Why do we tell Werewolf Stories?

Why do we tell scary stories? Folk and fairy tales are a way to teach us warnings and lessons; don't be mean to that traveling old man, be wary of wolves in the woods, don’t take that deal that seems too good to be true. Are horror films/stories the same thing, or is there more to it? And more specifically does the monster we chose to chase our hero/heroine portray more about us as storytellers than we think? This is a continuation of my last two articles in which I talked about why we tell ghost and vampire stories. Today I want to address Werewolves. And again, these are largely based on my own perceptions, and thusly they might not address many potential applications these stories could have. But please, I would love to hear from you, what do you think?

So first off, as far as I can recall there seem to be three types of lycanthropy narratives. One would be they mysterious stranger causing amok in the town, the other would be yourself infected and going through these lunar changes, and the last would be a loved one dealing with this disease. I don’t really want to touch on a stranger, because that is a pretty broad subject depending on who you have represent this stranger. And I don’t really want to talk about it being yourself because I feel this could bleed into my first article, why do we tell ghost stories in the sense that getting lycanthropy could be like you dealing with hereditary illness or other diseases. So what I want to address is when it is a loved on who is infected with lunar lunacy.

So let's break this down a bit and follow the flow of the story. Usually we start with our main character, we are going to call them “the defense”. They usually have a lover/younger sibling/best friend who they largely take care of, or more just feel responsible for. Either because of obligations or just because they love them so much and only want their happiness. We are going to call this other person “the offense”. Whatever the case either because it’s hereditary or because of some trauma “the offense” changes. They become more aggressive, can’t control their temper, and start changing more things about their lifestyle. What does this sound like to you, because to me it could be a few things. It could be living with an alcoholic, or younger sibling you are in charge of going through puberty, or just in general living with someone who is abusive or bipolar. So to “broadly” categorize this we are going to say abusive relationships, mostly involuntarily abusive. It usually starts small and unnoticed by those around the offense and defense. In the stories there will just be some dead wildlife popping up around, but no one thinks too much about it it. The person infected with Lycanthropy knows something is wrong, but tries to ignore or hide it. Which always just makes the problem worse. In real life this is very similar, the outside world doesn’t know there is a problem, the defense might show up on day with messed up hair, runny mascara or a bruise. But it is casually explained away with no one the wiser. And the offense at this point still thinks they either don’t have a problem at all (ignoring) or thinks they can fix it themselves (hiding).

Then things escalate, as they always do. In the movies this can be as fast as the next night, as the moon gets closer and closer to the full moon the beast inside becomes more aggressive. Or it escalates next month, during the next full moon. Either way, someone is either hurt or killed. In real life it takes much longer to get to a fatal point, which in actuality makes it more dangerous. When things hit fast like a car crash, it's obvious there is a problem. But when its a slow burn, it’s much easier for those involved to rationalize the problem away thinking the outburst are so few and far between, or they only do it when they drink, or whatever the excuse to not seek help is. When it comes at you slower, you don’t think it's as bad as it really is. That is until it reaches the tipping point, someone gets REALLY hurt, and I don’t think I need to explain what that is, everyone knows that point. This is when the offense is no longer that person you love or care for, they are the beast jeopardizing your wellbeing. They have fully transformed into something you do not recognize anymore.

In the stories there are always a few different possible outcomes.

1. The Beast wins. The offense has killed or pushed away everyone linking them to their humane side, and have let their addiction/rage/whatever control their lives. This is not a good ending, usually ends with them killing the one who was trying to help them. 
2. The Offense dies. Whether it be because they were unwilling to try and change, or were incapable of changing. Either way, they were too much of a risk to those around them and either willingly gave up their lives, or were killed by someone else. In real life this could literally mean the offense pushed the defense so far, that in defense of their own safety they kill the offense, or have them arrested and get them locked up. This might solve the problem for the defense, but the problem the offense was struggling with never gets solved. This is not a good ending either, no one has to die because of something they can’t control. There is always a better option, even if that means committing them to an institution of some sort; rehab, hospital, or asylum. People do come out of those places changed if they are willing to try. Or atleast live their lives in the safety of knowing someone is taking care of them, and will sedate them if they ever start to become a rage monster again.
3. Compromise. The offense and defense work together to cure/maintain the offense’s illness. Either through locking them up each month, or coming up with some sort of pseudoscience cure or magic remedy maintain symptoms. In my opinion this is the best ending. Both parties admit there is a problem and both are willing to figure out how to solve it, together. In real life this could still mean rehab or treatment for bipolar or whatever disease/illness they may have. Either way, offense and defense are together, fighting it together and thus both become stronger and better for it.

In the past, stories usually ended in a bittersweet way, which I generally dislike. Because it gives people the idea in their head that there is something wrong with them that can not be fixed. And they are a monster because they can’t control this aspect of their life. But these days you are seeing more and more stories pop up with option C, because we as a collective we are less interested in saying you’re a bad person because of “X” reason, and are more in favor of “oh “X” reason makes you do these bad things, let's figure out what trigger’s “X” then see if we can eliminate “X” all together and throw you back into society as a productive happy member.”
So back to my original question, why do we tell werewolf stories. Well 50 years ago, or to be honest probably more like 15 years ago, I feel like it was warning and blaming. Warn people of the signs of “the offense” type person, and say “Just stay away, they are a monster, and there is nothing you can do about them accept kill them or lock them up.” Which is horrible, everyone deserves a chance at happiness, especially when the “X” thing that makes them a monster by your standards is something they can’t control, or are struggling to control. Just makes a society of people who think in the “us vs. them” mentality and that only leads to heartbreak and death. But lately I think we tell these stories to say, “Hey, you are sick, you are not a monster. You only become a monster if you let your illness consume you. Let me help you through this. You will find that you can accomplish so much more with someone by your side than you could alone”. And these days, you are never alone unless you chose to be.

Why do we tell Vampire Stories?

Why do we tell scary stories? Folk and fairy tales are a way to teach us warnings and lessons; don't be mean to that traveling old man, be wary of wolves in the woods, don’t take that deal that seems too good to be true. Are horror films/stories the same thing, or is there more to it? And more specifically does the monster we chose to chase our hero/heroine portray more about us as storytellers than we think? This is a continuation of my last article in which I talked about why we tell ghost stories. In this article I want to address Vampires, the dark seducers. And again, these are largely based on my own perceptions, and thusly they might not address many potential applications these stories could have. But please, I would love to hear from you, what do you think?

So what do non Dracula/Camilla/Strahd (those are a whole other sub-genre of their own) Vampire stories consist of, or what is the general template when writing them? Good girl/boy, lured to the dark side usually giving up on a good boy/girl/job/family/faith & support system in order to be with the seducer. Then triumphing over her desire for power/love and returning to those who never gave up on her. What does this sound like to you? Because to me it sounds like overcoming addiction. Well that was a large generalization, let's break this down and discuss these points in a little more detail now.

So we have our wholesome, pure character, untainted by the big bad world, let's call them “the naive”. Then rolls in the new kid in town, or maybe they aren’t the new kid, maybe they are just now paying attention to our naive little blood bag. Either way the hunter has marked its prey, and it will not relent until it gets it’s sanguine smoothie. This is much like many people (not all) with addiction will describe the beginning of their journey with whatever addiction they suffered from. They were good kids, from good family, in a good neighborhood. But still they found themselves with someone who showed them a darker path. The seduction in real life is still very similar to the “glamouring” from vampires. In many vampire stories they have a sort of magic to them, that they can “glamour” people to do their bidding. It’s always played up as seductively, the person will do their bidding enthusiastically, anything to please the vampire. As if ecstasy can only be achieved through pleasing your vampire master. These, let’s call them “initiators”, on the outside they always appear to be cool, smart, carefree, a little on the wild side. But it’s so different than our naive main character is used to they are drawn towards the initiator. Get a taste of the other side.

Once the naive and the initiator begin their courtship, the naive will receive a lot of resistance from the world they came from. Their friends, family, neighborhood/network are all telling them the initiator is bad news. These are almost direct correlations between real life and the fantasized vampire story. I mean really, when you were reading those sentences you weren’t sure which I was talking about were you, the vampire characters or the real world people? But of course receiving the disdain from those around you only push you more towards the initiator. No one likes being told what they can and can’t do. Thus begins the separation from their old life and their journey into their new life. Much like in vampire tales, you die leaving everything you knew before behind, and are reborn in blood.

Then there is the actual addition portion of it, the blood. What happens when vampires feed? Their senses are heightened, they become stronger, more powerful, everything is clearer to them and there is a feeling of bliss and ecstasy. This is exactly how many people would describe the high of certain drugs. And what happens when you come down? You feel sick, weak, powerless and all you can think about is when are we going to feed again? Drinking blood consumes your life, things you found important before, fall into the shadow that this new life casts. And before you know it, that person you used to be is gone completely, and for a time, you are fine with this. Because you have something better, you have power, you can obtain nirvana at a moments notice, and you love it. But what happens when you run out money, or a vampire can’t hunt? They go through withdraw, both vampires and addicts. Both can die from this, both become desperate. In vampire tales they say this is a “frenzy” the beast inside takes over and they can’t control it. They basically hulk out and go on a killing spree or they die. With addiction this “frenzy” can be described just as the desperation to do anything to get their next hit. This “frenzy” would be the point they hit where all of who they used to be dies and the addiction takes over. This is their lowest point, whether it be resorting to robbery, murder, prostitution, whatever it is. The point they give up on everything they believed in just to get one more “hit”. They are no longer thinking about their life, the lives of others, or the consequences, all they think about is getting the next hit. I discussed this theory with my husband and he disagreed because he felt vampire stories are about the loss of humanity, and I didn’t disagree with him, but I felt this parody was a loss of humanity. That point I’m talking about right here is their loss of humanity. The moment you lose everything you used to be and are nothing more than a slave to your drug of choice. That is your loss of humanity.

So back to my original question, why do we tell vampire stories? In this case I think it is a warning. Be weary of the bed you lie in, while seductive, it can destroy you. But more than that, I think it’s instilling in everyone’s brain that yes, you might be lured down that dark path and seduced by the power, strength, nirvana, or whatever your reason. But no matter what you do, there is a way out. And this is where the last part of my discussion comes in. The redemption. In these stories, just when the main character hits that point, that complete loss of humanity. Someone new/old come in/back into their life and reminds them they can be good again. They can get better, I’m here for you. In real life this could be the past lover/family member/community member. Any of them or maybe even a compilation of them. But they come back into your life when you need them most, even though you turned your back on them, they never gave up on you. And they will help you get out of this. This is usually where, in the vampire tales you have to kill your “maker” or in our case “initiator” and you can go back to being human. After your maker is killed in most vampire lore, you revert back, changed, but no longer a vampire. This is like going through “rehab”, or kicking your addiction however you do it, please don’t kill the person who got you into drugs. In the tales, your allies will fight alongside of you, to kill the “initiator”. In real life they will hold your hair while you are throwing up, and stay with you through withdraw. And continue to stay with you as you go through your recovery.

So in conclusion, I feel like we do tell these stories as warning of the dark seduction. But more than that, much like the ghost stories examination I did, I feel like we tell these stories again to let you know, you are not alone. Even though you have lost your humanity, done these terrible things, and pushed away everyone that loves you. They still love you, all you have to do is reach out and ask for help. Even if you did push everyone too far away and feel like your old connections will never help you, just reach out. Someone will grab your hand. Do you think Mina Harker knew VanHelsing before she started having problems with Dracula? No Van Helsing is a professional, skilled in dealing with Vampires. She reached out and he was there, just as anyone can reach out and find a therapist, or sponsor, or pastor. There’s too many people in this world for anyone to ever be alone.

Why do we tell ghost stories?

“We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.” ― Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas

Why do we tell scary stories? Folk and fairy tales are a way to teach us warnings and lessons; don't be mean to that traveling old man, be wary of wolves in the woods, don’t take that deal that seems too good to be true. Are horror films/stories the same thing, or is there more to it? And more specifically does the monster we chose to chase our hero/heroine portray more about us as storytellers than we think? This is something that has been bouncing around in my head for a couple years but I really started thinking about this one time when I was arguing with a friend about why watching a horror film is still “worth it” if the film itself isn’t scary. In that conversation I went into how scary stories and horror films are just the modern day adaptation of greek tragedies or folk/fairy tales. They are fantasized versions of things that we as a people struggle with on a regular basis. So I want to talk about some of these basic “genres” in horror and how they could be addressed to real world problems we face. I was going to do all of these in one article, but it ends up I have a LOT to say about some of these so I’m gonna break them up into a few articles. Now these are largely based on my own perceptions, and thusly they might not address many potential applications these stories could have. But please, I would love to hear from you, what do you think?

So first and foremost let’s talk about ghosts. This is probably one of the oldest versions of using fantasy to cope with daily strife. Everyone wants to believe they still have a chance to talk to loved ones after they move on, or they want to believe that if they die before they finish business that perhaps their spirit will remain on after to finish it up. But those are obvious, I want to talk about stress, inherited disorders or diseases and family drama. The FUN stuff. So let's talk about the key points that most ghost stories hit on. 

First lets address location, whether its a brand new home on an old burial ground, an old family estate, or you're just moving into an old manor home. The location always has an long history attached to it, and own story to tell. You might be a new performer in its already long running dark tragedy. But these stories always have a location that is brimming with its own history and dark twisted secrets, or even widely known tragedies. This is much like your own family, they have been surviving long before you and will be going long after you as well, and whether you know it yet or not, your family has just as many dark secrets, genealogical disorders/diseases, and so very much drama. So a lot of these stories relate to you when you may have that dark revelation that your family isn’t as sweet a beautiful as you always thought. Just like in the stories when that too good to be true house, becomes just that. Too good to be true.

Secondly I would like to talk about the ghosts themselves. Who are they, and how does our depiction of them indicate what is really bothering us as a storyteller? In order to figure this out I had to ask myself, What is a ghost? Is it not just the essence of  suffering that lingers on after it’s forebear has passed? So if you have an abusive partner or parent, that leaves or dies. The physical threat is gone, but your mental anguish lives on. You become haunted by the one who hurt you all those times, even though you know, they will never hurt you again.  This is the same for hereditary illnesses. You go about your life never knowing that perhaps there is something in your family bloodline that can attack you. Mental or physical it is as if the ghost of a past relative has come back and is attacking your livelihood and happiness. Or maybe it skipped you and is attacking a child or another family member. This is the same for stories about family curses, you did nothing wrong, but all of a sudden because of who your parents or grandparents were or something they did, now you are suffering for it.

The last point I would like to talk about when it comes ghosties is the sense of being a lone in this problem. This is almost ALWAYS the case in ghost stories, either you are actually by yourself or no one believes you that there is a problem. Either way you feel like it’s just you dealing with this problem. This directly correlates to dealing with family issues. This could be because you inherited some sort of illness from your family that you are dealing with, mental or physical. Even when friends or family are sympathetic to you, because they aren’t experiencing it with you, it still feels like you are alone on this. They aren’t there for the times you mind starts slipping, or your heart starts skipping beats, they don’t feel the terror, anxiety, fear and depression that follows, so no matter how sympathetic they might be toward your plight, they aren’t there with you. You are in this alone, only you can handle it, and only you can fix it. This is the same thing you see in ghost stories and movies. There might be other people around the events but it usually fixates on one person, dealing with this trauma. Even in the instances where it is the whole family experiencing this, it’s usually just one person the ghost or entity is focusing on, and that one person is making life harder on the rest of the family. Much like mental/physical illnesses feel like they are doing. And stress is another issue people deal with alone, that could be interpreted in these ghostly tales. You usually have that story where someone is biting off more than they can chew, like buying a beautiful old mansion they can’t really afford in the hopes of fixing it up and flipping it, but the ghosts keep messing with all their attempts and the world just comes crashing down on the main character as they slowly break under the financial and spiritual stress. The correlation here would be that person in your family who thinks they can help everyone, and can fix all their problems. But they can’t, and it eventually eats them up inside and breaks them. Either way, all these situations you feel you are alone during this endeavor, and the horrors you face while not visible to others are very real to you and very deadly.

So in closing I would like to readdress my original question. Why do we tell ghost stories? I don’t believe it’s a warning how to avoid tragedy. Tragedy is all around us, we can’t choose our family, just as we can’t choose genes we are born with. I think we tell ghost stories to let others know, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. What ever you are going through, someone has been there before, that is why the history is so important in ghost stories. What you are going through right now, someone in that house went through the same thing. Or someone in your family had this same disease, someone has been there before, and they are here with you now again, maybe not physically but in spirit. They are here for you, and others want to help you. You just have to reach out and ask.