So I know the newest season of American Horror Story just aired a week ago, but since I don't have cable and am still on season 4, I thought I'd share what occurred to me while watching Freak Show alongside reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Needless to say, there'll be ***spoilers***.
At the beginning of the season, we are introduced to a scary clown that terrorizes the 1950s town of Jupiter, Florida. He looks bedraggled, wears a mask covering his mouth, and carries a knapsack of equally dirty clubs and other simplified weapons. In the first few minutes of the show, we watch him viciously attack an innocent couple; killing one and kidnapping the other. However, a few episodes later, we learn about this character's past. It turns out this is just a simple-minded, misunderstood character. He mentions he was dropped on his head as a child, which explains things, and it's made clear that his intentions are innocent. Of course, this shouldn't excuse his actions, but it makes the audience sympathize with him to an extent. After being ridiculed all his life and taken advantage of for simply entertaining children, he's banished from the circus and turns to kidnapping children to enjoy his act. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to see the wrong in this. One thing that adds to the ambiguity of his character is the fact that he wears a mask, under which are the deformed remains of his face. Because he has a large, bloody hole where his mouth used to be, he's unable to communicate with others. This menacing exterior, on top of his strange actions, all reminded me of Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis.
The first similarity I found between the two was that both transformed into their "monster" forms against their will or unknowingly, and consequently overlook this change altogether. At first, the reaction of Gregor's family struck us as insensitive, yet it's important to remember that he had, in fact, transformed into a giant insect. In the case of the clown, he's unaware that he's done anything wrong once he stops simply entertaining children and moves to drastic measures like killing their families, who are obstacles to him. Of course, Gregor isn't a murderer, but, like the clown, he values his old lifestyle of traveling salesman over the obvious changes that have occurred. Secondly, both have trouble communicating with the people around them on the physical level: Gregor no longer has vocal cords and the clown no longer has a normal mouth. However, they both still try to make their intentions clear, which unfortunately comes off as a bunch of undecipherable noise. Lastly, they both look pretty menacing, and the other characters are relieved once they die. When Gregor dies, his family is actually overjoyed, now excited by what the future has in store. Similarly, once the clown dies, the town gets to relax a little.
Overall, I don't know if I'm reaching, but I definitely saw some parallels between these two story lines. Also, we mentioned that The Metamorphosis may very possibly be about Gregor's family, not Gregor himself, and that's also true in Freak Show. The majority of the plot is centered around the main characters in said Freak Show, and the clown pops up every once in a while to add some terror.
Oooh, interesting comparison!! I'm also a big fan of AHS, so it was really cool to read this post. I agree that Gregor Samsa and Twisty the Clown share many similarities, in both grotesque-ness and inability to communicate, although I think Gregor handles his transformation considerably better than Twisty the Clown. A big difference, though, is that Twisty makes efforts to cover up his hideousness, namely the rotting, festering hole that was his mouth, by wearing a mask, and though Gregor at first tries to hide himself from his sister and mother (hiding under the couch, putting a sheet over himself), towards the end, he develops a sort of 'deal with it' attitude, which I don't think Twisty would ever have done. It would be interesting to see what would happen with Twisty's character if he had survived a couple more episodes. :)
ReplyDeleteI've never watched American Horror Story before but I can understand the parallels you're making. Gregor is just a misunderstood monster that doesn't know how to cope with the changes that happened to him. It does make me wonder what would the family have done if he was extremely hostile when he first emerged from his room. What if he killed his boss and dragged his mother into his lair? It's really fortunate for the family that Gregor has nothing but good thoughts about them or I could see him going full Freak show on them.
ReplyDeleteThe comparison you're making is really interesting, and it brings up some good questions to ask about Gregor's metamorphosis. If the murdering clown were able to make himself and his intentions understood perfectly clearly to somebody else, I still think they would have trouble reintegrating back into society because they've already cast him out as a killer. This makes me wonder if Gregor's family would take him back if he could speak his mind to them or if they used his silence as a way to cast him out as a lost cause at the first opportunity. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case given their track record with their treatment of Gregor.
ReplyDeleteYour comparison reminds me of my group's panel presentation a bit, and this relates to John's comment too. Our article talked about the huge effect of communication and social role in the moral treatment of others. If this clown character's disfigurement has prevented him from interacting with society for an extended period of time, they may have come to treat him as a "moral outsider" as our article stated. He may have chosen to adopt this amorality as his only possible role, rather than shy away from it and cling to his humanity as Gregor did.
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