Comparing Monsters In 'Iphigenia In Aulis And' The Outside

Rough Draft 2

Throughout “Iphigenia in Aulis” and “The Outsider”, both protagonists of the short stories are treated as monsters. In “Iphigenia in Aulis”, Melanie is “strapped into the chair, and she can’t move her hands or her feet or her head” (Carey 163). This treatment and daily rituals convey a great sense of precaution, even for a little girl, from her jailers fearing her capabilities. Melanie tries to defuse the situation and put them at ease without much success. As for the unnamed narrator in “The Outsider”, which will be referred to as THE OUTSIDER, he describes his first encounter with normal civilization in which he had “scarcely had I crossed the sill when there descended upon the whole company a sudden and unheralded fear of hideous

Melanie is a normal child with child-like thoughts. Throughout the week, Melanie has classes but “Saturdays are long and dull, and hard to get through. Melanie tells herself aloud some of the stories that the children have been told in class” (Carey 165). Boredom and finding a form of entertainment is not a norm for a monster but it is for a child like Melanie. Melanie’s thoughts are more of a child who has been grounded, which she is in a way, and as a result of her isolation, she finds a way to pass the time by thinking of stories. As for THE OUTSIDER, as he describes his home and his vast number of books, he thinks to himself “such a lot the gods gave to me – to me, the dazed, the disappointed; the barren, the broken. And yet I am strangely content and cling desperately to those sere memories, when my mind momentarily threatens to reach beyond to the other” (Lovecraft). Even though he describes himself as barren and broken, he is fully aware of himself and knows how fortunate he is to have what he has. He is also content with his memories. THE OUTSIDER is eloquent and very self-aware without a trace of hate, fear, anger, or sinister