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General Introduction

Stephen king is known as the king of Horror in American literature. Thisattributes to his

ability to make readers immerse in a secondary reality of his own making. King’s success is

due to his style of writing tales of horror which is accessible to readers from different age

groups. This study aims to analyze the conventional Gothic elements and the innovative

elements that exist in the horror novel Misery.In addition, the study focuses on the changes in

the representation of both the Gothic male and female. In King‘s novel, The traditional

portrayal of male Gothic as active and powerful alters into a passive character that embodies

the characteristics of female gothic. In addition, one of the crucial elements of both gothic and

horror is the setting that provides the ultimate mood to the story. It has an atmosphere of

gloom and darkness that represents the psychological state of character. Commented [U1]: Do not justify the lines (the right side)
of paragraph.
Another element that distinguishes horror fiction is suspense which results from the

uncertainty of the coming events. Therefore, This feeling explain the reader’s attraction

towards horror fiction. The present study is descriptive analytical in nature, and it adopts

Freudian psychoanalysis literary criticism to analyze the psychology of characters and

personality. Also, the psychoanalytic meaning of the setting would be used .The Feminist

stylistics approach draws the attention to the language that signifies the passive character of

Paul Sheldon and the active character of Anne Wilkes.

Horror fiction is a genre of fiction that aims to create feelings of fear, dread and repulsion,

and terror through developing the atmosphere of horror. Horror is created from fear and it

focuses on reader’s reaction caused by horror, stemming from the old French “orror”,

meaning to shudder or to bristle. It is the human nature to explore the dark realms of life and

in gothic literature there are predetermined elements like the setting and atmosphere, and they

are recognizable through bleak foreboding environment. Usually, the characters are trapped

and isolated both psychically and emotionally. Also, gothic writers depicted women as the
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victims who have no power. Female characters are presented in gothic literature as damsels in

distress, who are imprisoned in a castle by a powerful male figure .This depiction, occurred

because of the nature of the eighteen-century patriarchal society in which the political, social

and economic power lies within men.

The 1970’s marked the beginning of the contemporary horror in literature which is a

subgenre of gothic literature which means that it has kept some of the gothic elements. For

example, mystery and suspense which are crucial elements for horror fiction to make the

readers worry and care about the characters. In addition, the characters’ role has changed from

depicting women as the victims and as the predator to breaking this stereotype to suit the

contemporary times. Stephan king is one of the most American horror writers that succeed in

presenting deep, dark characters which can provoke sympathy to the reader and he puts

suspense on the center of the novel to create reader’s worry and his novel “Misery”, which

was published in 1987 that tells the story of Paul Sheldon, a writer famous for Victorian –era

romance novels involving the character of Misery Chastain. One day, he is rescued from a car

crash by Annie Wilkes,who is a fan of his works, she transports him to her house, and once

she finds out what he has done to Misery in his latest book, she forces him to write a new

book modifying the story –no matter what it takes.

Unlike the eighteen-century novel in which the female character imprisoned by a male

character, in Stephan king’s novel, it is the female protagonist who tortures Paul Sheldon both

mentally and physically. In this novel, the writer creates suspense through the thoughts of the

imprisoned hero. Moreover, the setting is crucial in horror fiction since it predetermines the

mood of the novel to provoke fear and isolation, and this evident in the novel through the

gloomy depiction of the room where the main character and how Annie Wilkes‘s mood

changes with the weather, these innovations of characterization and suspense challenge the

traditional way of writing a gothic novel.

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King uses post-modernist techniques, which re-establish the previous belief that Horror

fiction is unworthy of literary acknowledgment .Since Horror literature evokes fear and

suspense; it focuses on imagery and mental disturbance to arouse the reader. Thus, the writer

uses simple language and bold metaphors to shock and disturb the individual. Unlike his

previous characters, King presents a complex female character, which is intelligent,

manipulative and simply insane to reinvent the image of the female victim, and to present a

modern woman in post-feminist world .King unconventional techniques to evoke suspense

like the use of unfinished sentences or ideas, illeism, colloquialism, metaphors and

capitalization to provide sensory experience to the reader.

To what extent do conventionality and deviation manifest themselves in Stephen king’s

Misery in terms of setting and characterization and suspense?

1. What are the traditional and the innovative techniques used in the contemporary horror

fiction “Misery”?

2. What are the techniques of suspense in King’s “Misery”?

3. How King uses the Gothic setting in the novel?

4. What are the innovative portrayals of characters that King depicts the male and the female

character?

This study aims

1. To shed light how gender roles have changed in contemporary horror fiction.

2. To examine the deviation in King’s” Misery”.

This study is descriptive will focus on the conventional and the deviation in terms of

characterization of the female and male character in the contemporary Horror novel “Misery”.

The investigation of this study examines the deviation in the author’s style in terms of bold

languages and suspense.

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This study is divided into two chapters. It begins with the theoretical part that contains

definitions of the key terms in psychoanalysis and stylistics. Moreover, it provides a historical

overview of the gothic literature and horror fiction as a subgenre genre to determine the

relationship between the two. Furthermore, the second chapter is divided into two sections.

The first section devoted to determine how the traditional elements of characterization of the

gothic novel are presented in Misery. Then, the second chapter will cover the innovative

elements presented in the contemporary novel “Misery” that challenges the stereotypical

images of female characters in gothic literature and the deviation in building suspense in the

work and to analyze the setting in “Misery”. Finally, the findings will be stated in the general.
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Chapter One: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Introduction

This chapter offers an overview of the main terminology that will be addressed in the

current study. First, Gothic literature and Horror fiction relationship explains the similarities

between the two genres. Sigmund Freud based most of his theories on the gothic novel,which

indicates that The Gothic tradition left its mark in literature because of the historical, cultural

and architectural influence. However, American horror fiction was less recognizable since it

defined only as a subgenre .Scholars traced back the beginning of horror in literature in the

1960’s in the form of comic books and pub fiction, which made the genre unrecognizable.

Stephen King’s characters are ordinary individuals, who find themselves in unordinary

situations, who live in American small towns, which have dark history, or it is the setting of

serial killers. This tendency to depict the unformatted situations resembles the Gothic plot.

The Gothic story tends to depict the female protagonist as weak, vulnerable, who suffers from

the imprisonment of the Gothic villain. This depiction started from the first Gothic novel“the

Castle of Otranto” writtenbyHorace Walpole; however, with the 1960’s and the emergence of

feminism, the traditional depiction becamepredated. Thus, King created Annie Wilkes as the

former nurse, who looks ordinary with her farmhouse and animals in the middle Of

Sidewinder, Colorado; however, Annie is a serial killer. King’s female characterembodies

masculine traits while Paul represents the female victim. This shift of roles reexamines every

relationship between two individuals since Annie embodies the role of prisoner mother, wife

and reader while Paul becomes the victim or Scheherazade as he calls himself to the mad

woman, who kidnaps him. StephenKing uses bold language and metaphors that capture the

character‘s personality.
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1.1Historical Background of Gothic Literature

1.1.1 Etymology Commented [U2]: Keep space between the

ennumeration and subtitle.
According to Andrew Smith, the word Gothic derives from the Germanic tribes Goths

who settled down in Europe from the third century to the fifth century AD. The revival of the

medieval aesthetics started in Vogue in Britain from the early eighteenth century to the late

nineteenth century. The medieval aesthetic, as a primary element, contributes to the Gothic

literature. In this respect, the reconstruction of the past with the barbaric Germanic tribes

provided a context for Gothic literature to evolve as a mode of its own. However, the

Romantics disagreed with the ideas of Rationalism. They believed that human emotions

cannot be put into inhuman Rationalism (29). This statement shows that the medieval

aesthetics inspired gothic literature with its magnificence castles and secluded chapels .These

unique settings distinguished the gothic story from other stories.

Andrew Smith argues in his book Gothic Literature that the beginning of the Gothic

tradition appears as highly formulaic, reliant on specific setting, for example, castles,

monasteries and ruins. The characters are generally from the aristocratic class, nuns and

monks. These images are repetitive in the Gothic novel. He considers a key aspect of

analyzing a Gothic text is through the representation of evil. The Gothic tends to demonize

certain behaviors to cover the political views of a text. This latter was because of the 1750’s

was a period of fear and enthusiasm for revolutionary ideas, such as the French Revolution

that influenced the British Gothic (30).In this respect, gothic literature proves to be fixed on

the same setting and characters. This repetition allows the reader to differentiate between

good and evil, lightness and darkness, liberation and imprisonment, which are common

beliefs the French revolution implemented.

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1.1.2 Definition of Gothic Literature

David Punter confirms that the word Gothic has many definitions in different fields .It

can be found as a literary term or as a historical, and even as an architectural term. The

wordGothic referred to the architecture style in the sixteenth century. At that time cathedrals

and churches shared a Gothic design. It used pointed arches and vaults, narrow spires and

stained glass windows that add a sense of mystery to the buildings. The Gothic design

consists of dungeons and undergrounds passages, dark corridors as well (Melani, 1-2).This

definition demonstrates how the word gothic can have many interpretations in terms of history

and architecture, which later on it emerged in literature as a genre.

Punter states in his book The Literature of Terror that:

The original meaning, not unnaturally, was literally “to do with the

Goths” or the barbarian northern Tribes who played so somewhat

unfair reviled a part in the collapse of the Roman empire, although

this apparently literal meaning was less simple that it appears,

because the17th -and18thcentury writers who used the term in this

sense had very little ideas of who the Goths were or what they were

like. One thing that was known was that they came from northern

Europe, and thus the term had a tendency to broaden out, to

become virtually synonym for ’Teutonic’, while retaining its

connotations of barbarity. (4-5)

The Gothic novel inspires their setting from the architecture of the middle Ages

and the bloody history of the Germanic tribes to create the gruesome environment

and the feeling of both terror and fear.

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1.1.3 Origins of Gothic Literature

Horace Walpole‘s The Castle Of Otranto is perceived as the first Gothic novel and it

was published in 1764. The writer added the word Gothic to the title:The Castle Of Otranto:

aGothic story in 1765(Hogle 49). This was considered back then as a new use of the word

because it referred to a period of barbarism and superstitions of the Middle Ages. Sir Walter

Scot, furthermore, commented on Walpole‘s work by stating that it is an art of exciting

suspense and horror. He adds also that the reader’s appeal to this genre comes from the

admiration to the marvelous and supernatural that exists in everyone (Andrew, 3).Walpole’s

work marked the birth of the gothic novel as it is known today, and it included the struggle

between spirituality and human desire with the existence of supernatural powers to interfere in

the character’s life.

The revival of Gothic architecture and Romanticism inspiresHorace Walpole. He states

that the work is an attempt to combine old romance and modern romance. He rejects the strict

adherence to common life and he endeavors to create a dramatic version of history through

the Gothic setting (Hogle51). Alfred Longueil, in his respect, also recognized the contribution

of Horace Walpole to Gothic literature. His work provided the traditional framework of

Gothic literature through the dark atmosphere, and due to the use of the supernatural creatures

and cursed castles; it provided a world of fantasy (Clery458). E.J. Clery claimed in her book

The Rise of Supernatural Fiction that Gothic becomes a literary term to refer to the grotesque,

ghastly and violent creatures. This goes back to The Castle of Otranto (459). Walpole’s

attempt to produce a mixture of fear and excitement was the reason behind the framework of

the gothic novel. The previous passage demonstrates that Romanticism with its tendency to

exaggerate affects the gothic canon immensely. Walpole’s source of inspiration was the

romantic setting that contains châteaus and the sublime nature. However, with the gothic

atmosphere it shifts from lightness and innocence into darkness and dismay.
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The Gothic that Walpole presents was not accepted at first, and it was considered as an anti

Enlightenment work. Clerly stated that the interest of supernatural powers threatens the

establishment in rational order of the Enlightenment era. This era consideredthe Gothic story

as a false taste (Cooper 28). However, this belief ceased to exist with works of Mathew

In Annie Williams’ book Art of Darkness: A poetic Gothic, she explains how gothic

literature lures its readers with the decoration of castles hunted with ghosts, a mysterious hero

saves a distressed heroine from a villain. Generally, the geographical depiction identifies the

gothic genre. On the other hand, David H. Richter wrote a review article in 1987, which he

disagrees with the idea of defining literary genres based on certain characteristics because not

every castle is gothic, and not every gothic has a castle (qtd. in Williams 15).In the beginning

of the gothic tradition, the setting was not flexible, and it was predictable; however, it

changed with time, and it became flexible to time and space.

Commented [U3]: Keep an empty space before the title.

1.1.4 The Characteristics of Gothic Literature

1.1.4.1The Gothic Setting

Fred Botting stated in his book Gothic,the Gothic plot relied on the negative aesthetics.

In other words, the dark aesthetics signify the investigation of the obscure and ambiguity. He

argues that the gothic styles agitate the limits of knowledge and appeal to mysterious worlds.

For example, the dark arts of magic and alchemical science, arcane, occult forms characterize

delusion, apparition, and deception. This is different from the natural order of Realism. The

Gothic story encourages imagination and the possibility of magic power, mystery and

monstrosity (2). Unlike realism, the gothic style tends to rely on detailed descriptions of

characters and context. The characters are either extremely good, or extremely evil. Also, it

focuses on spirituality and metaphysical beings.

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The setting is crucial to the Gothic novel, and it reflects the dark mood to create a sense

of adventure and mystery. The elements of Gothic novel include an old minor type of house

or castle. The Gothic buildings are hundreds years old and they are many ruins all over

England and Europe. These factors inspire the artistic mind of writers, and it increase the will

to create mystery, and horror with gloomy and decaying structures, hunted houses and

graveyards.

The castle is a predominant theme in the Gothic novel. It lurks with secret passages and

rooms, trapdoors, hidden staircases. The castles are connected to caves and mysterious

creatures (Joseph1-3). This element is apparent in Horace Walpole’sThe Castle of Otranto.

The story takes place in an ancient castle in the times of Crusades and it reveals that the castle

is cursed. The lower part of the castle was hollowed into several intricate cloisters, and it was

not easy for one under so much anxiety to find the door that opens into the cavern.

Walpole’s story provides a clear example on the horrifying setting when he said:

An awful silence reigns via those subterraneous regions, except how

and then some blasts of wind that shook the doors she had passed, and

which grating on the rusty hinges, were re-echoed through that long

labyrinth of darkness. Every murmur struck her with new terror. (qtd in

Joseph13)

This passage depicts the castle with details that almost lurks with action, and it creates

an atmosphere of darkness and ambiguity with the description of secret passage ways and

caves those allow the female character to escape from the male oppressor.

Moreover, secret doors and labyrinth, caves, hidden staircases create dark ambiguity.

Natural phenomena such as storms and thunder create fear and terror. In Walpole’s novel,

thunder foreshadows significant moments. The first time is when Matilda releases Theodor,

the heir of Otranto. The second time is when Matilda dies, and the third time is when the
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manifestation of Alfonso appears to announce Theodore as the true successor.

Maurice Levy demonstrates that Horace Walpole admires the Gothic architecture and

medieval history, and he inspires the setting of the novel from Strawberry Hill, which is the

residence of the writer and it is designed according to the Gothic style. Levy explains

Walpole‘s obsession with the Gothic design in his book that is entitledThe Cambridge

Companion to Gothic Fiction. This explains the reason behind making the castle as the central

subject in his novel (Levy, 134). The more Manfred the villain in the novel becomes more

malicious, the more the castle becomes hunted.Also, the castle seems to curse Manfred

because he is not the rightful owner.

Francoise Grellet says that the same framework exists in the Gothic novel. Usually the

villain kidnaps the heroine and he takes her to a castle to be a prisoner. The use of tunnels and

dungeons are frequent to have a sense of terror (10). These characteristics are present in

Horace Wapole‘s The Castle Of Otranto, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The scope of the setting in the Gothic novel does not change, and after seventy five years

from the publication of The Castle Otranto, Edgar Allen Poe published his own novel under

the name The Fall of the House of Usher. Lévy noticed the similar titles and the focus on the

setting remains and in this case the dwelling of the characters. However, with Poe‘s story the

house represents the last two members of the family, and when Roderick and Madeline die,

the house falls into pieces. Poe compares the house to a person when he said “the vacant eye-

like windows.” (qtd. in Lévy, 8 -10). The house becomes an extension to the characters mood

and actions, and it evokes distress and depression.

1.1.4.2Darkness sand Sublimity

Darkness is the foremost characteristic of Gothic works. This darkness threatens the

light of reason metaphorically. Gloom and night generate uncertainty and obscurity. This

darkness allows the imagination to run free and to create unnatural creatures (Botting, 21).
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The dark corridors and the dungeons deepen the fear within the characters, and especially the

secret passageways which the villains use to catch the escaped hero. This concludes to both

horror and terrors in Bram Stoker are Dracula. The description of light and darkness

manifests in the character mood and foreshadows terrible events:

“The mountains were closer to us now and the road went higher and higher .Shadow grew

longer as the sun began to go down behind the mountains. Then suddenly, the light had gone.

The mountains and sky were dark .The coach went faster and faster .I could hear a terrible

sound […]” (Stoker 10).

In this passage, the description of nature is predominant, and nature almost plays a role

in dictating the mood and the fate of characters. Also, the paradox of light and darkness

symbolize the conflict between good and evil.

Since Romanticism is inspired from natural beauty, the Gothic novel utilizes aesthetic

elements to create a sense of delight from fear. This experience is called sublime and it exists

in Gothic romances with its grandeur of natural landscape and the obscurity of the setting

(Botting, 26). Edmund Bruke‘s master piece A Philosophical Inquiry In The Origin Of Our

Ideas Of the Sublime and Beautiful(1756) claims that beauty produces pleasure and the

sublime produces terror and fear that motivates self-preservation. He argues that:

Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger; that is to say, whatever is

in any sort of terrible, or is conversant about terrible object, or operates in a manner analogous

to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which

mind capable of feeling (Bruke45).

Indeed, the sublime uses language to intensify the thoughts and the emotions of

characters. It uses nature to evoke fear and terror; however, this fear is false because it

provides pleasure and excitement to the reader, who is perfectly safe from a physical pain.
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This theory is related to the gothic inquiry to terror and the writer creates a world of

barbarism and isolation full of violence and torture. This world attracts and pleases the reader

Because it is remotely far in space, and the more wild and fearful the circumstances of a

horror scene, the more pleasure we receive from it. Bruke insists that when danger occurs near

the individual it does not provide any pleasure; however, if a terrible event happens in a

certain distant place, it produces a delightful experience (Raskauskiene 40). The gothic uses

weather to depict a dark environment. For example, storms and thunder, clouds, rain represent

sadness and death while sunlight and spring manifest happiness and life. The weather is a

predominant element to create the gothic sublime. Mary Shelly‘s novel represents the gothic

sublime through the contradicting feelings of fascination and fear, and the supernatural

powers of monsters and ghosts in mysterious hunted houses.

Fred Botting explains that the gothic forms builds upon the depressing atmosphere and

threatening figures to terrify the reader. It tends to implement fear and awe through the

unconventional concepts. The gothic novel deals with the conflict between conventions and

unacceptable representation of characters .This struggle results ambivalence which is the

dynamic transgression between two contradicting emotions (29). The gothic novel attempts to

address evil and good, corruption and morality. It relates the past with the present and even

civilization with savageness. He exemplifies ambivalence in The Castle of Otranto .This

novel leaves the reader uncertain of the moral purpose of the text. The characters suffer the

consequences of their ancestors “sins and the mistake of the father”, which raises the question

of fairness and divine justice (Botting30).the Gothic explores the dark side of humanity, and

the unfairness of life. François Grellet explains that the gothic plot follows the same features,

which consist of the villain who is usually a dominant father figure kidnaps the heroine and

imprisons her in a castle that has tunnels and dungeons. The strange occurrence of sounds and
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supernatural happenings lead to terror (qtd in Loiseau 8).The themes of gothic literature deals

with recurrent themes of kidnap and inherited curse that the characters suffer from.

1.1.4.3 The Gothic Male and Female

The gothic novel allows expressing extreme sadness and extreme joy. Therefore, the

characters aim to maintain balance between the two emotions. In the gothic novel, Women

are weak and vulnerable and the male characters are tyrannical and strong. Punter and Byron

believe that the gothic male character is an attempt to represent internal issues of human

nature and animalistic instinct. In order to fulfill his objective, he defies social conventions.

However, the female gothic is the victim of man’s desire for power and it represents an

attempt to escape from a confining interior. The protagonist‘s transgression of social taboos,

and the conflict between the villain and social intuitions is present in objectifying women.

Initially, the male’s plot is tragic because it focuses on the transgression of the

individual that ends with his punishment for breaking conventions. In the female’s plot, the

male becomes the main threat to the protagonist. Generally, she lives a secluded and idyllic

life that follows an imprisonment under a powerful male figure in a castle. This basic scenario

presents in The Castle of Otranto and Anne Radcliffe‘s The Mysteries of Udolpho.In the late

eighteenth century, the focus starts to be on the women’s experience to obtain some kind of

power and agency in a patriarchal society (Punter and Byron, 278- 280).This obsession of

depiction women in a submissive role was not original.

The female gothic develops the atmosphere through forming actions with the detailed

description of architecture. The male gothic turns domestic space into a prison to punish the

female gothic that disobeys him (Sondgrass133).The disobedient can be in the form of

claiming the rightful place at home, or the right to marry a person of her choice. In literature,
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the female gothic evokes sympathy because the male gothic oppresses stalks and persecutes

her.

It was until the 1977 that the feminist critic Ellen Mores coins the term gothic female to

suggest that women liberate gothic literature because it provides an avenue to examine

women’s place in society. She categorizes the elements of the female gothic into three

elements: the gendered behavior and attitudes of the heroine and hero, the importance of the

female protagonist’s virginity and sexuality, and the impact of social, racial and economic

status on the action (Sondgrass131). In other words, the female gothic faces difficult

challenges, but the confinement and imprisonment motivates the female to explore her

environment to find an escape. It is through this journey that the female gothic finds

independence.

Ellen Mores further discusses the female gothic in an article in the New York review.

She clarifies that Mary Shelly‘s female gothic addresses the subject of birth and the trauma of

afterbirth (Mores4). However, Anne K. Mellor refutes this in her book “Possessing:Nature:

The Female in Frankenstein”that Victor Frankenstein confirms to the nature of women of

producing children when he creates the creature (Mellor2). By creating a being without the

involvement of the female, Victor Frankenstein denies the role of women in production and

represents the patriarchal society that values man over women.

1.1.4.4 Horror and Terror

Radcliffe breaks the stereotype of gothic tradition as being a product of the macabre and

the grotesque; she makes events appear as they have supernatural causes. However, a very

logical explanation presents itself in the end. This ambiguity leads to an atmosphere that

resembles a nightmare. She presents the fear of what might happen to create horror and terror

and in order to differentiate between the two terms, she wrote in her essay On the

Supernatural in poetry:
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Terror and horror are so far opposite that the first expands the soul ,and Wakens the

facilities to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes and nearly annihilates them

….and where lies the great difference between terror and horror, but in the uncertainty and

obscurity ,that accompany the first [and] respecting the dreaded evil. (Sones –Marceau, 9)

The difference between terror and horror is the first uses fear of what might happen as a

means to evoke the dreadful feeling while the later applies the five senses to have both

physical and psychological distress.

Terror is identified with heightening the senses and frees the imagination of the

individual while horror causes sickness in the mind through the repulsive description. The

writer adds violence and supernatural beings to push the characters to their limits. For

example, the Castle of Otranto presents terror as the focal emotion in the novel and this

distinguishes gothic literature from other genres (Sondgras 197). Terror suspends the

individual from rational thinking and it leads the characters to risk their lives because of the

unknown.

In her essay on the supernatural in poetry, Anne Radcliffe claimed that terror is the

product of confusion and obscurity. She discriminated between the two terms, and she

identified the effects of obscurity as leaving something for the imagination to exaggerate. On

the other hand, confusion obscures an image to another; as a result, it leaves disorder in the

mind. Terror activates the individual’s imagination which enables him to be active and to

acquire the means of escape from a dangerous situation (Radcliffe, 149-150).Terror can be a

positive feeling to the character because it loosens the senses and evokes the imagination to

generate ideas to find an outlet. Harriet Jones agrees that horror is a symbol of depravity and

corruption of society. In Mary Shelly‘s novel Frankenstein, the mad scientist creates a

monster from dead body parts and unleashes the creature into society to cause disorder into

the world. In American gothic literature, Edgar Allen Poe discovers horror through the focus
 Medjeouri 17

on the response of the individual that ranges from curiosity to madness (Sodgrass197). Horror

is experienced in underground vaults and burial rooms, and it happens in a direct encounter

with the deepest fear of human being. The purpose of horror is to make the reader emotionally

invested in the characters and to evoke their curiosity to the unknowing.

In gothic fiction, terror and horror rely on appearance and reality. These elements

encourage superstitious interpretation of things and the limitless restrictions between fictional

forms and social rules.

This visible in the early gothic novels where the complexity and the secretive

framework produce horror and fear (Botting 111).Both horror and terror are key elements in

gothic literature to raise fear and disgust from the horrifying events that happen to the

characters.

Punter defines terror as the feeling that comes from the suspense of waiting while horror

is anemotion that evokes both shock andsuperises .Horror occurs in the face of identifiable

power that evokes physical reaction. Also, the word horror comes from the latin word horrere

,which means to shiver or to bristle (qtd in Cavallaro 13).In this respect, both horror and has a

specific function in the story.Horror aims to spread fear and alarm whereas terror relies on the

anticipation of waiting for a terrible event.

1.1.4.5 Suspense in Gothic Literature

According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, J.A. Cuddon

explained suspense as follows:

A state of uncertainty, anticipation and curiosity as to the outcome of a story or play ,or any

kind of narrative in verse or prose .The suspense in Hamlet ,for instance , is sustained

throughout by the question of whether or not the prince will achieve what he has been

instructed to do what he intends to do(715).

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This definition demonstrates how suspense builds up the expectation and human

curiosity towards the unknown.

In this respect, both Andrew Bennet and Nicholas Royle agree that there are two types

of suspense, the resolved and the unresolved. The resolved suspense is linked to the gothic

novel, mystery and supernatural, detective stories. Unlike the unresolved suspense, the

resolved one solves the mystery and comes to a conclusion. According to Umberto Eco,

theresolved suspense is based on the closed texts .The reader is certain about the coming

events, but is the delay, which agitates the reader (qtd in Bennet, Royle 226).Resolved

suspense leaves the reader in a continuous anticipation .Although the reader know what will

happen, he does not know the time of the event.

1.1.5The Development of Gothic Literature

1.1.5.1Gothic literature in Britain

In 1688, the French Revolution provided political and social upheaval that changed the

sentiments of both French and British public opinion. The changes and loss of landmarks

caused a loss of hope and disillusionment to the French and British society. In addition, the

effects of the industrial revolution started to manifest in the British social divisions. These

factors aroused the feeling of nostalgia to the past, which manifested into a new literary genre

that is the gothic novel. Horace Walpole’sThe Castle of Otranto is considered the first gothic

novel in 1764. Prior to the romantic and the gothic literary movement, the novel was more

realistic, but the gothic romance novel was a genteel form of dark emotions. The fantastic and

supernatural, superstitions, macabre are typical elements in the gothic novel to create the

atmosphere of horror and terror, suspense (Sones-Marceau, 1-5).The French revolution was a

source of inspiration to many artists and writers. However, the aftermath left individual lost

and pessimistic, which was a common theme in gothic literature. .

1.1.5.2American gothic fiction

 Medjeouri 19

The new world depiction of horror shifts the focus of gothic literature from the

aristocracy of old Europe to the potent and terrifying Indian of the frontier and black slaves.

They concentrate on the conflicts between the first settlers and native Indians, puritans and

witchcraft, slave owners and abolitionists. The American gothic setting does not have

European castles and its past. Therefore, they provide secrecy and guilt of the puritan society.

For the explorers, America is a land of adventures, mystery and danger. The gothic motifs

started to appear in works of folkloric stories of Washington Irving particularly The Fool

Tale, the Legend of Sleepy Hallow. Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The

House of Seven Gables (1815) that is a mixture of gothic conventions with the American

themes that includes guilt, sin and persecution. All the latter works are a combination of

American dark romanticism and the history of the New World (Sonograss, 23-24). American

gothic adopts from the British gothic the dark mood of the setting. However, the American

setting lacks the European history with its fine architecture. Therefore, it compensates with

the American scenery and the dark forests.

The American gothic deals with issues of slavery and the internal conflict of the

individual. Moreover, American gothic themes include the notions of enlightenment and

freedom. Unlike European gothic literature, it explores the psychological motives of

individuals and the social tyranny, the effects of geography that cause delusion. Also,

Ambivalence in American gothic brings anxiety and doubts towards the principles of the

American society and in particular the puritan society. European gothic adopts mystery and

supernatural superstitions while American gothic encourages rationalism, and suspicion

towards authority and religion. This evident in works of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet

Letter, Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland (Botting 76-78).In this works, the past and the

present are interrelated because the mistakes of the previous affect the present time. The

authority of both society and religion contributes to the repression of the individual that lead
 Medjeouri 20

to a journey into the woods that represent darkness and evil; this is a metaphor for the

psychological inquiry that aims to put the individual into a test.

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most recognizable gothic writers in America. His short

horror stories reveal madness, violence and obsession. Thus, Poe’s works show a careful

attention to language and narrative structure that Freud names it the unconscious (Hogle

209).Edgar Allen Poe’s works describes as an emotional work that expressesclaustrophobia

and death. Poe’s coffins and tombs are symbols for the character’s attempt to realize

impossible desires. Therefore,Slavoj Zizek argues that the reader looses his objectivity upon a

close reading of the text. The text does not imitate reality, but it attracts and seizes the reader

to render the real. This Poe’s effect causes both fascination and fear (Hogle209). Poe’s works

provides a new aspect in studying gothic fiction, which is the psychological effect that allows

the reader to have access to the mind of characters directly.

1.1.5.3 Gothic Modernism

Modernism mirrors everyday life, and reacts to the political and cultural change of the

time.

Modernist works that represent the period are: Ulysses and the Waste land, and these

works include gothic aesthetics to picture the modernist pessimism. For example, James Joyce

develops connections between common experience and culture in alluding to vampires in

Ulysses. Moreover; the gothic text and the modernist text share the obsession of moral value

with the amorality forms (Smith, Wallace, 1).Both Modernism and Gothic share the

unconventionality of style and storyline. Kelly Hurly explains that Darwinism exists in gothic

texts, and W.H .Hodgson’s works and D.H Lawrence‘s Sons and lovers are evidence of the

survival of the fattiest theme and the Victorian social codes.Hurly identifies monstrosity and

the inhuman transformation as the side effects of Darwinism(Smith andWallace1). Gothic

 Medjeouri 21

fiction had a history of violence and blood thirst from the time of the Germanic tribes. As a

result, Darwinism is found in the conflict between the powerful and the weak.

In the Victorian period and at the end of the nineteenth century, psychoanalysis

foreshadows the images of perversion and transgression in gothic literature. Sigmund Freud

suggests that the individual fails to have self control, but it is the desires that possess the

individual .this are a predominant element in gothic transgression. In his book Freud’s secret:

The Interpretation of Dreams, Robert Yong considered Freud’s book as a gothic novel. He

argues that the Victorian gothic novel abandons the traditional elements of a gothic novel that

consist of old castles and secret rooms and ghosts; however, it chooses a scientific frame work

to explain supernatural occurrence (12).Freud’s work on dreams and symbols helped to

interpret gothic works that inspired most of his theories.

David Seed observes in Virginia Woolf‘s review of Dorothy Scarborough’s The

supernatural in modern fiction that Woolf emphasizes the importance of the gothic and its

attempt to evoke a transcendental sense of the scene. He later explains in his book Psychical

cases: transformations of the supernatural in Virginia Woolf and May Sinclair that both

writers use the supernatural as a means to problematic perception in their short stories

(Smith, Wallace, 6). In modernist texts, the notion of fear and terror change with the

technological advancement. It surpasses the fear from the dangers of the outside world, and it

replaces it with interior fear within the individual.

1.1.5.4 Post-Modern Gothic

In the twentieth century, modernity escalates anxiety and chaos which caused

challenges such as unorganized narratives that cannot distinguish between reality and fiction.

Post-modern gothic literature challenges the stereotype of characters .Angela Carter’s works

The Bloody Chamber (1979) and The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman (1972) and

Heroes and Villains (1969). These works are a mixture of fairy tales and science fiction with
 Medjeouri 22

gothic elements. Carter’s narrative travels through worlds in which time and space, reality and

fantasy are irrelevant (Botting110). Gothic fiction surpasses time because it combines

between history and present and between romance and horror.

Fred Botting explains post-modern gothic and how it is different from the previous

ones.

In gothic fictions and films, it is ambivalence and duplicity that has emerged as a

distinctly reflexive form of narrative anxiety. It involves a pervasive cultural concern –

characterized as post-modernist- that things are not only what they seem, and it encourages

discovering beyond reality and beyond the word and image. Unstable, unfixed and

ungrounded in any reality, truth or identity other than those narratives provide, there a threat

of sublime excess, of a new darkness of multiple and labyrinthine narratives, in which human

myths again dissolve, confronted by an uncanny force beyond its control (Botting111). In

other terms, post-gothic modern uses unreliable narratives to confuse the reader and to distort

reality.

One of the post-gothic devices is the use of textuality in horror to make violence

noticeable, which generates from the psychotic dissolution. Umberto Eco‘s The Name of The

Rose (1980) isan example of the conscious use of gothic elements like the medieval

manuscript and the gloomy setting, secret vaults. Eco uses the editor preface to let the reader

know that the story is remotely distant from present days. Also, he uses historical and modern

allusions in a medieval setting; the writings of Jorge Luis Borges, who is a twentieth century

writer in a fourteen century novel (Botting111-112).This method of using the past to retell a

story is first used by Horace Walpole in Castle of Otranto. This fascination with the past

comes from the gothic literature tendency to ambiguity and adoration to the unknown.

1.2Historical Background of Horror Fiction

1.2.1Horror Fiction
 Medjeouri 23

The horror genre is a controversial concept due to the deep entangled relationship of the

genre with many other literary genres. Zillmann and Gibson trace back this genre to the cave

drawings and primitive man while others believe that it started in the eighteen century with

the Age of Reason. However, Joshi suggests that the modern horror genre started to flourish

when scholars started to write anthologies on horror fiction and to horror as worthy of study

(TamboriniWeaver1). Horror developed from gothic fiction, and therefore it emerged as a

reaction to the political and social changes, and even the technological advancement.

James B. Twitchel states that “The shiver we associate with horror is the result of constriction

of the skin that firms accounts for the rippling sensation, almost as if a tremor were fluttering

down our back, from this comes the most appropriate trope for horror-creeping flesh or, more

simply the creeps”(qtd in Cavallaro13). Indeed, horror evokes psychological reaction from

the gloomy atmosphere of blood and gore, the physical torment and violence.

The horror genre has three categories, which are the demonic horror, the quasi science

and the non-supernatural horror. The demonic horror begins with chaotic manipulation that

has a malicious intent towards the natural law of the real world while the quasi science or

science fiction is a well-understood danger that threatens and governs the real world. It

depicts the human experience with technology. The third category is the non-supernatural,

and also known as the psychological horror. It focuses on the interior motives of characters

(Tamborini and Weaver 2). These types of horror demonstrate the magnitude of horror and

how every subdivision has a unique characteristic.

1.2.2The Evolution of Horror Fiction

It was between the 1960’s and the 1970 that the narrative of horror transfers from the

external danger of monsters and ghosts to the interior journey of disturbed minds that suffer

from psychological abnormality. At the end of the 1960’s, American horror fiction witnessed

a number of factors that changed the genre like the aftermath of the Vietnam war, the
 Medjeouri 24

conditions of gender and race, social issues and the second wave feminism.These factors

contributed to the emergence of the monster, as the figure of anti-social behavior that

individuals learn to repress. Also, the image of females changed and became more aggressive

as a sign of post-feminist influence and the sexual liberation that occurred, because of the

failure of patriarchal control (Magistrale3). In this time of period, the American society has

witnessed many monumental moments that provide materials to horror.

In A Dark Night’s Dreaming: Contemporary American Horror Fiction, Magistrale and

Morrison believe that horror evolves to an art that focuses on the destructive side of human

beings. This art provides a mean to survive and to learn life lessons from horror fiction. It

allows an experience without actually experiencing the events. Also, the monster in horror is

the dark embodiment of society and its issues. Robin wood suggests that this archetype

represents political and personal liberation in the American society. Therefore, the monster

rebels against social, sexual and moral codes that repress him as an individual (Magistrale and

Morrison 2). Generally, the villain in gothic literature is an outsider who differs from his

surrounding in every form .He could be a hideous monster, or a vampire, who sucks the blood

of innocents, and even a ghost that hunts the house to avenge for his death. These types of

villains changed with horror fiction. It focuses on more mundane characters that have no

supernatural power expect a thirst for murder.

1.2.3Horror fiction and Stephen king

In his book Danse Macabre (1981), Stephen king believes that horror films have been

more successful in exposing fear which exists in a wide spectrum of people. This fear can be

political, economical or psychological (King, 5). It means that the modern man surpasses the

fear from supernatural powers due to the technological advancement. In Abject Terrors, Tony

Magistrale sees horror as a chance to test the fictional character‘s courage, and for the reader

to experience danger without being present psychically. In addition, he claims that King
 Medjeouri 25

relates horror with classical tragedy because they stimulate fear and pity for the characters

(Magistrale3).Horror provides a catharsis effect to the reader because he has an opportunity to

have an adventure without actually experiencing the horrible events.

Stephen king believes that the objective of horror is to explore social, political taboos,

and to confirm feelings of content about the status quo. He compares horror as a Dionysian

force that threatens the Apollonian status quo. King said that Horror is a tale of disorder and

the fear of change (king, Danse Macabre 68). Ann Wilkes fears change and she resists it. She

moves from city to city, and from one hospital to another and even from one victim to

another; however, the only stable thing in her life is reading the Misery’s series, but when

Sheldon decides to end it, she starts to abuse him.

King says that “the best horror texts possess a pleasing allegorical feel” (Magistrale26).

He uses allegory as a symbol to represent the reader’s fear and anxiety, and to express

emotions that are socially unexpected. He further explains that the horror genre is not merely

about pain and suffering, but it seeks to make the reader evolve morally (qtd. in Magistrale

26). For king, the role of a writer is to play a moral guardian, and to examine morally

controversial topics.

1.2.4 Characters in Horror Fiction

Stephen King blends the typical elements of mainstream fiction with the traditional

horror literature. As a result, it produces a hybrid horror that puts the attention on the

character development and ordinary people while the villains occupy minor roles. King mixes

the horrific with the normal where everyday people encounter bizarre events. Hence; there are

no superheroes in his works. Instead, he presents the neighbors, who live down the block, the

woman at the supermarket and the children play a basketball on the back lot as the real

possible villains (Gresh and Weinberg 3). Unlike the traditional gothic characters, who have a

simple personalities, King‘s characters are deep and dark.

 Medjeouri 26

1.2 5Monstrosity in Contemporary Horror Fiction Commented [U4]: Font size should be 12.

Isabel Christina Piendo differentiated between “the classic horror frame “and “the

conflicted horror frame” .She argues that classic horror of the 1930‘s and 1940’s provided an

image of monster that represented all evil. This representation of evil against good aimed to

restore normalcy. However , the external danger against society became an eternal threat

.Thus evil started to reside within .The conflicted horror frame presented malicious as

ordinary .Furthermore, Steffen Hanke concluded that this shift of evil’s depiction questioned

the separation between evil and good(qtd in Picrat,Browning ). In other words, with time

horror started to represent evil as mundane and normal, which contradicts the traditional

monster, which was depicted as inhuman and abnormal.

Tony Magistrale notices that Stephen King’s non-fictional book Danse Macabre is a

horror that explains the philosophy behind his writings. King believes that modern horror

allows us to conquer our fears and to gain bravery. First, it reestablishes the sense of

normality in the reader’s life. Second, it confirms positive attitudes towards the status quo

.Third, it provides an opportunity to penetrate the mystery of death (Magistrale 22).Horror

does not provide a didactic function, but it offers an alternative version of reality to make the

reader feels better about his own reality. Moreover, it is appealing due to the exploration of

human fragility towards nature.

King goes further by demonstrating to which extant horror utilizes the types of fear and

which one is more efficient. King highlights that:

The horror genre has often been able to find national phobic pressure points and those

books and films which have been the most successful almost always seem to play upon and

express fears which exist across a wide spectrum of people. Such fears, which are often

political, economic, and psychological rather than supernatural, give the best work of horror

a pleasing allegorical feel (King 19). King observes that with modern time, individuals start to
 Medjeouri 27

be less spiritual; as a result, the fear of ghosts and vampires starts to be illogical. King

attempts to present ordinary people in extraordinary situations to bring either the best, or the

worst of them .Annie Wilkes is a nurse, who decides to save and then keep her favorite writer

trapped in her farmhouse. The character represents the embodiment of evil in the novel and

this is derived from human being causes suffering to another without an apparent reason.

In addition, king explains that horror permits indulgent in the darkest collective cultural

and social anxiety; therefore, it analyzes social, political ills. It sheds light on childhood as the

main source of old fears and worries and to overcome it. He argues that horror allows us to

feel that we are part of a larger whole; it identifies the human instinct to seek control over the

malevolent powers of the irrational and the supernatural (qtd in Magistrale 23). This is evident

with Paul Sheldon character who recalls his childhood memories and encounter with a bird in

a cage that symbolizes his own fear of being trapped.

Bernard G. Gallagher studied King’s allegorical tendency in prose, ʽ the work of horror

provides a vehicle for the metaphoric expression of terror at some every day event which

normally masks its horribleness behind a mundane face (qtd. inMagistrale 23). King attempts

to present the villain in the horror novel as an ordinary man ∕woman who holds normal

occupations, for instance, Annie Wilkes‘s character is a nurse while Paul Sheldon is a writer.

1.2.6 Types of Horror

According to Stephen king, there are three types of horror that determine the framework

of the story. The first type is the Frankenstein monster. This creature becomes a cultural icon

because it represents the flawed nature of human in terms of denying any differences that

reside in others and refusing to take any responsibility of one’s own actions. The second type

is Dracula who is the embodiment of western fear of sexuality. Therefore, any kind of sexual

indulgence is punished with violence and death. Magistrale explains that king employs

sexuality as a metaphor for the moral downfall of characters in the novel. He further explains
 Medjeouri 28

that king thinks that sexual manipulation can only leads to evil. The third type is Dr. Jeckyll

/Mr .Hyde. This form of archetype inspires many modern psychological gothic tales

(Magistrale29). King insists on using the second and the third types to create Annie’s

character. In the first pages of the novel, Paul compares the artificial respiration as an attempt

of rape. This depiction foreshadows the tragic events that will happen to the character. It says

“her lips were clamped down over his again ,lips as dry and dead as strips of salted leather

,and she raped him full of her again”(2). According to the third person narrator, the character

is the embodiment of death and dryness and her act signifies power over the character.

Additionally, the third type is Dr. Jekyll /Mr. Hyde, which demonstrates a schizophrenic

character. Annie’s personality is questionable and this because she is sometimes a carrying

and loving nurse to Paul, but sometimes she exhibits a malicious behavior towards him. She is

depicted as the changing weather. He says “no, he whispered. Anger the moon which brought

the tide.” (21). Annie‘s behaviors shifts from admiring her favorite writer to making him

drink rinse- water just because she does not like his latest book.

1.3 Literary Approaches

1.3.1Freudian psychoanalysis theory

It is widely understood that psychoanalysis is a therapy that relies on the interaction of

the conscious and the unconscious in the mind. The psychologist Sigmund Freud develops a

method that explains mental illness through the interaction between the therapist and the

patient. This encounter encourages the expression of repressed emotions and feelings that are

detrimental to the individual. Furthermore, Freud explores the notion of the unconscious and

its role in a person’s life. He claims that the unconscious contains traumatic experiences and

hidden desires that shape a person‘s character .He also subdivides human’s personality into

three levels which are the ego, the superego and the id (Barry 97-98). In this respect, the

unconscious mind represents a vault, which contains traumatic experiences and childhood
 Medjeouri 29

memories that the individual suppresses. Later on these experiences find an outlet in the form

of dreams and slips of the tongue.

1.3.2 The Freudian slip

The individual ideas and thoughts seek to find an outlet through means of expression,

bubbling and jokes. For example, meaningless mistakes that include slips of the tongue and

pen carry hidden messages from the unconscious. Similarly, Freud remarks that jokes are not

innocent means of comedy; nevertheless, they contain unconscious feelings of fear, love and

dislike that parallel with every day’s life. According to Freud, jokes that deal with taboos

incite strong emotions. As a result, it finds release in jokes as a socially acceptable conduct

(33). Although the conscious mind controls the behavior of the individual, it sometimes slips

from the subconscious mind unintentionally in the form of jokes or gesture and words.

1.3.3 The Structure of the Mind

There are three parts of personality, which are the ego, id and the superego. Firstly, the

ego is the logical part of the mind that responds to the external surrounding, and it makes the

individual accommodate to a set of morals and values. The ego is the conscious mind that

comes from the id to control it unconsciously. Secondly, the id, which is the primitive instinct

that insists on indulging in selfish, desires and needs. Thirdly, the superego is a part that

develops as the child realizes that he is not the center of universe. It is the authoritative voice

of parents and caretakers, society. The superego aims to perfection, and it offers certain

guidelines to the individual to recognize between right and wrong (39). Although this form of

development was not new, Freud provided a comprehensive explanation to human

personality.

1.3.4Sexual Development
 Medjeouri 30

In Three Essays on Sexuality of 1905, Sigmund Freud remarked that both neuroses and

hysteria come from repressed sexual drive. He continues to mention the disturbed behaviors

that occur to the individual .First, there are the inverts, which attracted for the same sex.

Second, there are perverts, who have a sexual drive towards body parts while fetishist directed

their libido towards inanimate objects (35).These concepts identify the perversion and the

deviation that occur to the individual .

Freud claimed that sexual development occurs between the ages of six and eight years

old.He categorized the sexual development into three stages. The first stage is the oral stage,

in which the child starts to suck his mother‘s breast and his thumb. This activity becomes a

source of both food and content.Second, the anal stage is a stage when the child starts to

control the bladder and bowels .Third, the phallic stage focused on the genitals (35). These

stages demonstrate the process of children’s development to adulthood; therefore, a healthy

transition leads to a healthy adulthood.

1.3.5 Castration

Castration is an implemented belief that the child’s mother had a penis and the father

castrates her. As a result, the child starts to fear the same fate .Castration resembles the

Oedipus complex. It has long –term effects on the child’s future .Thus, the psychological

effects varies from denial, displacement and lost (Ward, 4). In other terms, the fear of

castration is a metaphor for the anxiety and fear that the child undergoes during development.

1.3.6Theory of Neurosis

According to Stanley Rachman, the emotional state of the individual influence the

physiological response .He illustrated that fear is a mixture of autonomic, disturbance and

avoidance behavior (qtd in Gossop 1). These are elements of neurosis, which provide a

comprehension to the psychological state of mind. Furthermore, according to Freud, fear and

anxiety are different concepts. Firstly, there two types fear, which are the rational fear and the
 Medjeouri 31

irrational fear. The rational fear is when a person is vulnerable to an external danger while the

irrational is illogical, and it brings no threat to the individual. Secondly, anxiety related to

certain situations while fear directed to objects. Thus, anxiety is a subjective condition, which

linked to the personal understanding of the individual (qtd in Bentadaj and Becheneb,

23).This explains the abnormal behavior of individual, which comes from anxiety and fear.

1.3.7Stylistics

According to Richard Bradford, stylistics assists the researcher to differentiate between

literary texts in terms of features. In stylistics, language allows us to articulate .Thus, it raises

questions in regards to the relationship between the way that language is used in the real

world and its context and purpose .Also, it defines the use of linguistic structure(xi-xii). This

approach allows the researcher to examine literary work in terms of style and language.

1.3.8Character

A character is a fictional personage that exists within the fictional work. The story

provides a physical description; however, with the emergence of modernist and postmodernist

novels, it shifts from the physical appearance to the psychological makeup to determine the

character’s motivation (Quinn72).Both the physical depiction and the thoughts of the

character allow an access into the character’s feelings and personality. Moreover, characters

have a set of values and capabilities, which extracted from their discourse and action. In

literature, characters are unchangeable, or they have a life experience, which ultimately

change those (Abrams42).Indeed, the literary character’s description did not surpass the

physicality .It was until the late nineteenth century that character’s description went deeper.

1.3.9 Characterization

According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Baldick explained

characterization “ Characterization [is the] representation of persons in narrative or dramatic

works .This may include direct methods like the attribution of qualities in description or
 Medjeouri 32

commentary ,and indirect (or dramatic ) methods inviting readers to infer qualities from

characters action, speech ,or appearance ...”(48)This definition demonstrates how the unique

attributes of characters such as discourse, physical appearance and personality provide a

distinguish features to the characters; therefore, it gives them a real-like description.

Furthermore, there are two methods to establish a character with distinctive traits.The

first method called ‘the dramatic method’, which means the author shows and presents the

character’s talk and act leaving the interpretation completely to the reader .The second

method is ‘telling’ .In this method, the author provides a personal voice in telling the

characters motives and qualities (Abrams, 43).It is apt to the writer to either show, or tell the

reader about the character’s motive, or inner thoughts.

1.3.10 Point of view

Point of view is a term referred to the position, in which a story is told .There are two

used types of narrative, which are the first –person narrator and the third person narrator .The

first type of narration allows the author to have an access to the ideas of the story‘s

protagonist .However, the first-person narrator is limited because the opinion of others is

excluded, and the first –person narrator is considered subjective. However, the third –person

narrator has a virtual omniscience and s/he privileged to the thoughts of other characters

through dairies and incidents (Childs and Fowler 182).In other terms, the point of view

provides information about the characters motive and impulses, and the how much access the

reader has is determined by the type of narration.

1.3.11 First- Person Narrator

The protagonist tells the story from his ∕hers point of view. This perspective has an influence

on readers because it is the only voice, which readers identify with specifically if the

protagonist tells his own story. Although the first person narrator keeps the story in the “here

and now”, she does not provide an objective and critical opinion towards issues in the story
 Medjeouri 33

(Gallant and Eagles, 1-2). In this respect, readers have a limited access to the ideas and

feelings of characters.

1.3.12 Third –Person Narrator

Mark O’Connell argues that a third-person narrator evokes reader’s empathy because it

offers a variety of character’s perspectives (Gallant and Eagles2).This variety of point of

views provide a deep understanding to the character both feelings and emotion, and it can

deny, or confirm a certain impression about the character. Furthermore, the participants of the

actionsrefer with pronouns such as him, her, and them. The third-person narrator‘s divided

into three categories as follows:

 Third –Person Objective is when a neutral witness (Meyer, 7) witnesses a situation.

This type of narration is objective; therefore, the reader will not have the personal and

biased impression of the observer.

 Third –person Omniscient is a narrator, who knows everything about the character’s

motives and feelings; as a result, s∕ he is able to interpret the actions of characters

(7).This narrative has a god –like quality, where the observer knows about the past,

present, and even the future of both events.

 Third-Person Limited is a narrator, who retells the story from one-person perspective

(7). This .This type of narrator can limit the depiction of characters because s∕ he a

narrowed scope into the events of the story.

Conclusion

This chapter is devoted to the key terms, which related to the gothic literature and horror

fiction. Thus, the focus of the first chapter was mainly to identify the terminology in Gothic

and Horror literature, which are terms can be used separately .Also, it provides a historical

overview of the development of the genre, and how it became a work worth of study. In

addition, it addresses the horror fiction as a subgenre to gothic literature. It focuses on the
 Medjeouri 34

elements of gothic . It provides the development of horror fiction as independent from gothic

literature. Moreover, it studies American horror fiction and Stephen king‘s role in making

horror fiction recognizable by literary critics. Finally, the chosen approaches provides the

necessary analysis.
 Medjeouri 35

Chapter Two: The Conventional Elements and Deviation in “Misery” Commented [U5]: Font size should be 12. Titles of
chapters should be centered.

Introduction

This study will have two sections, and the first section will address the conventional

elements in “Misery” in terms of the setting and the character‘s description .Thus, the study is

descriptive and it will be based on the analysis of the novel and the interpretation of the

researcher. This study will provide samples from the novel in data collection. The second

section, it examines the deviation in the novel in terms of the portrayal of the male and the

female‘s characterization. Also, it examines stylistically the use of bold language and

metaphors,which provides the male‘s protagonist choice of words to express his ideas and

emotions.

2.1 The Conventional Characteristics in “Misery”

2.1.1 The American Setting

Most of king stories take place in a small settings where it represents the rural American

life style of the working class. For King, small-towns evokes isolation from the city life

,which mirrors capitalism with its disadvantages .Thus, the city is the source of poverty and

corruption of the individual ,and the city citizens lacks certain values to help them face evil.

Moreover, the small-town location protects its inhabitants because of the secluded nature of

its geography; the small-town society is secluded and secretive one because it has no

submissive nature to the outside “king seems to understand intuitively that small – town

Maine environment is capable of destroying individuals. because of its encrusted isolation

,pressures to confirm ,and lack of compassion” and the harsh winter in these town forces its
 Medjeouri 36

inhabitants to live secluded life (Magistrale,48).the American gothic distinguishes itself from

the English gothic through the setting because it does share the gothic history .Thus, it

presents the American setting ,which familiar to the reader. In addition, the setting of Misery

is a typical rural area in Sidewinder, Colorado, and Paul car accident happens because of the

unexpected snowstorm.

2.1.2 The American Gothic Tradition

Stephen king‘s stories take place in small town geography where the plot integrates

with the setting. King‘s fiction resembles Poe’s horror tradition since he examines major

themes such as: the nuclear family, the authority of the writer, American values and security,

which have nostalgic feelings towards the past. In Stephen King’s Gothic, John Seas argues

that king’s canon reinvents the gothic tradition and he takes it back to New England. Thus,

king’s texts depict the landscapes of American authors such as Howthrone and Lovercraft.

The setting is one of the key elements in gothic literature, which leaves a psychological scare.

Therefore, the environment influences character’s emotions and actions. In King‘s writing, he

creates mental depth through the use of symbols. The setting becomes a figure projects the

external landscape (Seas, 158).king‘s Settings reminds the reader of pervious American gothic

tales where the individual faces the perils of the exterior world.

Clive Bloom explains that gothic landscapes demonize the character through the repetitive

settings of graveyards and medieval settings that connect the individual with the supernatural

powers; therefore, it has sentimental and sublime effects. Another element is the grotesque,

which is the use of bodily function that suggests terror. In addition, the traditional

representation of women as victims of a patriarchal manipulation and abuse symbolizes the

external and internal conflict of the characters (261). In this respect, King uses the gothic

elements to arouse fear within the reader because of the disturbing environment .Thus, the

setting might not be the medieval castle, but it affects the character’s mood because of the
 Medjeouri 37

limited space, which expresses a limited freedom of movement. Also, King female character

is the opposite of the traditional gothic victim because she claims power and dominance from

the male victim.

Bernard Gallagher argues that Stephen king has an allegorical approach, which aims torepel

the reader. He violates the cultural norms to evoke shock; however, he does not use the

Supernatural elements .Instead, he examines the political, economical and psychological

Sphere .while Vernon Hyles notices king’s grotesque in present-day society, which he calls it

“the new Gothicism” ,which includes the sense of alienated world .Natalie Schroederbelieve

That king aims to discuss our fear of death and encourages us to accept as it is the

naturalprocess (qtd in Hoppenstand and Browne 17).King simulates the American gothic

tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne biblical illusions when Annie compares Paul to a God, who

breathes life within the characters

2.1.3 Nostalgic settings

King settings are “complete, mundane, comfortable world with name products and

familiar language […] a world like our own whose repletion of surface is disavowal of its real

ephemerality” (qtd in Badley42). King adapts American naturalism with popular culture.

Thus, he organizes the characters with the setting mixed images of advertisement, brand

names and television (Badley42).Paul keeps going back to past experience while Annie keeps

going back to her laughing place .Therefore, both characters have nostalgic feelings .They

keep remember the past ,or in Annie’s case the Memory Lane book because it us familiar .

In the recollection of memories, there is no chronological order, which is an element in

postmodern canon. It transforms the solid ego into an elastic one .According to the

psychology of postmodern, history is relative, subjective and non-linear .The ability to go

back in time is possible through memory because of the nostalgic attachment. ‘King’s
 Medjeouri 38

landscapes are haunted with the debris of the accumulated, corrupt past and the future is ever

in doubt’ (Badley, 43).

King chooses forgetting American settings, has a historical significance. These places

evoke nostalgic sentiments .Therefore; it continues to have value with time. It focuses on the

scenery, which creates an excess that resembles the gothic setting. Because gothic has a

nostalgic nature, it regresses through the recapture of spiritual energy with its hunted spaces.

The examination of the past allows the individual to be born again (Badley, 44-45).Paul

represents nostalgia because of his romantic Victorian novels, but he seeks to produce a

postmodernist work Fast Cars .However, Annie, who is obsessed about the romantic heroine

Misery Chastain forces him to rewrite the novel, and to burn Fast Cars. In this respect, she

keeps him a prisoner of the past, it is through the past that Paul born again.

2.1.4 Paul’s Room

Most the events of the story take place in Annie’s spare room where she keeps him in

isolation from the rest of the world. However, his only consolation is Annie’s television and

radio, which are under the supervision of Annie.Annie keeps Paul a prisoner in a room with

one window, which overviews on her barn, and in these passages his reaction towards the

place “Alone in Annie Wilkes‘s house, locked in his room .looked in his bed .The distance

between her and Denver was like...well, like the distance between the Boston Zoo and Africa”

(28).In this passage, Paul claustrophobic environment is evident due to the choice of words

such as ‘alone’, ‘locked’, ‘room’, which expresses Paul environment resemblance to the

gothic setting. In addition, he considers the room as extinction to his personal space. Thus, he

feels agitated whenever she seats near him.

In this passage, the character describes his surrounding:

 Medjeouri 39

For the first time in weeks -it felt like years –he was able to look at

geography different from that of his room with its unchanging verities –blue

wallpaper, picture of the Arc detriomphe , the long ,long month of February

symbolized by the boy sliding down hill on his sled (he thought that his mind

would turn to that boy’s face and stoking each time January became February

,even if he lived to see that change of months another fifty times).He looked in to

his new world as eagerly as he had watched his first movie Bambi as a child(49).

In the second passage, Paul observes Annie‘s living room, and starts to realize the period of

time he was a prisoner. He wonders inside Annie’s house, which suggests that the character

starts to demonstrate rebellion against his tormentor with the images of the Arc detriomphe,

which symbolizes the victory of French with the boy, who slides on the hill in the colander

symbolize Paul triumph over Annie.

The American gothic explores different landscapes from the British gothic. For example,

the American novel includes landscapes of the frontiers, which have a historical significance.

It also includes puritan heritage and slavery issues, the fear of monarchy. It is all these factors,

which are fundamental elements in the gothic novel. The American gothic explores dark room

instead of dark castles, and it focuses on the conflict between the society and the individual

(Smith 3, 5).In this respect, King’s home town Maine is the setting of puritan settlers, and

since the setting of story is in Colorado near the Rockies mountains, it includes the secludes

history of the frontiers. Thus, it is a home for Annie and a prison for Paul.

2.1.5 Winter and Snowstorms

After Paul finishes his new novel Fast Cars, he decides to celebrate with a drink and a cigar.

Later on, he asks the waiter about the weather, who informs that the storm will pass; however,

the blizzard with the strong wind led him to have a car accident in an isolated road.
 Medjeouri 40

Also, Paul enters into a state of hibernation because of his shattered legs and he is under pain

killer most of the time ,which puts him into sleep most of the time; therefore, winter

symbolizes obscurity and lowliness , and it isolates the character from the rest of the world.

On the other hand, Paul feels the imprisonment, “the sunlight slanting into the kitchen was

strong, and bright gold .Shadows of prison bars”. (King165) In this respect, Paul describes the

outside world as the place for freedom while Annie’s house as the prison, which deprives him

from it.

The winter is a fundamental factor because it shapes the Main natives consciousness

and it explains the cold reception of American small –town inhabitants towards strangers. In

general, King has a mixed opinion towards the small-town setting in his fiction. On the other

hand , it examines the group mentality ,which the natives tend to have , but on other hand

most of his fictional characters are from small-town setting ,and they represent individuality,

dignity and courage , which are characteristics shape the image of a hero that allow them to

fight evil(Magistrale,48). It is worth to mention that Both Paul and Annie are not originally

from Sidewinder. Paul is from New York City while Annie is from California; therefore, they

are both from the city, and they are outsiders to town. As the city represents chaos and

corruption, the characters are morally dysfunctional. Paul is an alcoholic writer while Annie is

a formerNurse and a serial killer with a mental illness. Annie’s neighbors ‘the Rodman’s

’dislikes Annie proves the view of small –town inhabitants towards outsiders

They were miles from the neighbors who, Annie said, did not like her. What was

the name Boynton? No, Rodman. That was it .Rodman. Moreover, how far from

town? Not too far, surely .He was in circle whose diameter might be as small as

fifteen miles, or as large as forty-five. Annie Wilkes house was in that circle,

theRodman’s, and downtown Sidewinder, however pitifully small that might be…

(36).
 Medjeouri 41

Annie tells Paul that theRodman family dislike her and even make rumors about her to make

her live; therefore, it suggests that they the town inhabitants do not expect Annie because

she is a stranger to the town.

King takes the American landscapes, which are familiar to the American reader, and he

turns it into unfamiliar setting. This difference happens because of juxtaposition of the

scenery .For example; King uses the weather climate as another factor, which the characters

have to face. The characters in The Shining trapped inside The Overlook Hotel because of

the snowfall .The same reason with Paul Sheldon, who faces a hard winter in the Rocky

Mountains of Colorado, which adds to the torture of the character. King is familiar of the

Main weather; therefore, he writes lengthy narratives that demonstrates the hardship of

winter. In fact, Paul compares Annie’s unpredicted behavior to the weather. Annie is violent

and cruel .Therfore, the setting defines the story and it analyzes the character reaction in a

limited space (Magistrale 51-52).the environment plays a significant in the novel, and the

first words that Paul speaks of is about the light and darkness that occupy his vision .It is

because of Paul dark surrounding that he thinks that he is in danger.

Maine geography and spirit exist in King Fiction because it joins the personality of the

setting with the theme of the story to produce a strong ambivalence .King examines the ideal

and evil that lurks within small towns (Magistrale,63). Since Maine is the hometown of the

author, he constantly writes about it as the setting of most of his stories, and Colorado

resembles Maine in terms of geography and culture. Thus, King represents a familiar

archetype to retell past tales with modern perspective. It explains the familiarity of his setting

that varies from the suburban area to American small-towns like Castle Rock, Maine, and

Libertyville, Pennsylvania, which gives a mundane effect (Badley 37).Therefore, he organizes

the characters with the setting mixed images of advertisement, brand names and television

(Badley 42).Paul keeps going back to past experience while Annie keeps going back to her
 Medjeouri 42

laughing place .Therefore, both characters have nostalgic feelings .They keep remember the

past ,or in Annie’s case the Memory Lane book because it us familiar.

2.1.6 The Individual vs. Society

King depicts the modern struggles of post-modern man in the face of the American

corruption, social and personal issues such as alcoholism and drug addiction. These are

factors, which concern the American society .Moreover; King focuses on the individual

against the corrupted society. According to king, the individual, who develops survival skills

and has faith to preserve his values is able to fight the dangerous world ‘king essentially

affirms a fundamental American archetypes and myth: that the American has always

possessed potential to rise above the corruption of the past’ (Badley49-50). It is due to Paul

survival skills that he survives Annie, and his ability to examine her moods allows him to

surpass it. This theme of man against society is present within the works of Nathanial

Hawthorne. Paul represents individualism and creativity whereas Annie represents the societal

pressure to conform specifically when she forces him to burn his novel because it is not

sophisticated.

In Stephen King’s Gothic, John Seas argues that king’s canon reinvents the gothic tradition

and he takes it back to New England. Thus, king’s texts depict the landscapes of American

authors such as Hawthorne and Lovecraft. The setting is one of the key elements in gothic

literature, which leaves a psychological scare. Therefore, the environment influences

character’s emotions and actions. In King‘s writing, he creates mental depth through the use

of symbols. The setting becomes a figure projects the external landscape (Seas, 158).king‘s

Settings reminds the reader of pervious American gothic tales where the individual faces the

perils of the exterior world since New England had a puritan heritage while the Rockies is in

the frontiers.

2.1.7 The Gothic Uncanny

 Medjeouri 43

Angela Carter claims that H. P.Lovecraft relies on geography to present the uncanny in

adream while King achieves ‘the uncanny precision’ through the use of reality over

dreams.Thus, king focuses on the ego over the id .Moreover, king’s texts combine realism

andSurrealism to produce an uncanny gothic in which the character’s desires provoked by

theinternal conflict (qtd inSeas158). For example, Annie’s house represents her mental state

becauseIt appears to be a normal farmhouse, but it is only a shell to disguise the woman

madness.Paul wonders outside his room, and he finds a telephone; however, it appears that it

does nothave an exterior like Annie herself “if she might not have any blood vessels or even

internalorgans” (King10) .Annie’s house is merely a representation of her personality; she is a

bodyWithout a substance because she is the physical force that holds Paul hostage.

2.1.8 Domestic Confinement

Seas argues that king‘s “bad place” corresponds with Freud the uncanny, which

representsThe confinement of the domestic setting; as a result, the domestic place transforms

into the dangerous house .For King, the uncanny retells the struggle between the internal and

theExternal .Thus, it is a combination of both the familiar and the unfamiliar, which

evokesfear. It is the horrible history of the setting, which makes the setting gothic. Also, the

past inGothic literature is a ghost, which causes intrusion within the psyche of characters

(167).

InMisery, Paul Sheldon past childhood and memories keep intervene with his present, and

hebecomes the prisoner of both his past life and Annie Wilkes. Unlike Paul, who disposes the

Misery novels to start a new beginning as a contemporary writer, Annie’s reminisces over The

Past because she denies Misery Chastain death, and she chooses to read a romantic novel

which tells a story about the Victorian era. Also, she keeps a book entitles Memory

Lane,Includes articles from news papers about her past murders .Also, it is worth to mention

that Annie has her own laughing place. In contrast, she does not laugh, but she screams.
 Medjeouri 44

2.1.9 The Past and Memory

Paul recalls his childhood memories through dreams. He constantly remembers the

pilling, which he saw in the Revere Beach. The Revere refers to the French word“révérer”.

Paul constantly has dreams about his childhood because it is an escape from Annie’s world,

which proves Carter’s opinion about King’s relevance to Lovecraft’s landscapes. In addition,

location is a fundamental to the character because it mirrors the individual journey from

Displacement to placement in terms of characters intrusion (Seas159).King takes the invasion

of the Setting where the character invasion of places shifts into the mind, and then the

invasion of bodies. Moreover, Annie’s character is the embodiment of past mistakes; she does

not accept the death of the fictional character Misery Chastain because she is “antagonistic to

the very idea of change” (King22) and this evident in her book “Memory Lane”, which she

keeps her past murders.

2.1.10 The Premature Burial

The uncanny exists in the premature burial, which is a gothic element in Poe’s works.

Both Misery Chastain and Paul Sheldon go through the premature burial both literally and

metaphorically. Paul imprisonment resembles Scheherazade’s situation, which Paul

constantly alludes to it. He keeps fantasizes about the dead trooper, who Annie killed coming

back to life. This represents Paul’s desire for resurrection and the fear of false burial. The

gothic fiction studies this type of non-final death cases .Therefore, Paul faces two parallels the

fake burial and the real burial (Seas113). The premature burial is an American gothic element

evokes the deepest concerns of individual, which lies between life and death.

In addition, king exemplifies the uncanny in which Paul returns to the uncomfortable

familiar while Annie keeps him hidden from the rest of the world. For instance, the uncanny

represents detached body parts, which is the primary violent act in Misery .Annie punishes
 Medjeouri 45

Paul by amputating his left foot (Seas247). Annie cuts Paul’s foot as it is a trivial act, and she

keeps repeating that it is an ordinary thing “she picked up his foot .Its toes were still spasm.

She carried it across the room. By the time she got to the door they had stopped moving”

(Seas247). Paul is literally in misery; he suffers the pain and the agony “who shrieked and

writhed in the charred and blood soaked bed, his face a deathly white” (King, 139). Annie

continuous dismemberment of Paul transforms his body into unfamiliar and distorted thing.

Thus, Paul’s body becomes the uncanny (Seas112).In other words, king creates the uncanny

from unknown settings into the body; therefore, the character’s body becomes the object of

intrusion instead of the setting.

King recreates the subject of resurrection from the body to mind. It is the survival

instincts, which motivates Paul to face his captive. Annie resurrects Paul, who resurrects

Misery’s novel. The gothic doubles exists within the intense relation between the two

characters as it examines reversed roles in fiction. Thus, the victim is a writer, and the

monster is a female reader (Seas123). Resurrection comes from the desire to revive the dead,

and Paul resurrects Misery as Annie resurrects in the car accident. Annie holds Paul prisoner

in a room, which symbolizes the grave .Although he is alive, he is a prisoner of his own body

and mind, and to the world he seize to exist.

In Sigmund Freud‘s The Uncanny, he explains that fear arouses from live burial, which is

an uncanny thing because it is a manifestation between the hideous world of death and the

living world. This kind of manifestation resembles the individual‘s hidden memory and the

world of dead, which should be buried. Thus, it evokes feelings of disturbance and disgust

within the individual. This fear was justified before the rise of scientific rationality; the belief

in ghosts was common. Moreover, the premature burial symbolizes the intrusion of the dead

into the living’s world (qtd in Andrew Manghan, 1). The premature burial symbolizes

different meanings in king’s novel .Thus, it means the metaphorical death, which means that
 Medjeouri 46

Paul’s car accident is a near death experience, but Annie revives him and instead of liberation

,he is buried in a room where he cannot move ,and Annie the Angle of death forces him to be

on her command. For Paul the brilliant writer, forcing him to rewrite his fiction is an

intellectual death. Also, Paul is buried in his mind because he keeps remember childhood

memories, which he buried, but Annie’s torture evokes.

Angela Wright argues that the gothic novel focuses on violence and repulsion while the

reader becomes passive because he cannot act upon it .Thus, he becomes also a victim to the

fiction. Furthermore, premature burial is a common theme among gothic novelists, who

combine space and imprisonment to provoke fear. For instance, Edgar Allen Poe discusses

premature burial as a terrible event that causes the distress of the body and mind because it is

the individual’s burial before the death. This corresponds with Edmund Burke ideas about the

effects of confinement and darkness within the individual ‘vacuity, Darkness,Solitudeand

Silence ’. This termshinder live burial (qtd in Mangham, 3).This abstracts evoke loneliness of

the grave; therefore, it is necessary to quote these passages:

Yerrnnn umber whunnn fayunnnn. But sometimes the sounds –like the pain –faded, and then

there was only the haze .He remembered darkness solid had come before the haze

.Did that mean he was making progress ?Let there be light […] ,and the light was

good ,and so in the darkness? He didn’t know the answers to any of these

questions […] he wished he was dead ,but the pain-soaked haze that filled his

mind […]which looked to him like the single jutting fang of a buried monster

[…] this memory circled and circled […]Sometimes the sounds stopped.

Sometimes he stopped […] Darkness .Then the pain and the haze […]

although the pain was constant, it was sometimes buried […] (king 8- 10).

It is noticeable in this quotation, the use of words like : ‘sounds’, ‘darkness’ , ‘solid ‘,

‘dead’, ‘ pain’ , ‘ buried’, ‘stopped’ ‘haze’ , which suggest that the character is trapped in a
 Medjeouri 47

dark place. Paul hears Annie‘s voice, but he cannot listen to what she says because it is only

sounds above him. Also, he wishes that he was dead, but he is not because he feels the pain.

This means that Paul is in between death and life; he is buried alive with the pain in

darkness. In addition, Paul‘s buried memories come back to him with the childhood

monster.

2.2Gothic Characters and The Setting

Miseryadopts the gothic dramatic element in which every character claims a certain

role. For example, the main characters are Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes who play multiple

positions that constitute: nurse and patient, the author-reader, prisoner-guard, victim and

guard. These types of relationships reduce the roles of society. Another gothic element which

Sears discusses is the individual against the other. The novel addresses the relationship of the

writer and the reader. The writer turns into a reader and the reader turns into an author

(Seas120-122). Paul the writer is the embodiment of individuality and the creative force,

which seeks to express personal development against Annie, who represents the other, which

suppresses change and art. Hence, both Paul and Annie are the gothic representation of good

versus evil, man verses society, and madness verses sanity.

2.2.1 Annie Wilkes’s House and Isolation

Tony Magistrale thinks that king uses the gothic atmosphere since “his Gothic

landscapes are animated by a terrible potency that appears out of all proportion to the small

vulnerable humans who are held within its bondage”. (17)King‘s Gothic tradition continues to

be present in postmodern works because of the everlasting effects that recreate the past with

the present.

The house symbolizes stability and security for the individual. It preserves one’s self

and it protects him ∕her from hostile environment. It organizes behavioral patterns to form a

routine; however, it has a confinement quality to be a burial space. (Aureli and Gludiei 1)
 Medjeouri 48

Annie’s house is in an isolated area of Colorado, Sidewinder. It is a spatial setting, which

encloses and protects the individual from outside danger; however, it retreats to a form of

isolation.

Audrone Raškauskienė believes that the works of Anne Radcliffe depicts the home as

an extension to the female character’s personality while the room denotes a sense of privacy

and seclusion of the mind from the external world. (35, 43)Noticeably, Paul‘s impression of

Annie’s house is not different from his opinion about her personality. For example, Paul starts

to feel better to investigate inside the house for an outlet; however, he finds the house doors

looked, and in Paul’s statements, there is a similar quality between Annie and her home “He

smelled something on her breath, something from dark and sour chambers inside her,

something like dead fish”. (King100)Also, Paul’s room becomes a sanctuary to rest his body

and thoughts from Annie’s madness .Since Paul’s encounter with Annie, he describes the

repulsive smell of food and her impulsive eating habits; this remark denotes Annie’s

relationship with Paul. Although Paul promises her to rewrite the Misery novel for her in

exchange of his freedom, it is not enough because she wants the books with her favorite

author. Thus, she has an open appetite for murder, food, and reading, which can never be

satisfy. In this passage, Paul describes Annie’s kitchen:

This was an old fashioned room with bright linoleum on the floor, magnets

surprisingly ,they all looked ,like candy[…].There were big window over the

sink and they would let in a lot of light even on a cloudy days […] it could

have been a cherry kitchen but wasn’t. The open garbage can overflowed onto

the floor and emitted the warm reek of spoiling food, but that wasn’t the only

wrong […] it was perfume de Wilkes; psychic ordure of obsession. (King112)

This passage demonstrates Paul’s reaction to Annie’s house; she experiences one of her

mental depression, which makes her leave Paul alone for unspecific period of time .Paul
 Medjeouri 49

cannot open the door; therefore, he looks for food to find Annie’s kitchen in a mess. His

depictionresembles his opinion about her mental status. Thus, he thinks that if she takes

medication “let in a lot of light”, it will improve her mental state “it could have been a

cherry”. Also, heremarks that the smell of the room resembles her smell. Thus, Annie’s house

is an extension to her alienated personality and psychosis condition.

The gothic aesthetics highlights the importance of locations in the literary tradition to

the extent that it overwhelms the character’s role in the narrative. Thus, it defines the gothic

novel, and the character’s moods and personality. In the gothic tradition, space evokes

sentiments of solitude and enclosure. Also, it adds psychological elements of madness and

evil, which hunts the gothic locations constantly to heighten the tension between

characters.(Romaneski16-17) Annie’s house is far away from town or neighbors ,who can

provide help to Paul “things… isolated like pieces of cloth”.(King36)Paul describes Annie as

“ woman full of tornados”(King48) emphasizes the unpredicted behavior of the character

,which makes a constant danger .

2.2.2 The Horror of The Grotesque

It is a visual element that shifts a familiar object, event or an experience into an

ambiguous experience, which changes the perception of the reader .It aims to depict the

distortion and the monstrosity that exists in a world of disorder. In other terms, Edward and

Graulund explain that it is “the experience of something being both foreign and familiar

engenders the emotive responses”. (qtd in Bryant31) King distorts reality through the

character’s hallucination and dreams, which makes it impossible to differentiate between

reality and imagination. For instance, disturbed imagery, which evokes fear and disgust are

present in this passage:

Slowly, apparently unaware of what she was doing, she began to suck the rat’s

blood from her fingers. Paul jammed his teeth together and grimly told himself
 Medjeouri 50

that he would not vomit,would not, and would not. ‘It’s like waiting for the end

of one of those chapters- plays ’.She looked around suddenly, the blood on her

mouth like lipstick. (King109)

This quotation describes a horrific accident, which Paul observes that Annie is in

depression , and she catches a rat in a trap ,which she calls it a “poor thing”, but she breaks his

body and the blood patters .Although the scene is repulsive and obnoxious, Paul compares the

blood on her lips to a lipstick provides both disgust and fascination.

The grotesque has psychological effects, which includes humor and horror. This

paradox feeling creates the absurdity of the events, which chaos, alienation and doom are

predominant in the story. Thus, it creates a light atmosphere in a horrific environment.

(Bryant 34)In this respect, King‘s humor has a sarcastic tone to it, and it reliefs the reader

from the intensity of the situation. Paul cannot express his opinion about Annie, but he had his

internal comments, which has a sense of humor “Absolutely not, my Pepsi is you Pepsi .She

twisted the cap of the bottle off and drank deeply .Paul thought: chug-a-lug, chug-a-lugmake

ya want to hollerhi-de-who was that? Roger Miller, right? Funny the stuff your mind coughed

up.Hilarious. (King167) Paul is with Annie in the basement where she plans to kill him and

herself in case the police finds out about the policeman‘s murder, which depicts Annie’s

strange behavior when she asks him to drink his Pepsi because she needs the sugar, Paul

remembers a song.

Paul makes fun of the situation because it is unbelievable. Commented [U6]: Is this a paragraph ?!!!

2.2.3 The Gothic Double in Annie Wilkes’s Character

The Gothic double or the Doppelgänger is a term describes the internal duality that exists in the human Commented [U7]: Indent this paragraph.

nature, which examines the internal struggle between the good and evil that reside within the

individual. Moreover, the Gothic novel explores the dark side of the individual’s psyche in the

Gothic double, and Heidi Strengell defines it as “…refers to the essential duality within a
 Medjeouri 51

single character on the further presumption that duality centers on the polarity of good and

evil”. (qtd in Winthaegan 12) King highlights the change of moods that Annie undergoes,

which makes her abnormal and strange. Paul describes her smile as a maternal grim, which

combines the paradox of the character .Although Annie declares her love to her favorite

writer, she also declares her hatred “I‘ll kill you if you don’t”. (93) Annie has a monstrous

side, which is ready to kill at any time.

In addition, Paul confronts Annie of the murder of the policeman, who came to search for

him, and he sees the evil within her “There was craziness in that grin, but he saw something

else in it he saw something else in it –as well something that really frightened him .He saw

conscious evil in it–a demon capering behind her”. (King163)Annie’s double character is

predominant in every situation.

Furthermore, contradiction is a key element in gothic fiction that exists within human

beings. It focuses on the barbaric and the civilized, the individual space and the other it even

mixes chaos with order (Majlingová,6) .This contradiction in Annie’s behavior is present in

her attitudes towards the use of profanity. Although she screams at Paul because he uses it,

she herself uses God’s name in vain when she tries to save him. This passage demonstrates

Annie’s tendency to correct other’s behaviors, but she does not self-discipline:

‘They don’t! She said, giving him a forbidding look ‘what do you think I do when I

go to the feed store in town? What do you think I say? Now Tony, give me a

bag of that effing pigfeed and a bag of that bitchy cow-corn and some of that

christing ear-mite medicine? And what do you think he says to me you’re

effing right, Annie, comin right the eff up?’(9).

In these passages, Annie’s character is disturbed and contradicting, which explains her

mental illness. She gets angry when Paul uses profanity in literature because in Misery‘s

books, he uses a sophisticated language, which mirror the Victorian era that the events of the
 Medjeouri 52

fictional work inspire from. This proves that Annie inability to understand a contemporary

work; it comes from a mind, who wants to escape from its reality.

2.2.4 The Duality in Paul Sheldon

Steven Bruhm states that if the Enlightenment Gothic documents the fear of double and self-splitting Commented [U8]: ?!!!!!

that is the result of repression of desires, King’s Postmodern Gothic documents the fear of

self-splitting that is the result of documentation of writing and representing the self”. (5)

King reflects the classical portrayal of double characters into a modern perspective. King uses

the Gothic double as a representation of repression, which exists within the human nature.

Thus, the existence of the doubles indicates the presences of evil. (7) Annie represents the

Gothic double, and the repressed desires, which she fails to control.

Furthermore, Alexsis Hitchcock claims that Stephen King includes that the Doppelganger,

which has no link to the supernatural in Misery is in the conflict of Paul Sheldon who wants

to leave his former genre to produce more recognizable works. Although Paul despises the

Misery novels, it provides an escape from Annie’s madness. Paul is familiar with the world he

created because it is a part of him, which comes to accept .(25)Paul has drinking and smoking

problems, which he withdrawals after his imprisonment to realize he is a good story writer

after all .Also, Paul has two sides, which cause an internal conflict. The first side wants him to

write great books while the other side wants to satisfy his readers; however, it is through

Annie’s captor that he realizes that he can do both. (Hitchock32) Annie forces Paul to a world

he left, but he starts to perceive writing the Misery novel as an outlet to survive.

Additionally, Paul’s other double is Annie Wilkes, who captors and forces him to rewrite a

book, which he no longer wants to be a part of ;she holds back both literally and

metaphorically to stay in the past. Thus, she reflects the writer’s insecurity and submission to

the reader and the critic. On the other hand, Misery Chastain is a double for Paul because he

puts the fictional character suffers like its creator .In order to revive Misery to satisfy Annie,
 Medjeouri 53

he makes buried alive, which resembles Paul’s captivity in Annie’s house; he is buried alive

in a room.(Hitchock33) Paul ‘s double Misery Chastain survives the live burial and the Burka

bee-Goddess ,which is a character kidnaps Misery .Paul’s fiction and reality interrelate

;however, Paul’s revival to Misery Chastain is a metaphor for his own life since because of

the book ,he is able to survive .

The double is a major gothic factor, which emphasizes the conflict between good and

evil. In Misery, Paul and Annie relationship occupies multiple doubles; however, the roles of

the characters switches gender roles. At the beginning of the novel, Paul compares Annie’s

kiss of life to a rape, which the invasive female mouth invades the male body. In addition, the

relationship shifts from the writer male to the female reader, and the female monster, who

tortures the male victim. However, the double creates the struggle between the outside and the

inside, freedom against imprisonment (Seas123).The struggle between Annie and Paul

correlates with the monster –man relationship.

2.2.5 The Realization of the Superego and the Id

Steven Bruhm highlights King’s fixation on the conflict between the Superego and the

Id has a dynamic effect; however, the Ego represents passivity and submission, which alarms

theunconscious’s male-self of the possible threat. (3)Paul embodies represents the Ego

because he is aware of the amount of destruction that Annie can cause, but he does not

respond. However, Paul’s passivity is because of his addiction on painkillers, which causes

him to be unconscious most of the time; nevertheless, he claims power once he realizes his

addiction, and he shifts to a state of awareness. In contrast, Annie conflict between the

Superego and the Id reflects the contradiction of her speech and acts. Although she screams

At Paul for the use of profanity in his work, she uses them, and she commits horrible murders

to innocent victims.
 Medjeouri 54

Since the concept of the Id represents pleasure and unfulfilled desires, and the superego

represents the ideals and values, which society designs .Therefore, both concepts are

contradictory because the Id aims to strive on the expense of social appropriateness.

(Sigfried2) Annie‘s character demonstrates the conflict between the repressed desires and

values. In addition, the character has strict codes of values, which she imposes on others.

Although she presents herself as a woman of faith, who speaks to God in times of crisis, she

kills patients and innocents without remorse.(Tarigan35)Annie is able to demonstrate acts of

kindness when she helps Paul in the car accident , but her aggressive side dominates her

personality. Thus, Annie’s tendency to be a sexual predator and a killer is in the passage:

You killed him’, Paul said. […]She smiled uneasily. […] ‘Well, I guess it was

something like that […] they’re out to get me, all of them![…] they’d probably says

something crazy like I made a pass at him and he laughed at me and so I killed him![…] and

you know what, I think that just might be a little closer to the truth. (King131-132)

Annie confesses that she killed a man, who used to live with her because he lied about his

profession as an artist, and then when confronted him, he laughed. Annie is irrational person,

and her motifs for murder are evidence. In addition, Paul believes that she made advances on

him. Although she claims that he was her lover, she believes that the police will claim that she

made advances on him. This represents Annie’s repressed desire, which attempts to hide from

the world.

2.3 Characterization of the Main Characters

2.3.1 Annie Wilkes

Annie Wilkes is an American middle-class woman who wears a cross as necklace

to represent herself as religious lady, who wants respect from her society. Annie is a

brilliant woman, who plans strategically to keep Paul prisoner in her isolated house .She

is a qualified nurse, who maintains Paul’s health .Despite the fact that she is a nurse, she
 Medjeouri 55

does not hesitate in killing her patients. Thus, Annie’s intelligence prevents her from

leaving any discriminating evidence, which it helps her in maintain her control over the

disabled Paul (Costa2). In Misery, Stephen king creates a fictional character in

Sidewinder, Colorado, whose obsession with her favorite writer Paul Sheldon and his

fictional protagonist leads her into destructive behaviors.

In addition, Paul describes Annie as a big woman with no signs of femininity; he

compares her to a graven image, which African tribes worship in H. Rider Haggra

works .Paul continues to describe her as:

“the large but unwelcoming swell of her bosom under the gray cardigan sweater

she always wore ,seems to have no feminine curves at all –there was no defined

roundness of hip or buttock or even calf below the endless succession of wool skirt she

wore in the house (she retired to her unseen bedroom to put on jeans before doing her

outside chores ).Her body was big but not generous .There was a feeling about her of

clots and roadblocks rather than welcoming orifices or even open spaces ,areas of

hiatus”(Misery4).

In this passage, Annie‘s body correlates with her disturbing character .She is a

mixture of contradictions between feminine and not feminine, generous and not

generous. In addition, the claustrophobic feeling that she provokes in the character is

evident when he says that she does not possess a welcoming aura.

2.3.2 The Male Gothic in Annie’s Character

Karinna says “what leaves a greater impression on the reader is the twist given to the

common gothic plot of a villainous figure holding a fragile victim in captivity. In this case,

the victim is male, and the victimizer, the updated gothic villain, is a female serial killer”

(119).This unconventional image of a woman, who kills and kidnaps challenges the previous

female protagonist who were victims of violence and rape.Moreover, the events of Misery
 Medjeouri 56

happen in a post-feminist world where the female is no longer the passive role that she once

played in the gothic novel. Paul becomes a victim to the female version of the male villain.

Magistrale highlights that Annie “aggressive impulses are frequently aligned with masculine

images of rape as when she forces Paul to swallow pain medication or silences him when

outsiders on the property are searching for Paul” (91).Then the shift of roles shifts to provide

a new perspective to the traditional plot.

However, both Punter and Byron state that “the male gothic tends to represent the male

protagonist‘s attempt to penetrate some encompassing interior; female gothic more typically

represents a female protagonist attempts to escape from a confining interior” (278). This

description of the female gothic contradicts Annie’s character, who kidnaps the male

protagonist, and keeps him a prisoner in her own house. In king’s novel, it is Paul, who

attempts to escape from his female jailor. Annie embodies masculine traits with the choice of

cloths “ he watched her approach down the hall in her old brow cowboy boots and her blue-

jeans with the key ring dangling from one of the belt-loops and her man’s T-shirt now spotted

with blood”.(King162)This quote depicts the masculine image of Annie with the phallic

symbol of the key. Therefore, she does not only amputate Paul, but she claims his manhood as

hers .Also, Paul compares her to a man “if she went in pants, she went with a wallet stuck in

her hip pocket, like a man”. (156).Thus, Paul is aware of Annie’s strength and phallic nature,

threatens to castrate him.

In addition, the male gothic plot focuses on identity questions and the transgression over

social taboos that include religion, family and law. The portrait of females as victims is vivid

in the gothic male narrative. Usually the female body is the object of male aggressive

behavior, which the writer depicts in detail. In contrast, the female gothic narrative sheds light

on the internal anxiety of the hero, who faces imprisonment by the male, whom represents the

authoritative figure in a great castle or house. This imprisonment represents a journey to the
 Medjeouri 57

female gothic where she gains agency in her life in a patriarchal world. This specific narrative

focuses on suspense rather on horror. As a result, it evokes a limited amount of understanding

within the mind of the reader (Punter and Byron279).This traditional roles that exist within

gothic tales is reversed in King‘s novel .Annie represents the gothic male, who kidnaps a

beautiful maiden either to have her or to her wealth; However, with Annie Wilkes.She

kidnaps Paul to mend him .Then, she keeps him to write a book for his number one –fan.

King quotes passages from John Fowles’s book The Collector, which retells the

imprisonment of a young female artist by Frederick Clegg.In which he recreates the novel plot

.Unlike Fowler’s main character, Annie does not pursue money or romance, but She admires

Paul‘stalent,and she wants him to write the book for her because she saved him..In Misery,

King switches the stereotype of female gothic, which is kidnapped by a tyrannical male gothic

(Magistrale, 116) .It, is worth to mention that king depicts Annie as the most powerful person

in the room because of Paul disability, and she keeps his dependence on her throughout the

novel. Thus, she leaves him without water or medicine to exercise her authority.

Throughout the events, the strong personality of Annie Wilkes is present. Although she the

victim of her own mental illness, she is neither the victim nor the oppressed. She continues to

torture Paul both mentally and physically. In addition, she resembles the masculine image of

villains in the eighteen-century gothic romance. The image of the traditional gothic villain is

concrete in the first pages of the novel, in which she resembles as a rapist. (Magitrale116)Paul

wakes up momentarily from the unconsciousness of an overdose when he finds Annie

attempts to resuscitate him “He smelled her on the onrush of breath she had forced into him

the way a man might force a part of himself into an unwilling woman”(King 9). In this

respect, Annie is the representation of chaos and madness. Although she saves Paul’s life

from the accident, she still keeps him a prisoner like a maiden trapped in a tower.
 Medjeouri 58

Annie Wilkes and Fowle’s Fredinard Clgg’s Caliban are disturbed individuals. Annie’s

personality demonstrates bipolar disorder .At times, she shows Paul love and affection, but

when she is in her depressive manic stage, she shifts to the extreme. Annie is a woman, who is

capable of murder (Magistrale12) .Annie’s dysfunctional behavior portraits, the dark side of

her personality.

2.3.3 Monstrosity in Misery

King fiction shifts the traditional image of the gothic novel, which is the revival of the

dead into the revival of mental disturbance of the individual. This triggers the pursuit of

identity and personal responsibility, which are conventional elements in the Revival .Thus, it

sheds light on the monster within the inside instead of the inhuman monster such as Mary

Shelly‘s Frankenstein . The internal monster provides a journey into the character psyche.

Moreover, the gothic story of the nineteenth century presents an isolated villain in a

gruesome setting with no signs of civilization, which affects evil with the human mind.

However, with king post-modern text, evil of the outside world turns into the psychic

landscapes and the grotesque within the mind (Simpson, Mcaleer, 128). King depicts in his

fiction that the real horror is monster, but it is the human one, which depicts individual

deepest fears .In Misery, the only threat that Paul faces is a former nurse, who used to a

serial killer. Therefore, he uses an ordinary person into a maniac with a saw.

King’s monster comes from an examination of childhood fears and anxieties that disturb

the child at a young age. In King Fiction, fears manifest through paternal abuse, child

neglect and alcoholism. The writer goes back to the child internal struggle against the adult

evil (Gregory, Stobbart7). Paul Sheldon remembers bad childhood in which his father’s

neglect and the insensitive response of his mother towards his tears. Also, Annie treats Paul

as a child, which stresses her position as an abusive mother figure.

 Medjeouri 59

According to Kristeva, monstrosity in horror provokes parallel emotion response within the

character and the reader; however, Noël Carroll believes that the role of the monster is to

cause repulsion and disgust because it violates the natural order. (qtd in Hansen21-22)In this

respect, Annie’s character arouses feelings of fear and disgust within the victim; for example,

Paul vomits and urinates himself when he sees Annie sucks the rat’s blood. This image

demonstrates the monstrosity of the character.

Furthermore, notions of horror are body waste that includes blood, vomit, urine, which are

socially and culturally taboo of filth .Thus, it symbolizes to primitive and barbaric times.

However, it goes back to the mother and child relationship, which both share a bond. (Creed4)

In this respect, Paul and Annie share the bond of a mother-child relationship, but it evokes

horrific feelings since the child is a forty –two man, who faces a serial killer.

2.3.4 The Monstrous Female

Kerry Mallan notices that the female body displays a monstrous attraction, which has an

excess effect .The physical description of the female grotesque transgresses the norms of

femininity .It denies the imposed limitation on the female body; nevertheless, it embraces

transgression (Mallan 3). Mallan explains that the female body can be the representation of

transgression. Casto notices the female grotesque in Annie’s behaviors from raising the bed in

anger to imitating her pet pig (2).This female grotesque is evident in King’s depiction of

Annie when she realizes that the fictional character Misery Chastain dies in the novel “I don’t

want her spirit! She screamed, hooking her fingers into claws and shaking them at him, as if

she would tear his eyes out” (Misery13).In this quotation , Annie‘s aggressive behavior

against Paul starts to demonstrate ,and the metaphor that compares her fingers to a hook adds

a gruesome side to the character.

According to Barbara Creed’s list of female monsters, Freud theory suggests that

castration attributes to the father, who castrates the daughter as an attempt to maintain power
 Medjeouri 60

and agency. Unlike Freud theory, Annie plays the castrator instead of the castrated; therefore,

she has both power and agency. Creed argues that the role of the mother is crucial to have a

physical and psychic separation from the maternal body to gain social abilities (qtd in

Korinna119).Creed disagrees with Freud in terms of the mother’s role in the psychological

and physical separation from the mother. Also, while Annie represents the authoritative

figure, Paul represents the castrated one.

Creed continues to explain that the castrating woman has agency over the man. Her

monstrosity comes from her willing to castrate the weak man. This behavior comes from her

unfulfilled desires either emotionally or physically. Thus, the monstrous female seeks

castration because she is castrated herself. Therefore, she desires revenge of possible sexual

misconduct. However, Annie‘s attitudes toward castration is unexplained, and the only logical

reason which justifies the misbehavior is the mental illness (qtd in Karinna120). Although the

reason behind Annie’s disturbed personality is left to interpretations, Paul has his own

speculation about her: “Paul thought that the occasional moments like this were the most

ghastly of all, because in them he saw the woman she might have been if her upbringing had

been right or the drugs squirted out all the funny little glands inside her had been less wrong

or both” (qtd in Magistrale, 282).Paul thinks that Annie is mentally disturbed because she is

had a difficult childhood or because she is simply mad and in need of medication.

In addition, Annie embodies the feminine monster with all its aspects, which is the

emasculating and castrating woman. She keeps threatening Paul in two different occasions to

amputate him as a punishment with a phallic weapon such as an axe and knife, which

represent phallic symbols. Also, she confesses about her castrating nature when she declares

to Paul that she thought of “cutting off his man-gland” .Therefore, Paul starts to have

castrating anxiety on a daily basis .(Krinna121). In the gothic male narrative, the invasion

occurs to the female body; however, it is Paul‘s body, which is the object of torment.
 Medjeouri 61

Unlike Paul who is identified as the writer, who can write only two kinds of novels good

ones and best –selling novels, Annie description does not go beyond the appearance. She is

big and solid, which qualities threatens weak Paul. This psychical strength assists Annie to

keep Paul in the house. Keesey notices that Paul describes Annie as “deep crevasse”, which

means that Annie represents unknown darkness .Thus; she forces him to lose his identity

.Annie physical appearance is full of magnitude and smells, which foreshadows the psychotic

personality of the character:

Then there was a mouth clamped over his, a mouth which was unmistakably a

woman’s mouth in spite of its hard spitless lips, and the wind from this woman ‘s

mouth blew into his own mouth and down his throat ,puffing his lungs , and when

the lips were pulled back he smelled his warder for the time ,smelled her on the

outrush of the breath she had forced into him the way a man might force a part of

himself the way into unwilling woman , a dreadful mixed stench of vanilla and

chocolate ice-cream and chicken gravy and peanut –butter fudge(9).

In this passage, Paul first impression of Annie is unflattering as he describes her mouthas

dry, hard and parched. Paul compares himself to a woman who faces rape, which puts Annie

in the masculine position, in which she dominates Paul with her physical strength.Also, the

description of Annie’s smell as a combination of food is repulsive to both Paul the reader.

2.3.5 Traits of Psychopaths in Annie Wilkes

Rosa Felesia Debora notices that the speed of thoughts and mood swings are evidence

thatAnnie Wilkes demonstrates symptoms of personality disorder because she commits acts of

violence towards Paul and others. Also, she experiences manic depression; therefore, she

appears to be happy and helpful to Paul then quickly she falls into a state of anger and

sadness. Moreover, Annie experiences a severe depression state when she realizes that the

police will come to search for him “I have this gun, and sometimes I think about using it”
 Medjeouri 62

(king131). Therefore, she thinks about taking her own life. (39)Annie’s mental illness makes

dangerous.

2.3.6 Annie’s Obsession

Annie‘s profession provides with a skill to cater for patient’s needs and wants;

therefore, she manages to keep Paul a prisoner because she has medication. This she is able to

notice small details .For instance, she notices that her prisoner is healthy again, so she decides

to amputate him. Also, she notices that Paul starts to wonder inside the house because an item

has been slightly misplaced. This obsession over small details is the product of a disillusioned

person (Krinna134). Annie’s house resembles her in terms of appearances. It looks like a

normal farmhouse, but it is designed to look like it; for example, Paul tries to use Annie’s

phone, but he discovers that it only a shell and he even describes it as “castrated”. This image

of body without matter continues when Paul describes Annie as an African statue with no

blood or veins. In this passage Annie takes pride in keeping her house neat and clean:

They are always looking for a way to get me, or start a rumor about me .So I

keep everything nice .Keeping up appearances is very , very important .As far

as the barn goes ,it really isn’t much work ,as long you don’t let things pile up

.Keeping the snow from breaking in the roof is the oogiest part(47).

This demonstrates Annie’s world point of view, which is that everyone seeks to get her.

The character puts efforts to her barn clean; therefore, no one will complain about it .This

represent how Annie tries to hide her mental illness from the world.

2.3.7 Paul Sheldon

King presents the protagonist of the novel as a famous author, who is kidnapped by a

crazy fan. Thus, the events of the story lack any existence of supernatural power or ghosts and

vampires. Paul Sheldon is trapped in a car accident in during winter time and instead of being

in a hospital, he finds himself tortured both physically and psychologically on the hands of
 Medjeouri 63

mentally disturbed nurse. However, this predicament leads Paul to self-examination, and it

makes him realize that creativity and imagination are powerful tools for individual survival

(magistrale65).Unlike the supernatural gothic where monsters are unearthly creatures; Annie

is a person suffers a mental illness.

2.3.8 The female Victim in Paul Sheldon

Paul reclaims his masculinity through embracing the feminine side of his personality.

Paul keeps crying whenever he faces a difficult situation .In Annie’s house, He re-connects

with his emotions, and he is able to see Annie’s potential to be good, and he even empathizes

with the tormentor. Moreover, Paul believes that rewriting the Misery novels is a return into

“a state of whoredom”. This statement proves the reversed roles that both characters occupy

in the novel. (Krinna143). In conclusion, Tony Magistrale states that “the expressions of

emotional loss are necessary to the healing process and likewise break from traditional forms

of masculine repression and the redemption of the feminine” (Magistrale, 119).

Although Paul is under Annie’s dominance and the victim of her violence, he utilizes his

feminine traits such listening and observing her behavior to survive her waiting for the perfect

moment to escape.

In these passages, Annie accuses the captive of trading with his talent while Paul has an

internal discussion to explain the reason behind the ending of Misery‘s novels:

Don’t call it that I hate it when you call it that! He looked at her, honestly puzzled.

Call what? When you pervert the talent God gave you by calling it a business .I

hate that. I am sorry. ‘You ought to be, she said stonily ‘you might as well call

yourself a whore.

No Annie, he thought, suddenly filled with fury .I ‘m no whore .Fast cars was

not about being a whore. That‘s what killing that goddamned bitch Misery was

about, now that I think about it .I was driving to the West Coast to celebrate my
 Medjeouri 64

liberation from a state of whoredom. What you did was to pull me out of the wreck

when I crashed my car and stick me back in the crib again .Two dollar straight up,

four dollar I take you around the world (49).

The previous passage demonstrates the emotional state of Paul where he perceives

himselfa prostitute, who risks its moral integrity and in this case the author integrity in

exchange of,a prostitute, who risks its moral integrity and in this case the author integrity in

exchange of money. Paul wants to reinvent, and liberate himself from writing romantic

novels. Thus, hethinks that Annie made him her personal prostitute, which reinforces the

feminine image of Paul’s personality and the image of Annie as a masculine figure, who calls

Paul a ‘whore’because he peruses writing for a living, which means that Annie perceives Paul

as a beautiful pure woman, who should guard her beauty, in this case it is the creativity.

Douglas Keesey notes that Paul has a submissive famine position in the beginning of

the novel while Annie masculine portrait is evident through the physical depiction of Annie,

which includes no feminine traits .However, Paul‘s passivity shifts into the traditional

authoritative position when he avenges for himself .King reverses the roles in Misery, in

which it is the woman, who turns into a possible threat to the male protagonist .Paul‘s journey

symbolizes a test into manhood; as a result , he attempts to escape this psychological terror

through immersing in his imagination and dreams (qtd in Karinna,122). Paul body fails him to

escape from Annie ‘s torture ;however, his creativity helps him to get through the traumatic

experience. He states that:

“I just cannot believe the guts this Sheldon kid is displaying today …I don’t

believe anyone in Annie Wilkes stadium –or in the home viewing audience, for

that matter –thought he had the slightest chance of getting that wheelchair

moving after the blow he took, but I believe …yes it is! It’s moving! Let’s look

at the replay. (qtd in Keinna122)

 Medjeouri 65

In this passage, Paul starts to rebel against Annie, but only within his imagination Thus,

he imagines to be a football player, who plays in “Annie‘s stadium”.

Paul resembles the female victim in terms of passivity and weakness; the character

constantly compares itself to the oral storyteller Scheherazade and Fowles’s female character.

Unlike the female gothic Miranda in The Collector, who she does not survive, Paul on the

other hand finds comfort in his creative writing. Although the traditional gothic male in The

Collectordoes not understand Miranda’s fascination with art and drawing, Annie is Paul‘s

“number-one fane”, who will do anything to be a part in the writing process. She continues to

encourage Paul to rewrite the Misery series; However, Paul perceives this as a trespassing his

privacy. Therefore, he transfers writing into a form of resistance to control his kidnapper

(Magistrale, 127).Paul perceives writing as an escape from Annie’s torture.

Paul’s victimization process starts from the beginning of the novel when he alludes to

the image of rape .He feels disgusted from Annie’s attempt to resuscitate him: “the first real

memory stopping and being raped back into life by the woman’s stinking breath” (3).Annie

forces Paul to play the passive female, who has no control over the manipulation of her

victimizer. Furthermore, Kathleen Margert Lant explains that Annie’s injection the IV into

Paul’s body and making swallow pills symbolize rape and the hints of it continue throughout

the novel “ her fingers were in his mouth suddenly ,shockingly intimate ,dirtily welcome, he

sucked the capsules from between them and swallowed even before he could fumble the

spilling glass of water to his mouth ” (qtd in Krinna ,121).For Paul ,Annie becomes a physical

threat and even possible sexual threat ,which he cannot escape.

Lauri Berkenkan points out that Paul starts to predict and observes Annie’s moods and

behavior, which is a feminine intuition. Thus, he becomes a reader to her own gestures and

expressions. Paul claims that he became an expert in Annie’s weather: “Here’s a special

weather bulletin for residents of Sheldon County –a tornado watch is in effect until 5:00pm.
 Medjeouri 66

Tonight. I repeat a tornado”. (qtd in Krinna133). Paul does not surround to Annie’s tyrannical

behavior, but he perceives to observe what causes her distress for survival objectives.

2.4 The Dimensions of Annie and Paul Relationship

The relationship of Annie and Paul has many dimensions, which are the victim-

victimizer, the reader-writer and the mother-child relationship .First, Jack Morgan defines

victimization as the continuous monitor of a subject. For instance, Annie monitors Paul

constantly and she keeps invading his personal space. This invasion causes a psychological

and physical trauma to Paul. Also, she presents this in injecting him with IV without his

permission. This symbolizes the distortion of the clean self .Thus; Paul considers his body as

an uncanny object (qtd in Krinna, 120). Annie keeps controlling Paul through food and

medicine and even the kind of books he should write.

2.4.1 The Mother-Child Relationship

Paul character’s first comprehensive thoughts go back to childhood memory with his

family on the beach. He recalls getting afraid of a broken pilling that looks like “the single

jutting fang of a buried monster”(8).King always attempts to rediscover irrational childhood

concerns , which leave a mark on the adult mind where normal objects become monstrous

creatures(Wilbern,113).Paul‘s traumatic experience reminds of sad childhood, which

prefigures Annie and Paul relationship as mother-child as this passage demonstrates:

'Because when I get mad I'm not really myself.' Her eyes dropped .She was looking

downtowhere his hands were cupped tightly together over the sample boxes of

Norvil looked for a very long time. ‘Paul?’ she asked softly .Paul, why are you

holding your hands like that?’He began to cry .It was guilt he cried from, and he

hated that most of all: in addition toeverything else that this monstrous woman had

done to him, she had made him made him feel guilty as well so he cried from guilt

…but also from simple childish weariness.He looked up at her, tears flowing down
 Medjeouri 67

his cheeks, and played the absolute last card in his hand.‘I want my pills’, he said

and I want the urinal .I held it all the time you were go, but I can hold it much

longer ,and I don’t want to wet myself again’. She smiled softly, radiantly, and

pushed his tumbled hair off his brow ‘you poor dear’.Annieput you through a lot,

hasn’t she too much! I’ll get it right away (63).

In this passage, the relationship of Paul and Annie takes the position of mother-child

status, which is evident from the adjectives that both characters use to communicate with each

other. Paul describes himself as having childish weariness because he is afraid of Annie’s

punishment if he urinates himself. This experience that a mother shares with her child, and

Annie‘s reaction to Paul is maternal with the soft smile that she gives an alter ego to Annie

dark face. Also, the use of Illiesm, which is a figure of speech that aims to put the speaker in

a higher status .Thus, she refers to herself in the third person to put herself in authoritative

position as a mother figure ,and distant herself from ‘mean Annie’ the violent woman ,who

has a bad temper.

Willbern compares Paul’s injuries caused by the accident and Annie’s psychotic stages to

a birth, which transforms sounds into words .Annie becomes a mother, who nourishes and

punishes her child when he misbehaves; however, this maternal figure turns into a monstrous

woman, who threatens Paul with castration. King’s analogy to the mother figure continues

with the mentioning of the red room that resembles a womb-like décor. Paul describes his

kidnapper as a mother, nurse, goddess and crazy woman who will not hesitate to kill him.

However, the representations of Annie shifts from salvation to violation quickly as the events

take action (113). Annie saves Paul life from the accident, which symbolizes a mother, gives

life to her child; therefore, Annie believes that she can give life and she can take it because it

is her right as a fan and mother.

 Medjeouri 68

Krinna notices that Annie refers to the mother-child relationship because she provides for him

food, water and medicine. However, Annie threatens Paul’s individuality and creativity like a

mother, who cannot expect her child‘s independence from her. Also, the car accident

symbolizes the birth of Annie to Paul and it marks the maternal caring of Annie. Paul starts to

leave the room to discover the house while Annie is out. This experience is dangerous

because she can be in the house in any minute. Childhood memories repeatedly go back to

Paul when something triggers his mind .For instance; Paul remembers hiding cigarettes from

his mother because she will spank (Krinna142). Paul fears Annie like child fears his mother;

however, instead of taking his toys away; she amputates his body parts.

In this passage, Annie compares herself to a mother, who punishes her child for

misbehaving:

[…] ‘You‘re the devil’, he said .Again he expected rage and got the indulgent

laugh, with its undertones of knowing sadness. ‘Oh Yes! Yes! That’s what a child

thinks when mommy comes into the kitchen and sees him playing with the cleaning

fluid from under the sink. He does not say it that way, of course because he does

not have your education, he just says, ‘Mommy, your mean!’[…] ‘ the mother feels

badly when her child says she’s mean or if he cries for what ‘s bee taken away, as

you are crying .But she knows she’s right ,and so she does her duty .As I am doing

mine!(King32).

The previous statement depicts Annie’s reaction towards Paul harsh words. She perceives

his behavior as child –like, and she considers herself the disciplined mother. It is worth to

mention that Annie declares the child’s misbehavior, but not the reaction of the mother.

2.4.2 The Author-Reader Relationship

Paul realizes that Annie is a fan, who is not different from the other ones, who send him

letters to know the events of his next novel .Annie ‘obsession with Misery leads her to torture
 Medjeouri 69

her favorite writer .Paul mentions such cases where readers demanded Conan Doyle to revive

Sherlock Holmes back to life (129).Annie‘s relationship with Paul foreshadows within the

first words in the novel.

Annie ego ideal exists within the fictional character of Misery Chastain while Paul’s

ego image is in Tony Bonasaro the protagonist in Fast Cars .Annie forces Paul to rewrite

Misery’s Child because he has god-like ability to revive the character “a writer is a god to

the people in a story, he made them up just like god made us up” then she continues to remark

“god just happens to have a couple of broken legs and god just happens to in my house eating

my food”. This reinforces Annie’s image of Paul as superior in terms of talent and creativity.

(Kirnna129). Annie thinks that Paul is superior because he is an artist, who has the ability to

revive fictional characters. Also, she states her authority and reinforces her control over the

captive , which is that he is in her house .Thus, he has no choice, but to obey her rules.

Although Paul‘s status as a writer provides him with a certain power, he does not realize

this until the end .Lant remarks that Paul perceives Annie as the “Bourka bee –goddess”. This

analogy happens because Paul depends on Annie as a provider, who gives him food, and as a

constant reader, who consumes his books. Annie controls every aspect of Paul’s life in terms

of food, water, and medicine, and his freedom (130).Paul feels ashamed of his dependence of

his kidnapper, but he realizes that he has to get better to defeat her.

Annie becomes an author of her own story when she leaves a scrap book contains

articles and obituaries of desisted people, who were victims of Annie psychotic condition.

Paul becomes a reader to Annie’s works. He describes it as “too good to put down, it was like

a novel .So disgusting you just have to finish it” .Then, he finds his name in the news paper,

which declares he is missing. Paul realizes that he becomes a character and a victim in

Annie’s Memory Lane books; however, it does not include real people, but it includes real

victims. Paul thinks that Annie is a good at making up stories since she never got charged,
 Medjeouri 70

which is something scares him (Kirnna, 135).Annie does not have Paul’s talent for writing;

therefore, she makes him write hers.

Lant notices the reestablishment of the traditional dynamic of submissive female reader

and the powerful male writer. She declares that Annie character “the symbolic construct of

king’s largely female audience distorted to monstrous proportion”. However, David Willbern

disagrees with Lant‘s focus on the misogynistic aspect, he argues that there are both hatred

towards women and self hatred within Paul. Annie is the monstrous masculine image of

females, she is Paul’ internal and the external drive, which inspires him to be creative and to

write his best work. (qtd inWillbern113). Although Annie represents both physical and

psychological torture, which resembles the conventional male in gothic literature, she

represents the reader, who criticizes the author works .This type of relationship, provides an

intellectual aspect to the traditional relationship between the male –victimized and the female

–victimizer.

However, the relationship dynamic changes within the end of the story. Paul attacks

Annie with a typewriter, a thing which he did not like. Paul attempts to avenge for himself

when he heats her in the head .Natalie suggests that sexual hints is present within the

juxtaposition of the words ‘erect’ and ‘moaning’, which underline a possible rape(122). Paul

reclaims his control when he says:

Closed on more paper .This bunch was out, dripping wet, smelling sourly of

spite wine .She bucked and writhed under him .The salt –dome of his left knee

whammed the floor and there was excruciating pain, but he stayed on top of her

.I’m gonna rape you, all right, Annie .Because all I can is the worst I can do .So

suck my book. Suck my book .Suck on it until you fucking chock (195).

In this depiction, Paul tries to regain power over Annie and to reclaim his masculinity.

Therefore, he perceives rape as revenge.

 Medjeouri 71

Annie feels the change of roles and power when Paul starts to write the anticipated novel

and she recognizes that she lost her control over him “yet something in her attitudes as she

stood in the doorway fascinated him. I was as if she was a little frightened to come any closer

as if she thought something in him might burn her. (Krinna138). When Paul starts to see

Annie as an actual human being, who feels fear and pain, he begins to be hopeful of his own

survival.

2.4.3 The Author’s Misery

Paul transforms pain into a source of inspiration to produces Misery’s Returns .Annie‘s

torture and interaction provides Paul an opportunity to mold “the tortured body” into a body

of language in the form of gothic novel; therefore,he exploits the traumatic experience into a

fiction. Paul remembers a painful childhood; his mother’s belittlement and father’s neglect,

which corresponds with his current experience. Annie influences Paul to be honest in his

craft, which promotes him to produce an exciting and gruesome novel (131).Annie tells her

writer to revive the character, but she wants the comeback of character to be fair, and

believable. Then, Paul realizes that the “constant reader had just become a merciless editor”

(168).Annie‘s role as a reader turns into a co-author of Misery’s Returns.

2.5 Deviation and Suspense

Suspense is an emotion, which results from the character’s uncertainty and doubt of the

occurrence of a certain outcome. Thus, the character feels anxiety, which provokes empathy

within the reader towards the predicament of the protagonist. Although the element of

suspense has gothic roots, the author’s style molds it to fit the story. In general, the beginning

of the novel provides a hint to the reader (Subhi 2-3).In King‘s novel, the beginning produces

both fear and suspense about the events, which takes place “umber whunnnnyerrrnnn umber

whunnnn”. (8).The reader’s first remark is the sounds, which the character is unaware about

its source, and the reader does not know speaker’s identity, which arouses curiosity.
 Medjeouri 72

Suspense demands a complete uncertainty in terms of the story’s ending because it is relies

on a sequence of moments, which lead to unexpected result .In the suspense story, the

protagonist‘s life is in constant danger, and the possibility of his survival is uncertain .Thus,

Mary Rodell states that ‘the art of making the reader care about what happens next’ (qtd

inAnastasova 8)while Noël Carroll highlights the components of suspense as follows:

1. an emotional concomitant to the narration of a course of events

2. which course of events points to two logically opposed outcomes

3. whose opposition is made salient (to the point of preoccupying the audience’s attention)

and

4. where one of the alternative outcomes is morally correct but improbable (although live) or

at least no more probable than its alternative, while

5. the other outcome is morally incorrect or evil, but probable (260).

Thus, it is important to have an interesting narrative to produce, which holds the reader’s

attention.

Generally speaking, tension builds up around the story to make the reader react to

certain situations, which happen to the character. It has an ambiguous nature that combines

both fear and tension; however, it can be a pleasurable experience for the reader because it

evokes his/hers curiosity. According to Standard Account Theory, in order to achieve

suspense, there must three key principles, which are fear, hope and uncertainty. Therefore,

suspense happens because of the fear of undesirable outcome while hope is the anticipation of

a desirable result.

However, The Desire-Frustration Theory of suspense examines the causes of suspense, and it

underestimates the significance of uncertainty since the emotional involvement of the

individual leads him to frustration because he it is impossible to control the events

 Medjeouri 73

(Anastasova, 7-8). There are two principles which lead to suspense either the combination of

fear and hope towards uncertain event, or the need to help the characters.

For instance, when Paul starts to wonder outside his room; he lives in a constant fear

because he thinks that Annie everywhere and she will catch him. Paul’s narrative is

ambiguous because his mind, which mirrors his disturbed mind. In this passage, Paul’s

wheelchair is stuck and he is afraid Annie will catch him:

He had a bad-no, just bad; terrible, horrible – moment when it seemed the wheelchair was

going to fit. It was no more than two inches too wide, but that was two inches

too much […] in the end he was able to squeeze through –barely –by

positioning himself squarely in the doorway and then leaning forward enough

to grab the jambs of the door in his hands .The axle-caps of wheels squalled

against the wood .He voice called him out of his daze. He opened his eyes and

saw she was pointing a shotgun at him. Her eyes glittered furiously .Spite

shone on her teeth. ‘If you want your freedom so badly, Paul,’Annie said, I’ll

be happy to grant it to you’. She pulled back both hammers […]. Not a dream –

a warning .She could come back anytime .Anytime at all. (56).

In this passage, the writer uses active voice and short sentences to demonstrate that the

character anticipates danger at any moment. Hence, he imagines her attacking with a hammer.

A reader cannot determine if Annie is present or its Paul’s hallucinations, which provokes a

constant suspense.

2.5.1 Fear in Suspense

Fear is a crucial element in suspense; therefore, a character must experience a dangerous

situation to make the reader empathizes with the fictional protagonist. Thus, It arouses

suspense (Anastasova, 11).Suspense exists in Misery in different situations where fear is

 Medjeouri 74

predominant within the protagonist and reader. Thus, both of them are aware the antagonist is

mentally disturbed, but it is because her unpredicted actions, which makes Paul lives in fear.

In this extensive passage, Paul believes himself in a hospital:

He was in hospital ward .Great relief swept through him-so great he felt like

crying .Something had happened when he asleep, someone had come, or perhaps

Annie had a change of heart or mind .It didn’t matter. He had gone to sleep in the

monster’s house and he had awakened in the hospital .But surely they would not

have put him in a long ward like this? It was a big as an airplane hungar! Identical

row of men […] the door at the far end of the huge ward opened and in came

Annie –only she was dressed in a long aproned dress […] she was dressed as

Misery Chastain […] then he saw that the first Paul Sheldon’s face had turned a

ghastly white as soon as the sand struck it and fear jerked him out of the dream

and into bed, where Annie Wilkes was standing over him (25).

In this passage, Paul thinks he is no longer in his prisoner’s house, but he is in hospital;

However, he realizes that it is a dream when he sees Annie disguised as Misery Chastain .Also,

There is a sense of fear and horror when Paul wakes up to find Annie beside his bed. Thus,

Paul’s face is ‘white’ and ‘ghastly’ demonstrates; the reader experiences shock since that Paul

Is only dreaming .At the beginning, there is a sense of relief when the character thinks he is in

Hospital, but it soon turns into unaccepted event.

Misery is a novel, which builds up suspense gradually until the climax where the

protagonist.

Faces his torturer .Therefore, situational suspense occurs throughout the novel.

Although the Reader knows about the situations in the novel, suspense continues to have an

effect on the Reader; for example, Paul has shattered legs and he is a prisoner in a room with

a psychotic serial killer .Thus, these factors cause fear to the reader (Freese How to Write
 Medjeouri 75

Suspense Like Stephen King ).In this respect, Paul experience danger from one situation to

another, which makes the reader questions his survival. In this extensive quotation, the

protagonist experiences physical horror:

Had he thought he had gained the upper hands ?[…]she rushed across the room at

him, thick leg ,pumping, knees flexing ,elbows chopping back and forth in the

stale sickroom air like pistons. Her hair bounced back and joggled around her face

as it came loose […]. ‘Geeeee-Yahhh! She screamed, and brought her fist down

on the bunched salt –dome that had been Paul Sheldon left knee. He threw his

head back and howled, veins standing out in his neck and on his forehead .Pain

burst out from his knee […]. ‘So you sit there’, she said […] and you think about

who in charge here, and all the things I can do to hurt you if you behave badly or

try to trick me. You sit there and you scream if you want to ,because no one can

hear you .No one stop here because they all know Annie Wilkes is crazy , they all

know what did which (51).

Paul refuses to rewrite Misery and just when he thinks that he won the argument, Annie

surprisingly enters the room to attack Paul’s injured leg. In this passage, Annie explicitly

states, threatens him; she declares that she can kill him and get away with it, which is Paul’s

deepest concern.

Paul’s motif throughout the novel is to survive because he realizes at the beginning that

‘Annie Wilkes was dangerously crazy’ (11).Therefore, tension between the characters builds

up until it reaches undesirable outcome, and this because Paul survival is uncertain, which

intensifies suspense. The main question in the novel, which keeps the makes the story in a

suspension is: will Paul survive?

In the first chapters, Paul lives in a cycle of fear because of Annie unpredicted mood.

Thus, Paul’s life is in danger. For example, Annie leaves Paul two days without food, water or
 Medjeouri 76

medicine, which causes him agony and pain. The protagonist experiences humiliation

repeatedly such as Annie forces him to drink rinse water Paul drinks his own urine to survive.

In addition, the scene when she confronts Paul that she knows about his wondering inside the

house is a tensional because both characters are anxious and Paul tries to hide his fear but he

cannot it

'How many times were you out in all?’

The knife. Oh Christ, the knife.'Twice. No — wait. I went out again yesterday

afternoon around five o'clock. To fill up my water pitcher.' This was true; he had

filled the pitcher. But he had omitted the real reason for his third trip. The real

reason was under his mattress. The Princess and the Pea. Paulie and the Pig S

sticker. 'Three times, counting the trip for the water […].''How many times did you

go out?'I told you —how many times?' Her voice was rising. 'Tell the truth!’ 'I

am! Three times!’ How many times, God damn it?[…]At least if she does

something to me it can't hurt too much.‘You’re treating me like a fool.'(134-135).

In this passage , Annie ‘s continuous interrogation causes fear and panic to Paul

.Although he confesses he got from his room only three times , she does not believe him ,

which lead to the amputation of Paul’s foot. It is noticeable that the narrative shifts from one

character to another. Annie keeps questioning Paul about how many time he gone out of the

room while Paul sees the knife and he wonders if she could kill him or not. This shift of

events and dialogue aims to keep the reader in suspense.

King’s technique in suspense relies on a smooth transition from one event to another,

which is the ‘cliff-hanging’; it occurs between two major events in the horror story to

intensify the reader curiosity about the outcome, and it fulfills his desire of entertainment

.Thus, the suspenseful plot is a form of King’s style into closure . This corresponds with

Carroll’s point of view ‘erotic narration’ that indicates that earlier situations in the story are
 Medjeouri 77

hints of later events, which has “cataphoric” elements thatforeshadow some future

development’ (qtd inAnastasova, 25) .In this respect, Paul foreshadows to later events when

he compares Annie‘s kiss of life to a rape .At the end of the story, Paul attacks Annie and he

starts to put paper in her mouth .Also, Paul does not rape Annie, but he declare his intention

of it. This event resembles Annie and Paul first encounter.

Since suspense comes from the need to find an outcome, or a resolution to a

predicament, the narrator includes parallel narration and flashbacks to find answers to two

types of questions, which are the macro question that considers the main question about the

development of the whole story while the micro question is about small situations, which

occur throughout the story(Anastasova25).In this respect, Paul main question is how to escape

from the house while the micro question of the novel changes with every situation ,which

happens to the character .For instance, Paul faces many challenges; he attempts to survive

when Annie has her mental depression ,and she absent for two days .Thus, Paul starts to be

submissive to Annie to earn her trust. He uses the wheelchair to move inside the house and to

unlock the door with a bobby pin. These small questions like how he will open the room’s

door and how he will survive without water are all small events, which preface to the finale

conflict between him and Annie.

Suspense occurs in small events because it is not neat the climax; therefore, the

situational suspense aims to arouse suspense and fear within the reader. The reader feels that

the protagonist will not survive the ordeal which causes curiosity to know the ending. In this

passage, Paul investigates the house to look for a phone or a key to open the door. Although

he feels brave for the first time, he cannot help himself to feel afraid of the consequences:

Paul muttered and again looked up, thinking he heard on approaching car. The wind, only the

wind …still, he d’ better get back to the safety of his room […] he was edging toward a state

of terminal freak out (121).

 Medjeouri 78

In this passage, King uses pauses to slow down the actionof the character, which makes

him pay attention that is the sound of the wind, and not Annie’s car and short sentences to

demonstrate the quickness of the action to evoke fear within the reader. It provokes the reader

to sense that Annie will catch him; therefore, the uncertainty of the outcome causes suspense.

2.5.2 Focalization

It means the selection of information from another person point of view, which allows

the narrator to have authority over the reader to provoke empathy or irony. This focalization

focuses on the perceiver and the perceived (qtd in Anastasova27).Focalization is a key

element in suspense because it allows the reader to identify the narrator and his motif in the

novel. Moreover, focalization relies on the vision of the focalizer, which cause confusion

between the between the narrator and the focalizer .Thus, the focalizer point of view must

correlates with previous statements and details to have a reliable focalization .Although the

vocalize and the narrator are separate , they can co-exist together.(Text: Focalization1-2).

Paul is the focalizer in the novel because his internal and external thoughts reflect his

situation. Thus, he makes an assumption about Annie’s mental state based on his knowledge

in psychology and her behaviors. Despite the fact that Paul ‘blurry‘s ideas and his addiction

on norvil set the tone for the reader to question Paul narrative, it is the statements and

confession of Annie, which confirm Paul’s deduction.

2.5.3 Reality in Horror

King utilizes naturalist and gothic element in a contemporary culture within his works;

therefore, there is a common feature between King’s text and realist text. King implements

real settings, pop culture, commercial products to transform the mundane into unfamiliar

space (Ruuskanen, 22). In this respect , King uses news papers and handwriting books to have

a reality effect ,which suggests that the characters live within the real world.

This passage is an article, which Paul finds in Annie’s scrapbook ‘Memory Lane’:
 Medjeouri 79

HEAD MATERNITY NURSE QUESTIONED ON INFANT DEATHS

No Charges Made 'As Yet,' Sheriff’s Office Spokeswoman Says

By Michael Leith

Anne Wilkes, the thirty-nine-year-old head nurse of the maternity ward at Boulder Hospital, is

being questioned today about the deaths of eight infant’s deaths which have

taken place over a span of some months. All of the deaths took place following

Miss Wilkes's appointment. When asked if Miss Wilkes was under arrest,

Sheriff's Office spokeswomanKinsolving said she was not. When asked if Miss

Wilkes had come in ofher own free will to give information in the case, Ms.

Kinsolvingreplied: 'I would have to say that was not the case. Things are a bit

more serious than that.' Asked ifWilkes had been charged with any crime, Ms.

Kinsolving replied: 'No. Not as yet.'(122).

This article proves to Paul that Annie not only is a serial killer, and the style of the article

resembles real news paper, which provides a sense of authentic atmosphere to the reader.

2.5.4 Colloquialism

King’s texts include “disgusting colloquialism”(qtd in Badley,31) which means the use

of everyday speech ;it is the use of taboo terms and socially unacceptable expressions .This

stylistic use of colloquialism aims to present real personalities in real world .Despite the fact

that the speech is common, it is not conventional in a literary work. Thus, the experience of

reading becomes distinguishable, and it provokes the reader’s focus into the oral

discourse(Ruuskanen59).Although Paul Sheldon is an author, who writes romantic novels, his

speech is full of taboo words ‘well she saw through you shit –for-brain’(74)., ‘that old

asshole’ (103) .In other terms, Paul is an ordinary man, and his speech imitates that.

Low colloquialism is the use of slang and vulgar language, which usually indicates the

cultural, social and intellectual background of the speaker. According to Western Linguistics,
 Medjeouri 80

“colloquialism language refers to conglomeration of deviation from the standard language,

slangisms, and trendy phrases, nicknames.” (qtd in Abrosimova 4)This use of language is

unconventional because it is not literary language. However, King’s character is a famous

writer, who writes romantic novels; however, he uses inappropriate language to demonstrate

his frustration of his situation “scream, you chicken-shit mother fucker”. (159)Paul attempts

to ask for help from the policeman; however, Paul thinks that he does not believe that

thepoliceman can defeat her; therefore, he tries to wake himself from self-pity and doubts

through the use of lowcolloquialism. Thus, it functions as an outlet. In addition, King’s

character uses profanity and slang language within the internal dialogue, which provides an

outlet to the character both physical and mental confinement.

2.5.5 The Objective of Colloquialism

The writer uses the colloquialism language to express comic relief for the situational

aesthetics. It is significance in terms of speech since it deviates from the grammatical rules.

Thus, it provides speech characteristics to the character. (Abrosimova4) King provides the

comic relief in dark situations “spiders down here, he thought .Mice down there, rats

downthere […] he told her ‘count me out’ […] she looked at him with a level sort of

impatience […] your going down”. (164) this situation depicts Annie, who takes Paul to the

basement because she killed the policeman. Although Paul feels anxious about his fate, he is

able to find humor. Since Annie killed the rat, he imagines that he will face the same fate.

Also, King uses bold language to shock the reader “...The gotta. Nasty as a hand-job in a

sleazy bar, fine as a fuck from the world’s most talented call-girl.”(149) which categorizes as

one of the objective in the horror fiction

2.6 The Expressive Style

It relies on the basis of the character’s emotional need and its situational criteria. (3).It

expresses emotions and feelings in the form of metonymy, metaphor and irony. For instance,
 Medjeouri 81

King uses these stylistic devices to make the fictional characters realistic. For example, Paul

compares Annie’s character to weather, Goddess, crevasse.The comparison provides a visual

device to capture the character’s personality “the image of Annie Wilkes as an African idol”.

(8) It compares Annie to a goddess because of her strength, and he also depicts her mood

swings “she relaxed .Smiled .the crevasse closed. Summer flowers nodded cheerfully once

again “. (12)Paul compares Annie’s deep depression to a crevasse, which is a black hole that

has no end; however, when Annie’s mood gets better, he compares her smile to summer.

These comparisons depict Paul observation and impression towards Annie.

2.6.1 The Use of Italics

King uses italics in his texts to present typography in a persuasive manner. Thus, it

allows the reader to both read and hear the characters’ internal thoughts and feelings.

These thoughts provide an access the unconscious mind. Also, the first words are

utterance in italics, which is a deviation from the unconventional form of a text. Therefore,

king empowers the novel with an acoustic strength (Ruuskanen, 61).In this respect, the first

words, which Paul hears are ‘number one fan’, which refers to the identity of Annie.

2.6.2 The Narrative

King implements the third personnarrative; however, the ideas of the protagonist reveal

directly his/hers internal and external motifs (Ruuskanen 64) on the other hand, the reader do

not have access into the internal thoughts of the antagonist, which evokes ambiguity within

the character. Moreover, the reader empathizes with the main character since his/her point of

view controls the narrative. Thus, the reader has a subjective experience.(Ruuskanen 64) the

narration allows the reader to have hidden information the internal focalization.

2.6.3 Metaphor
 Medjeouri 82

Generally speaking, metaphors are a figure of speech, which tends to embellish the

language in a literary work. Johnson states that “our concepts structure what we perceive …

[then] our conceptual system plays a central role in defining our everyday realistic[and

since]our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think ,what we

experience and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor”. (Barden12)

It aims to describe a certain situation and provide an analogy, which unusual and different to

attract the reader’s attention “before his head flew off and rolled to the wall”. (204)It implies

that Paul ideas start to flow like water. In this metaphor, Paul depicts his character as the

troubles hero in the fictional book, which he writes and Annie as a knowledgeable Goddess“I

was Geoffrey and she was the Bourka Bee-Goddess”. (103) Paul compares Annie constantly

to a bee –Goddess, which can mean that she is hard worker, sweet, organize ,and perfect since

he compares her to a Goddess, but he means in terms of stings, anger, punishment.

2.6.4 The Inner Body and Metaphor

Alexandra Nagoranya explains that King uses the inner body to provide a vivid image.

Thus, he changes the dynamic function to suit the description, which is unconventional

element in the contemporary English fiction “what I don’t –but-suddenly he did, and his entire

body midsection first hollow and then to entirely disappear”. (26) In this quotation, the

character experiences fear because Annie comes to wake him violently; therefore, he

compares his body to an empty entity. Nagoranya continues to note that King personifies

body organs “pain-the worst in day’s bellowed through his legs and screamed”. (qtd in

Nagoranya 11) King compares a body organ to another organ which the legs.

2.6.5 Simile

It refers to the resemblance of two objects or more, and it includes similarity markers

such as ‘like’ and ‘as’ to enhance the visual effects of a text. Simile is a semantic figure,

which examines the way of the character’s thoughts and feelings, and even its perspective
 Medjeouri 83

towards characters (Elaheh, 4). Although figures of speech aim to have a decorative substance

into the text, it can provide the reader with information about certain characters or events

“She leaped the sofa with clumsy strength, looking like an albino frog” (203) This analogy

refers to Annie, which denotes the amount of disgust and horror, which the character feels

when he hallucinates about her dead body.

“I was Geoffrey and she was the Bourka Bee-Goddess”. (103) Paul compares Annie

constantly to a bee –Goddess, which can mean that she is hard worker, sweet, organize ,and

perfect since he compares her to a Goddess, but he means in terms of stings, anger,

punishment .

Conclusion

After the analysis has been finished, the first section of the second chapter analyzes the

conventional elements, which was found in the novel. The author adopts the New England

setting because it has a past, which correlates with the tendency of the Gothic tradition. Also,

the significance of the setting reflects the character’s mood and personality. After applying

psychoanalysis, it turns that the setting denotes feelings of entrapment with the claustrophobic

feelings to the characters. Also, the uncanny is predominant element in the novel, which

evokes fear of death. On the other hand, the second section analyses through the use of

psychoanalysis the relationship between the two characters and the switch of roles .Thus, the

shift of roles appear in the use of metaphors and other figures of speech, which the character

uses to refer to him or the female character.

 Medjeouri 84

General Conclusion

The first chapter is devoted to provide a theoretical background about the main concepts

in Gothic literature, which includes a historical background of Horror fiction as a subgenre

from the Gothic tradition, which start to be acknowledged as an independent genre. In

addition, it includes main literary approaches that the researcher will depend, which the

psychoanalytical approach and stylistics. Thus, the overview includes major terms of the

psychoanalysis approach and the stylistic criticism. Since the first chapter includes the

adopted theories to conduct this research, the second chapter has two sections, which consist

of the conventional elements of characterization and the setting while the second section

discusses the deviation in Stephen King horror fiction and specifically his first critically

recognized novel Misery.

Since Horror fiction has Gothic roots, it adopts traditional elements, which reflects the

atmosphere of fear, suspense and terror. Thus, Stephen King utilizes the New England Gothic

heritage ,which inspired previous American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar

Allan Poe ,whom presented a framework to the American Gothic as it is known today

.Therefore, Stephen King ‘s setting reflects the characters moods and actions. Throughout the

novel, Paul compares himself to a farmer, who attempts to predict the moods of his kidnapper,

Annie Wilkes, who changes with the change of climate. This analogy reflects the influence of

nature and environment on the character’s personality. Paul suffers from confinement since

the beginning of the novel, which mirrors the character’s fear of death.

However, King‘s female character does not resemble the Damsel in distress, which are

predominant in the Gothic novel. Annie Wilkes is a former nurse, who looks an average

American woman, who is harmless and nice. But this personality changes when she rescues
 Medjeouri 85

her favorite writer Paul Sheldon. Later on, she finds out that the last Misery novel includes the

death of the main character Misery Chastain. Therefore, she threatens Paul, and forces him to

rewrite the story .Paul notices that Annie is violent and suffers from depression, but he finds

out that she is also a serial killer, who used to kill infants and the elderly. Also, there are hints

in the story that she killed the neighbor’s children when she was eight years old and her father

when she was fourteen years old. Annie does not show remorse, and she desires control over

her surroundings. On the other hand, Paul Sheldon is writer, who seeks recognition from

critics, and in order to do it, he leaves the Romantic series, and writes a contemporary novel.

However, he has a car accident in a snowstorm .At the beginning of the novel, Paul is

vulnerable and weak because of the physical injury, but he does not have self-confident as a

writer. Paul suffers from Annie‘s psychological and physical abuse, which made him passive

and disable. At the end of the story, Paul gains dominance over Annie not through strength,

but through his creativity and mind to surpass the misery of Annie and the character.

In addition, Stephen King style is plain and simple, and it does not rely on embellishment,

or decorative language. Thus, King uses a language, which is used by everyday man and

women, which earned the title of mainstream author, who writes for the constant reader.

King’s popularity comes from the use of suspense to attract the reader‘s attention. The novel

follows the kidnap of a famous writer by an obsessed woman, whose name is Annie Wilkes.

Furthermore, the suspense has a psychological effect on the reader and the character. While

Paul investigates the house to look for an outlet from the house, the reader feels anxious and

nerves for the hero’s predicament. King calls this feeling inthe Misery novel “the gotta”,

which reflects the reader’s anticipation to know the next event. Moreover, King uses bold

metaphors and deviation in his writing to stand out from the conventional; as a result, he

provides an imagery, which evokes disgust, fear and entertainment.

 Medjeouri 86

The story re-establishes the conventional image of the Female character in Gothic

literature; it transforms the passivity and the victimization, which the female character

embodies in literature in general into the possibility of a complex character, who is able to

commit evil .Paul represents the feminine heroine, who is trapped by a villain; however, he is

able to defeat the prisoner and to have a metaphorical birth as an individual and writer.
 Medjeouri 87

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 ‫‪Medjeouri 92‬‬

‫ملخص‬
‫تهدف هذه الدراسة في البحث إلى دراسة العناصر التقليدية والمتجددة في تقديم المرأة والرجل في‬
‫روايةبؤسلـ ستيفن كينغ‪،‬أما العنصر التقليدي يوجد في مكان أدب الرعب (القوطي)‪ ،‬الذي يمتاز بالعزلة‬
‫عن العالم الخارجي مما يجعل الشخصيات تتأثر نفسيا‪.‬‬
‫إن الكاتب يقدم شخصية متجددة في تقديم المرأة في دور الشرير‪ ،‬في حين البطلهو شخصية‬
‫تتعرض للعنف اللفظي والجسدي من طرف المرأة‪،‬كما يقدم نظرة شاملة للمرأة المعاصرة بالنسبة للرجل‬
‫الذي يسيء استغالل قوته‪ ،‬إن شخصية آني تعاني من أمراض نفسية تظهر من خالل تقلب المزاج‬
‫والكالم‪.‬‬
‫الكاتب يستخدم عامل التشويق من خالل الغموض وإثارة الخوف وهذا يظهر من خالل عدم تمييز‬
‫الشخصية ما بين عالم الخيال والحقيقة تقنيات حديثة من استخدام اللغة العامية إلى تشبيهات تنافي الرواية‬
‫االنجليزية التقليدية‪.‬‬ ‫‪Commented [U9]: Revise the typing and translation of‬‬
‫‪terms.‬‬