The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [19]
strange, shapeless, sinister, weird, nightmarish, ghastly, hellish, fiendish, demonic, dark.
In other words, in its oddly elusive way, we see this `night creature, whether it is a giant or a witch, a dragon or a devil, a ghost or a Martian, representing (often vested in a kind of dark, supernatural aura) everything which seems most inimical, threatening and dangerous in human nature, when this is turned against ourselves.
Then there are the monster's physical attributes. And here we must not be misled by the fact the monster is so often represented as an animal, or even a composite of several animals: e.g., the imaginary dragon, which we can only conceive of as made up from the organs of existing animals, such as a reptilian body, a bat's wings and the head of a giant toad or lizard. Such monsters may be animal in form, but they are invariably invested with attributes no animal in nature would possess, such as a peculiar cunning or malevolence. They are in fact preternatural, having qualities which are at least partly human.
Again, of course, there are many monsters in stories which are human, but invested with animal attributes: either directly, like the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull; or, more often, just in the way they are described (e.g., the comparisons of Dracula to a `leech' and a `bat'). In other words, they are seen as less than wholly human. And even when monsters are shown as entirely human in appearance, they tend to be in some way physically abnormal: abnormally large (giants), abnormally small (dwarves) or in some way deformed (e.g., missing an eye or a limb, or hunchbacked).
In short, whether it is animal, human or a mixture of both (or even, like John Wyndham's triffids, an intelligent plant), the monster will always have some human characteristics, but will never be represented as wholly human. By definition, the one thing the monster in stories can never be is an ideal, perfect, whole human being.
Then there are the monster's behavioural attributes. We invariably see it acting in one of three roles:
1. In its first `active' role, the monster is Predator. It wanders menacingly or treacherously through the world, seeking to force or to trick people into its power. It may have a lair which it sallies out from, but primarily in this role it is looking for victims. It `walketh about seeking whom it may devour, spreading fear and destruction, and casting a shadow wherever its influence is felt.
2. The monster's second, more `passive' role is as Holdfast. It sits in or near its lair, usually jealously guarding the `treasure' or the `Princess' it has won into its clutches. It is in this role a keeper and a hoarder, broody, suspicious, threatening destruction to all who come near.
3. When its guardianship is in any way challenged, the monster enters its third role as Avenger. It lashes out viciously, stirring from its lair, bent on pursuit and revenge.
In fact we may often see the same monster acting out all three roles at different stages of the same story. In Jack and the Beanstalk, for instance, we first see the giant as Predator, prowling about, demanding human food. We next see him as Holdfast, brooding in miserly fashion over his treasures. We finally see him, when Jack steals the treasures, running angrily in pursuit, as Avenger. And the point about these three roles is that they represent all the main aspects of the way human beings behave when acting in an entirely self-seeking fashion. When people are at odds with the world, behaving selfishly or anti-socially, they are either `after something', as Predators; wanting grimly to `hold onto something, as Holdfasts; or, as Avengers, resentfully trying `to get their own back'.
One may sum up by saying that, physically, morally and psychologically, the monster in storytelling thus represents everything in human nature which is somehow twisted and less than perfect. Above all, and it is the supreme characteristic of every monster who has ever been portrayed in a story, he or she is egocentric. The monster is heartless; totally unable to