms and things one sees preserved in spirit in a zoological museum. And they were filthily cold to the touch” (65). As he experiences more of these creatures, the Time Traveler begins to associate them with the machinery that continuously runs below ground with a thudding, oppressive sound that relates them to the only industry of the time. It is upon his visit to their underworld caverns that the Time Traveler discovers the creatures’ primary source of sustenance when he sees a large joint of meat on the table even though he hasn’t seen any large animals above ground that could provide such fare. It is upon further reflection that he finally realizes the relationship between the Eloi and their subterranean cousins. “These Eloi were mere fatted cattle, which the ant-like Morlocks preserved and preyed upon – probably saw to the breeding of” (75). These creatures crawled out of the holes of wells spaced randomly about the parks in which the Eloi lived each night after the moon had set and stole members of the above ground people to use as food for themselves below ground. The fascination of the fin de seicle period with the concept of the monstrous was the early awareness that there is a hidden beast within the human mind that we as a species had previously been largely unaware. As society struggled to find a new sense of stability that just wasn’t there, this monstrous, almost uncontrollable and mostly hidden inner nature constantly threatened to overwhelm. These explorations focused on the elements of science because it was through science that these realizations were coming to light and, in many ways, it was hoped that science would also provide a more appropriate means of dealing with the frightening prospects of which we were now aware. By understanding the potentials of evolution, it was hoped that something could be done to avoid this type of fate. By understanding the monstrous within the self, it was hoped some form of more effective control might be developed. That each case represents a ‘loss’ to the monstrous nature, though, illustrates the degree of pessimism and fear that characterized the period as it entered a new century. Works Cited Stevenson, Robert Louis. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Bantam Classics, 1982. Wells, H.G. The Time Machine. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1968. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Donald L. Lawler (Ed.). A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1891; reprnt. 1988. Read More