Essays on Monster

Monsters have been a part of humanity since the beginning of time. Whether they be humans and hiding in plain sight or the grotesque beasts that have been painted in our heads for centuries. Nonetheless, each of them plays a major role in everyday life,...

In J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, we are introduced to a well developed and rich world in which humans, monsters, and marvels of all varieties live together, in a place tied together with magic. There are seemingly regular people, wizards, witches,...

“The concept of the monstrous and the figure of the monster have haunted western history from its earliest records” writes Margrit Shldrick in her book Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self. Monsters themselves are a very versatile concept. The word “monster” is made...

Both Hesiod’s epic poem Theogony and the early chapters of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible offer unique creation stories for their respective religions. Though these two religions are vastly different, one being monotheistic and the other polytheistic, their tales of origin each portray gods (or...

In J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, we are introduced to a well developed and rich world in which humans, monsters, and marvels of all varieties live together, in a place tied together with magic. There are seemingly regular people, wizards, witches,...

Wholly defining the sublime seems to lead to a near endless compilation of puzzle pieces, all of which fill in only a small portion of the final picture. Edmund Burke attempts to assemble an authoritative definition of the sublime-and the human experience that accompanies it-in...

In the late 700’s, the Vikings began their raids in England. Their excursions first targeted monasteries on the coast and slowly spread across the nation until the English and Nordic cultures blended into one. The history of the invasion is well documented in historical texts...

One of the key thematic threads running through the plays of The Oedipus Cycle is the debate regarding the primary importance between the laws of the gods over those of the State. For example, in both Oedipus Rex and Antigone, the eponymous characters are torn...

Beowulf’s fight with Grendel proves his heroic credentials and strength. Grendel, the unstoppable demonic troll, all but surrenders at Beowulf’s squashing grip. The bone-crushing grab, however, raises a crux debated by Beowulf scholars: Does Beowulf make the first move and put the death clamp on...

The 1954 classic science fiction Japanese film that that is known as “Godzilla” or “Gojira” was not only recognized as one of the biggest monster blockbuster films, but it also serves as a root of a real-life altercation that had occurred during that time. What’s...

The movie Godzilla directed by Ishiro Honda and written by Takeo Muraka in 1954, depicts a monster created by the devastating effects of nuclear weaponry. In the movie, Japan is thrown into panic after the mysterious exploding and sinking of several ships. One night on...