Over the years, man has come to
believe that there are forces beyond the natural world which control and
oversee the day to day affairs of living creatures on earth including humans,
which exist in the natural world. Man’s first instinct and emotions have formed
his response to this environment in which he has found himself. There are
definite feelings of pleasure and pain growing up as phenomena whose cause he
does not understand, including that of dreams. Then he begins to build up the
notion of unreal or supernatural world around himself until his life becomes
strongly built towards the feeling and the knowledge of the presence of the
supernatural. This unknown world becomes to man source of boons and calamities
which visit man. Therefore, in order to benefit from the benevolence of these
supernatural forces, man begins to seek for a way to establish a closer
relationship with these supernatural elements. These also arises the desire to please
and worship the supernatural because man has come to believe that whatever is
beyond the natural realm is above him.
Etymologically, the word
‘supernatural’ is a combination of two ‘medieval Latin words ‘supra’ and
‘naturalis’, both mean ‘above’ and ‘nature’ respectively. The word was first
used in 1520-30 AD. It is used to refer to that which is not subject to the
laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and
beyond nature. Merriam Webster learner’s dictionary defines it as “of relating
to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe; especially, of
or relating to God, god, demigod, spirit, or devil”. The literary writers have
found the existence of the supernatural elements as source materials for
exploration in their literary works. Literature, in this context is used to refer
to any composition that tells a story, dramatises situations, expresses
emotions, analyses and advocates ideas. It can be in form of drama, fiction or
poetry.
Supernatural drama, a subgenre of
fantasy, combining elements of the supernatural fiction and the drama genre,
deals with of course ghosts and other paranormal topics with tone and scares
associated with the horror genre. The storyline is always centered on magic and
other phenomena that cannot be rationalized by science rather, by religious or pagan explanations. Doctor Faustus written
in 1604,by Christopher Marlow, is one of such dramas that has religious
explanations. In the play, we see the supernatural to being Mephistopheles, an
evil spirit, to whom Faustus sells his soul in order to acquire the knowledge
of the world. Other playwrights of the Elizabethan and classical period include
Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Homer. They have succeeded in recreating the
presence of the supernatural elements in their plays. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Shakespeare reveals the
supernatural in form of young Hamlet’s father, the dead king of Denmark. His
ghost comes to conjure his son Hamlet to avenge his death. The introduction of
this ghost at the beginning of the play is to create the atmosphere of mystery
and this ghost initiated the entire action of the play. Also in Macbeth, the three witches represent the
supernatural elements in the play, and they play a greater role in the life of
the chief character, Macbeth.
Now, it is worthy to note that some
of these supernatural elements predict the fate of man, just like the three
witches in Macbeth, while some others
cause pain to man or be of great help to him in the fulfillment of his destiny.
Homer’s Odysseus have such
supernatural elements in form of gods and goddesses whose works are geared
towards either helping Odysseus to fight and win battles, for instance Athena,
the goddess of war and wisdom who becomes his advisor and also had great
influence in his life and family; or towards causing him so much pain and loss
so as to make him submit to the supremacy of the gods especially Poseidon, the
great sea god. Odysseus also incurs the more of Poseidon’s wrath when he blinds
the eye of Polyphemus his son who is the king of a race of one-eyed giants in
the Island of Sicily. At the cause of his journey, Odysseus encounters other
supernatural beings like Hermes, a messenger god sent by Zeus to release
Odysseus from Calypso.
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex reveals a clear picture of man’s struggle against the
fate stipulated by the gods. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play is placed in
a fixed position where he is not able to escape this fate. The gods predict
that he, Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. All attempts to
make sure that this does not happen, fail. This is to show that the gods has
willed and designed this fate. At the long run, Oedipus ignorantly fulfills
this prophecy. The play dramatises the extent to which the supernatural
influence is upon the human life.
This issue of the supernatural is not found wanting in romantic poems.
Romanticism is a literary and philosophical movement of the 18th
century, characterised by the emphasis on the imaginations and emotions in
English literature, marked by sensibilities and the use of older verse form. In
poetry, there are some of the works of some poets which create a supernatural
of ghostly atmosphere. The poem of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Cristobel’ (1797)
is an example. From the first few lines:
‘Tis the middle of the night by the castle
clock, And owls have awakened the
Crowing Cock,”
Tu-whit! – Tu-whoo!
And hark, again! The crowing cock
How drowsily it crew.
Words like ‘night’, ‘owls’, ‘dark’, ‘chill’ send a sense of horror in the
imaginations of the audience. Also John Keats’ “La Belle Dame San Merci” (1819)
has some expressions like ‘wretched wright’, ‘alone and palely loitering’, ‘no
birds sing’. from the first stanza:
Ah, what can ail
thee,
Wretched wright,
Alone and palely
loitering;
The sedge is
withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
These expressions create a mental picture of a ghost wondering alone in
the night. Another poem is Lord Byron’s ‘Darkness’ (1816). From the first few
lines.
And War, which for a
moment was no more
Did glut himself
again; a meal was brought
With blood, and each
sate sullen apart…..
-and
was death
Expressions like ‘blood’, ‘death’ build an atmosphere of massive death
caused by war and these dead bodies are referred to as ‘a meal’, ‘brought with
blood’. Robert Blairs poem, ‘The Grave’ (1743) is not in any way an exception.
Blair is noted as one of the ‘Graveyard Poets’ who are characterized by their
gloomy meditations on mortality, skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms in the
context of the graveyard. From the first few lines of the second stanza:
I have past by about
that hour
When Ghost their
freedom have
But there was
nothing here to fright,
And I have seen the
glow-worm’s light
Shine
on the poor girl’s grave…..
From the on-going expository, it is
clear that in poetry, ghostly expressions are used to create this fearful
atmosphere unlike in drama and fiction where mostly characters and also words are used to manifest the
presence of the supernatural.
Furthermore, ideas about the
supernatural can be represented in form of zombies, vampires, ghosts, including
those found in superstitious beliefs. The gothic fiction also reveals both the
good and the evil sides of the supernatural. In Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire (1970, the
ghost being interviewed reveals how he sleeps in coffins and make meals out
of human and animal blood. Also Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) creates an image of a blood-sucking being who
overpowers his human victims and turns them to be like him. Charlotte Brontรจ’s Jane Eyre (2003)
creates a character who is believed by some other characters to possess a
supernatural power. Jane, is called a sprite or fairy by her lover, Rochester.
Also, the image of the Red Room, where Jane is locked up by her aunt, is
painted to create such horrific feel in the mind of the reader. There are other
works like Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of
Dorian Gray (1890), Matthew Gregory Lewis’ The Monk (1796) to mention but a few.
All these works and many others
create horrific, fearful and wild imaginations in the reader’s mind.
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