(Download) "Matthew Lewis and the Gothic Horror of Obsessional Neurosis (Viewpoint Essay)" by Studies in the Humanities # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Matthew Lewis and the Gothic Horror of Obsessional Neurosis (Viewpoint Essay)
- Author : Studies in the Humanities
- Release Date : January 01, 2005
- Genre: Reference,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 404 KB
Description
Initially, it may seem that the only connection between Tony Shalhoub's hit USA Television Network program Monk and the Gothic is reducible to the fact that the television show shares it title with Matthew Lewis's infamous 1794 Gothic novel. However, on a second examination of the detective series, one may notice that the actor who plays Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, Ted Levine, is the same actor who in The Silence of the Lambs played Buffalo Bill, that most horrific of all gothic villains. But, on a much deeper level, there exists, oddly enough, a connection between Shalhoub's titular character's particular psychopathology--obsessional neurosis--and the very narrative structure of Lewis's early gothic novel. Just as the staging of obsessional neurosis underlies the huge success of Monk, The Monk can be read as symptomatically produced by obsessional neurosis. Consistent with most obsessional neurotics, Tony Shalhoub's "Monk" often finds himself in a self-made paradoxical situation. For instance, he obsessively inspects public equipment--mailboxes, parking meters -just to make sure the world is functioning properly. However, this inspecting, in turn, causes him to reach for a handi-wipe in order to remove any germs from his hands. Both actions, nonetheless, stem from the same cause. He neurotically opens the mailbox to make sure no envelopes have been prevented from dropping into the box, and he touches the parking meters either to make sure they are functioning or because he obsessively needs to touch x amount (usually an even number) of parking meters while passing by because in his twisted mind this wards off anxiety. And he wipes his hands free of germs because those germs might bring a certain amount of unwanted distress into his life. Both actions are obsessive attempts, using the language of psychoanalysis, to keep the Other from enjoying at his expense. They are both attempts to appease the Other (figured as he who is controlling the order of the universe), so that the Other does not terrorize poor Monk by throwing the universe out of joint. (1) Although Monk only superficially utilizes obsessional behavior to gain a few laughs, which the audience enjoys at Monk's expense, obsessional neurosis seems to play a deeper structural role in Matthew Lewis's Gothic narrative.