The Night Mare Analysis

As she and Deeze dismantle the components of Henry Fuseli’s painting, The Night Mare, depicting a swooning woman with a demon crouched over her, Karen is exposed to how contrasting the female and male views of romance are. The discussion between them about the painting and her own personal observations test Karen’s strength of her trust in Deeze’s judgement. Armed with this knowledge as a tool and pushing past these obstacles, she is able to again set out on her archetypal journey.
Deeze calls this painting Romanticism. He refers to the swooning woman as “sexy” and discusses “that horsey is totally into watching!” (Ferris). This alarms Karen, as she calls his comments “gross.” She immediately rejects his description of the woman and his attitude towards the …show more content…
Given her previous knowledge of Deeze and his involvement with women that she has even witnessed at times, this should not alert her attention or call for a comment. She has never thought differently of Deeze because of his actions as a part of “the night machine,” but upon viewing Fuseli’s painting, her reactions changes. The topic displayed by Fuseli grants Karen access to Deeze’s feelings towards it, and those feelings cause her to judge his character, as she interjects with, “gross.” The test of her trust in Deeze is not a successful one, as this is the first time in the text that she is seen to openly deny her brother. She is then exposed to the different ways in which two people can read a painting based on their gender.
Karen relates with the swooning woman, as she is coming from a female perspective. This is where her eyes are immediately drawn. While her brother sees the woman as something that arouses his sexual desire, she recognizes her vulnerable state depicted in the objects around her and the colors used in the painting. Karen describes “the way the