Unnamable and Unseen
To convey this tale of terror, Fitz James O'Brien composed an invisible yet daunting being as a source of fear, dismay and surprising empathy. In “What Was It?” Harry and Dr. Hammond take up residence in an allegedly haunted boarding house and encounter a creature that questioned everything they knew and felt about “the greatest element of terror”. Their horror is derived not from the fact that their intruder might have looked like a big scary bloodthirsty beast, but rather from the fact that it was invisible. For its captors, the enigma was menacing but proved to also install a feeling of oddity and systematic curiosity. It created an ambiguous tone for both the characters and us the readers.
What did it “looked” like? That’s the answer Harry and Hammond seek to find after their initial …show more content…
“It was shaped like a man — distorted, uncouth, and horrible, but still a man. It was small, not over four feet and some inches in height, and its limbs revealed a muscular development that was unparalleled. Its face surpassed in hideousness” (O'Brien). Thus now, we know that in fact it could not have been human, so “what was it?”. Perhaps a vampire, after all Harry did mentioned the creature’s capabilities of feeding on human flesh. Nonetheless, the tyrant's nature remains unknown, which fueled Harry and Hammond’s curiosity, as well as ours.
This is where fear and curiosity collide. This combined effect added a horrific element to an already gruesome saga. Like Harry and Dr. Hammond, we fear the unknown, but we also want to know about its mysteries. This combination is, I think, of extreme importance to us and O’Brien made sure to exploit that through his tale of invisible being. He was able to establish not a fear that “screams” or shocks, but rather one that can make us curious about things that we should not feel as
To convey this tale of terror, Fitz James O'Brien composed an invisible yet daunting being as a source of fear, dismay and surprising empathy. In “What Was It?” Harry and Dr. Hammond take up residence in an allegedly haunted boarding house and encounter a creature that questioned everything they knew and felt about “the greatest element of terror”. Their horror is derived not from the fact that their intruder might have looked like a big scary bloodthirsty beast, but rather from the fact that it was invisible. For its captors, the enigma was menacing but proved to also install a feeling of oddity and systematic curiosity. It created an ambiguous tone for both the characters and us the readers.
What did it “looked” like? That’s the answer Harry and Hammond seek to find after their initial …show more content…
“It was shaped like a man — distorted, uncouth, and horrible, but still a man. It was small, not over four feet and some inches in height, and its limbs revealed a muscular development that was unparalleled. Its face surpassed in hideousness” (O'Brien). Thus now, we know that in fact it could not have been human, so “what was it?”. Perhaps a vampire, after all Harry did mentioned the creature’s capabilities of feeding on human flesh. Nonetheless, the tyrant's nature remains unknown, which fueled Harry and Hammond’s curiosity, as well as ours.
This is where fear and curiosity collide. This combined effect added a horrific element to an already gruesome saga. Like Harry and Dr. Hammond, we fear the unknown, but we also want to know about its mysteries. This combination is, I think, of extreme importance to us and O’Brien made sure to exploit that through his tale of invisible being. He was able to establish not a fear that “screams” or shocks, but rather one that can make us curious about things that we should not feel as