Greek Tragedy in Film: Horror in the 1980s and 1990s
Advisor: Ms. Braaten
Have you ever wondered where certain themes or archetypes in horror films come from, or why certain conventions exist in horror films? For my project, I’m going to examine how specific themes and archetypes came to fruition, specifically the idea of obsession and the “woman scorned,” or a woman who has been pushed to seek revenge. The primary text I will be looking at is Euripides’s Medea, written in 431 BCE. It’s often credited with creating the “woman scorned” trope, while exploring the theme of obsession throughout Euripides’s work. Along with analysing Medea, I will read multiple scholarly sources to gain a deeper understanding of how this trope and theme reflect Ancient Greek culture. I will then apply these ideas to three movies which share themes and tropes with Medea: Fatal Attraction (1987), Misery (1990), and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992). By examining them, I will see the impact that Greek tragedies have had on American horror and, by extension, the impact that Ancient Greek values have had on those of the United States.
Project Blog
Week 0: Introduction
Hi everyone! My name’s Katherine Kruse, and I’ve been at BASIS Independent Brooklyn since 2nd grade. For my senior project, I will be examining how American horror movies from the 1980s and 1990s have been influenced by the Greek tragedy Medea. Specifically, I will examine how the “scorned woman” trope originated in Medea and how it, along with the theme of obsession, influenced the horror genre. I’ve always connected to my family through movies, and it's very special to me. As a result, I really wanted to learn more about its history. I’ve also always been interested in Greek mythology, so I figured combining these topics would be fun to examine! Throughout this project, I will conduct interviews and read scholarly sources on my topic. As of now, I don’t have an on-site advisor, but I am in the process of getting one. At the end of my project, I will write a research paper to clearly demonstrate what I have learned.
Week 1: Women in Greek Mythology (Pandora, Aphrodite, and Helen of Troy)
Hi, welcome to week one of my blog! This week, I primarily focused on editing my proposal, redoing my abstract, and finding advisors for my project.
After receiving notes on my senior project defense, I needed to make a few changes to my proposal, and this week was almost entirely dedicated to that. I researched the “scorned woman” trope, specifically how Euripides is often credited with writing one of the trope's most popular examples, Medea. Another part of my research included how women were seen in Ancient Greek society. For the most part, women didn’t have much power, but when they did, they’re blamed for men's downfalls. Dessa Meehan mentions this in her article, “Containing the Kalon Kakon: The Portrayal of Women in Ancient Greek Mythology,” with Pandora, Aphrodite, and Helen of Troy as examples. Despite Zeus giving Pandora the vase in the first place, Pandora is blamed for opening it. Even though she’s an Olympian, Aphrodite is often depicted as being dangerous and manipulative because she represents female sexuality. While Helen of Troy didn’t start the Trojan War, she’s often referred to as “the face that launched a thousand ships." These examples show how women in Greek mythology are often blamed for mistakes made by men, and as I continue reading, I will look out for similar examples in Medea.
Along with my proposal, I also had to redo my abstract. I had written one previously, but after changing my topic, I realized my previous abstract no longer fit. Once I changed my proposal and had a better idea of the direction my project was going, I was able to edit my abstract to more accurately reflect my project.
Now that I've finished my proposal, I’ve started looking for advisors again. So far, I’ve mostly been looking into professors and people working in film archives and museums. Once I have done more research and grown my list of potential advisors, I will work with my faculty advisor to reach out to them.
So far, my plan for next week is to contact a few potential on-site advisors and continue reading Medea.
Week 2: Origin Stories of Medea and Jason
Hi, welcome to the second week of my blog! Due to a few scheduling issues, I didn’t have much time to work on the senior project. I spent most of this week reading some of Medea and reaching out to potential advisors.
So far, I’ve read the introduction and a little less than half of Medea. The introduction primarily discusses the impact of Athenian ideals on Medea, as well as the impact Medea had on later tragedies, such as Hecabe, Elektra, and Heracles. The author of the introduction, Philip Vellacott, also provides a brief description of the main characters, Medea and Jason. Along with Vellacott's writing on Medea and Jason, I decided to do some additional research of my own to make sure I had the proper context.
In Argonautica, an epic poem by Apollonius of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC, the mythological hero Jason was sent to steal the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes of Colchis. To do this, Jason sought help from Medea, the granddaughter of Helios, the Sun God. Medea betrayed her family and killed her brother in order to help Jason, and in return, he promised to marry her and take her back to Greece. However, he then turned on her and married a Greek princess instead. Having been exiled from her home and now Greece, and having no husband, Medea is driven by anger as she tries to get revenge for what Jason did to her. So far, what I’ve read in Medea has been Medea planning out her revenge after being exiled from Greece.
Additionally, I began reaching out to potential advisors. I hope to hear back soon, but in the meantime, I’ll continue adding to my list of potential advisors.
Next week, I hope to finish Medea and start reading a few scholarly articles on Medea. Later on, I’ll do more research connecting Medea to horror films from the 1980s to the 1990s, but for right now, I’m focusing on how Medea reflects perceptions of women in Ancient Greek society. Thanks for reading my week two blog post!
Week 3: Finishing Medea
Hi, welcome to the third week of my blog! This week has been somewhat busy for me, so for the most part, I spent it finishing up Medea.
As mentioned in last week’s blog post, Medea is a Greek tragedy written by Euripides in 431 BCE. The play opens with a recap of the events leading up to the main story, in which Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, is sent on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes of Colchis. To do so, Jason gets help from Medea in return for marrying her and bringing her from Colchis to his home in Iolkos. However, after becoming the father to her two sons, Jason leaves her to marry Princess Glauce of Corinth. Betrayed, Medea begins to curse Jason, Princess Glauce, and Glauce’s father, King Creon of Corinth. As a result, Creon exiles her and her two sons from Corinth, but gives them a day to prepare before leaving. Angry and vengeful, Medea forms a plan to murder Princess Glauce and everyone “who [touches] her” (Euripides 41), including Medea’s two sons.
In the end, Medea’s anger towards Jason leads her to kill the princess, Creon, and her own two sons. While she knows she’ll never be able to forgive herself for killing her children, she justifies it by thinking about how Jason’s misery will make it all worth it.
Throughout the play, Medea is depicted as a deep, complex character who’s blinded by anger. After being promised a measure of power as the wife of the Argonauts' leader, only to have it ripped away, Medea is driven by passion and emotion. This motivation creates her character into a “scorned woman”, eventually leading to Medea being a primary example of the “scorned woman” archetype.
Next week, I plan to watch Misery, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and Fatal Attraction. I also plan to start forming connections between these movies and Medea. I hope by that time I will have reached out to more potential advisors and potentially have an advisor set up for the rest of my project. See you then!
Weeks 4-5: Update on Advisors
Hi, welcome to the fourth and fifth week of my blog! Last week was somewhat boring, so I decided to combine these posts. These past two weeks have been spent finding and meeting with my advisors.
My first advisor is Ms. Tilly, the fifth grade Latin teacher here at BASIS Independent Brooklyn. In addition to being a Latin teacher, Ms. Tilly is also a playwright and has recently completed a post-baccalaureate program at Columbia University. There, she focused on the roles of women in the ancient world, a background that will be especially helpful for my project. She’s also heavily involved in the theater industry, with her most recent play receiving five awards after a successful run at the New York Theater Festival. So far, I’ve met with her once to introduce her to my project, specifically discussing her role as an advisor. Her experience in theater and her knowledge of women in the ancient world will be extraordinarily helpful for my project.
More on the film side, my second advisor is Ms. Gorla. She’s a current PhD candidate at John Jay College, and the dissertation she’s currently working on is eerily similar to my own project. So far I’ve met with her once to discuss the project more in-depth. Even though we’ve only had one meeting, she’s been extremely helpful and seems very enthusiastic to help.
Additionally, after talking with Ms. Gorla a little, we’ve decided to change my movie picks from Misery, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and Fatal Attraction to Misery, The Shining, and Carrie. Instead of focusing on the women in these films, I will explore gender roles as a whole. By narrowing the movie selection down to Stephen King movies, I can form stronger connections between the films and Medea by looking at how the characters defy gender expectations.
This post is a little short, but I look forward to updating you all on what happens next week!
Week 6: Discussing Medea and Danse Macabre
Hi, welcome to the sixth week of my blog! This was my second week with my advisors, and I am so excited to update you all on my progress!
Last week, Ms. Tilly sent me a copy of Agamemnon to read, and while I haven’t finished it yet, I find it interesting so far! Since I hadn’t read much of it by the time of our meeting, we started talking about Medea. For the most part, we discussed Medea’s character in relation to Jason. To recap, in Medea, a mythological hero named Jason promises to marry Medea and bring her to Greece in exchange for her help in stealing the Golden Fleece. However, he eventually leaves her for another woman, resulting in her being exiled. She then gets her revenge by killing Jason’s new wife, along with Medea and Jason’s sons, as she thinks the pain Jason will feel is worth more than her own misery from killing her own children.
We mostly discussed Medea’s complexity and the difference between her motives and her actions. Ms. Tilly also brought up a couple of things about women in Ancient Greece that helped me better understand Medea. For example, in some Greek city-states, women were unable to leave the house without a man’s permission or supervision. In the tragedy, part of Medea’s distress is that without a husband, she would be extremely limited in her legal, financial, and social opportunities. Not only is she exiled from Greece, but any chance at freedom or a life of her own is taken away.
Later in the week, I met up with Ms. Gorla to discuss some of chapter 6 of Stephen King’s Danse Macabre. Titled “The Modern American Horror Movie – Text and Subtext,” King discusses the difference between the text and the subtext in horror films. He defines the text as being the main conflict, while the subtext is a more relatable fear. For example, in Hereditary (2018), the text would be a demonic cult targeting the Graham family, while the subtext revolves around grief and inherited mental illness.
In our meeting, Ms. Gorla and I mostly discussed the main points I would use to connect my film choices to Medea. We eventually settled on using The Shining (1980) to depict women’s fear of men, Misery (1990) to depict men’s fear of women, and Carrie (1976) to depict women’s fear of womanhood. Using King’s ideas of text vs. subtext, The Shining (1980) can be read as a commentary on domestic violence; Misery (1990) can be seen as the fear some men have of not being able to control women; and Carrie (1976) is all about Carrie accepting herself as a girl and her transition into a woman. I will likely explore these ideas with more depth in my post next week, as I still need to read more sources before creating a formal argument.
Next week, I plan to watch at least two of these three films, meet with my advisors, and do the reading they’ve assigned for me. I know this post has been a little long, but I’m excited to see how my project continues to come to fruition in week seven!
Post 7: Week Seven: Watching Carrie (1976) and Finishing Danse Macabre
Hi, welcome to the seventh week of my blog! This week, I primarily focused on finishing Danse Macabre, watching Carrie (1976), and reading more of Agamemnon.
In my meeting with Ms. Tilly, we discussed the structure of my project and additional details of Medea that I want to incorporate. Since my final product will be a paper, I will separate it into six main parts. First will be the introduction, then a little bit about Greek theater compared to film, then The Shining (1980), Misery (1990), Carrie (1976), and last but not least, the conclusion. While I initially thought of going through the films chronologically in release order, I eventually realized that each movie is connected to a particular theme in Medea, and decided that pairing films with Medea's themes would be the best way to highlight each point. Ms. Tilly and I also talked about a couple of similarities and differences between two characters, Clytemnestra in Agamemnon and Medea in, of course, Medea. However, since I still haven’t finished Agamemnon, we mostly stuck to discussing the structure of my project.
In my last meeting with Ms. Gorla, I decided to watch Carrie (1976) this week, as it was the film I remembered least of the three. Because of that, I showed up to this week’s meeting with about three pages of notes, ready to discuss everything from the color palette to the use of mirrors. Additionally, Ms. Gorla also mentioned a reading that I will be reading before our next meeting as it talks a lot about the role of gender in Carrie. Though we mostly talked about Carrie (1976), we also talked a little about Danse Macabre. After finishing Danse Macabre, there are definitely a couple things I will include in my paper, such as his idea on text vs subtext and his reasoning behind his idea that horror films should be considered art.
This post is a lot shorter than last week’s, but for next week I plan on watching Misery (1990), reading the articles Ms. Tilly and Ms. Gorla gave me, and hopefully coming close to finishing Agamemnon.
Post 8: Weeks Eight and Nine: Misery
Hi, welcome to the eighth and ninth weeks of my blog! I wasn’t able to do much during week eight, so I decided to combine these two posts.
When meeting with Ms. Tilly for these past two weeks, we mainly discussed the summary of Medea I’ve been working on for my paper. I’ve focused on writing drafts and getting feedback from Ms. Tilly on what information I should include, and what information is not necessary. Since my paper is going to be around 10-15 pages, we figured that my summary of Medea would be about a page. I still need to get advice on my most recent version, but so far I think my summary has been effective! Other than that, she’s been assigning me some more articles to read that examine gender roles in Medea.
During our week eight meeting, Mrs. Gorla and I discussed Carrie (1976), as well as discussing the introduction of the book Men, Women, and Chainsaws. In it, the author discusses gender roles in horror, using Carrie as an example of female characters in relation to their gender. One idea that I’m going to try to incorporate into my project is how typically in horror from the 1970s and 1980s, the gender of characters are decided based on their actions, not the other way around. For example, a character who cries and hides doesn’t do that because she’s a woman, but she’s a woman because she cries and hides. This idea, when analyzed along with Medea and my film choices, illustrates the idea of power in relation to gender, especially in Misery.
At the end of our week eight meeting, Mrs. Gorla and I decided that we would be watching Misery (1990) next. While watching, I made sure to keep the Men, Women, and Chainsaws introduction in mind, especially the idea of power in relation to gender. In Misery, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) is obsessed with a writer, Paul Sheldon (James Caan), to the point where she kidnaps and tortures him after rescuing him from a car wreck. In preparation for week nine’s meeting, I also read an article by Hollie Catherine McDonnell titled "The Misery of Women: Liminality of Gender Roles in Stephen King’s Misery," which talked about the switching power dynamics between Annie and Paul. Despite being locked up, Paul knows that Annie is obsessed with him and he uses it to his advantage multiple times throughout the film. As well as the power dynamics switching multiple times, Annie often switches between feminine and masculine, with a more masculine appearance when’s angry at Paul and more threatening.
Despite week eight being a little boring, I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made over the past two weeks and I’m excited to keep working on my project. See you next week!
Week 10: Social and Political Commentary in Horror
Hi, welcome to the tenth week of my blog!
During this week’s meeting with Ms. Tilly, we mainly kept working on my summary of Medea along with figuring out the key points I would be making when connecting Carrie and Misery to Medea. At the time of that meeting, I hadn’t yet analyzed The Shining, which is why we didn’t discuss it much. Right now, my summary is almost done, but I will most likely make some edits as I continue writing my paper.
Mrs. Gorla and I spent this week’s meeting talking about The Shining, as well as talking a little more about Misery. We also talked a bit about the article she had given me the week before, "The Metafictional Narrativization of the Traumatized Body and Monstrous Femininity from Stephen King’s Horror Fiction" by Csetényi Korinna. Since the article is about 160 pages long, Mrs. Gorla told me that I should mainly focus on the introduction and the sections talking about Carrie and Misery. Due to the length of the article, I figured I'd just mention one detail from the introduction that I thought was interesting: Korinna mentions the idea that despite usually providing insightful commentary on social and political issues, horror is typically dismissed from having any analytical value. While this was one of my main reasons for having my project focus on horror, reading it made me realize that despite it being a main component at the start of my project, I’ve drifted away from it a little. Having that reminder was extremely helpful, as it gave me a solid answer for why I think my analysis and research is important.
I hope to have a full draft of my paper done by next week, and I look forward to seeing the finished product soon!
Week 11: Final Edits
Hi, welcome to the eleventh week of my blog! This week I mostly focused on finishing up my paper and my presentation!
As for my paper, I still have a good amount of work to do, but hopefully I'll be done soon! So far, I have completed the entire Misery section and the entire The Shining section. Now, I just need to finish the Carrie section, the introduction, and the conclusion. However, since I’m already done with my presentation, I already know exactly what I’m going to say for that part of my essay. So far, the presentation is mostly just a simplified version of my paper. There are a lot of things I go into in depth in my paper, but I don’t go into as much detail in my presentation. Part of this is to make it easy for the audience to understand, but also due to the 22-minute time limit. While I’m still not down to 22 minutes in my practice presentations, I should hopefully be around that point by the time I need to present.
With my project coming to an end, I’m having my last meetings with Ms. Gorla, Ms. Tilly, and Ms. Braaten next week. For the most part, I’m planning to discuss last-minute edits to my paper and presentation and practice for it. There are a few details I sometimes forget when presenting, but I’m hoping that after practicing a couple of times, I'll remember everything when it comes time to present.
I’m hoping everything with my paper and presentation turns out ok, but as long as I stay focused on my project, everything should be ok! See you all next week for my final blog post!
Week 12: Conclusion
Hi, welcome to the last week of my blog! This week I finally finished my paper and presented my presentation. Because this is my last blog post, I want to reflect on how this project has been for the past couple of months.
First off, I want to thank my advisors May Braaten, Abby Tilly, and Mia Gorla! Throughout this entire project, they’ve been extremely supportive and helpful. Ms. Braaten was assigned as my faculty advisor at the start of this project, and despite some challenges in getting my project approved and finding an advisor, she’s been extremely patient and understanding for the past six months! Both Ms. Tilly and Ms. Gorla became my advisors later on, with only about 2 months left in the project. Even with the limited time left, they were both excited to help, whether it was giving me articles to read or editing the drafts of my paper. Without the three of them, this project could never have been finished, and I’m so thankful they devoted so much of their time and effort to helping me!
As for the project itself, despite multiple setbacks that meant I only actually started in mid-March, I think my paper is a good representation of the research I’ve been doing over the past couple of months. It ended up being about 20 pages, and while I had to leave out some things, most of my research was included in one way or another. Additionally, when comparing my paper to my presentation, my presentation is a much simpler version. For example, in my presentation, I talked a bit about how Wendy’s costume design evolves during the movie. However, in my paper, I go into more depth, even comparing Wendy’s design to Danny's and Jack's. I also mention the importance of text vs. subtext in my paper much more than in my presentation, and I go into more detail about the importance of horror films in academia. While I would’ve liked to include everything from my paper in my presentation, 20 minutes just wasn’t enough time, but I think I successfully conveyed the most important details. I really like how my paper turned out, and hopefully I’ll be able to incorporate the research I did for this project into future work.
Overall, I’m extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to work on this project and to work with my amazing advisors!
Final Presentation: canva.com/design/editor/shell?designId=DAHL2GLy1tc&extension=hpZ6w1vv2euPAxxru-9s5w&mode=edit