Jeffrey Cohen's Monster Culture: Seven Theses

Monsters are a terrifying thing for most societies. However, the monster is not just an ugly creature that terrorizes in the night. Jeffrey Cohen in his article "monster culture: Seven Theses" describes that a monster is “composed of a multitude of fragments that create an on a simulated hybrid or a monstrous body." The monster composes of seven different theses according to Cohen and it is these seven fragments that make up the entire monster. In the novel poor things by Alastair Gray, the embodiment of perfection for of all seven theses is the character of Bella McCandless. She is the monster of the novel and because of her completion of all seven fragments she creates a monster to the Victorian society in which she operates. All seven

Bella dwells at the gates of difference for she is the new woman who is slowly sparking in Victorian society. Exaggerations of the description of the monster is an expectation of thesis IV with the monster becoming a danger to society. The description of the monster by the culture does not represent its true form and full of exaggerations. with the monster been described in ways that do not show the real character monster itself. AN example by Cohen is the description of how Native American depictions as savages are a great misrepresentation of the people but it provides the young United States an avenue and moral high ground to conquer the lands in possession of Native Americans. Very similarly, Bella exemplifies into the monster category by Duncan or describes her as the harlot of revelation, by General Blessington, who describes her as a nympho maniac, by McCandless who views her as a created being that Godwin has restored to life. Bella encompasses the attitudes of the gate difference. She explores homosexuality, socialism, and new gender roles for women. These are all things that outside of mainstream culture, yet Bella represents the monster of a new horizon by different male characters because she represents the outside or the beyond to Victorian

Bella is the dangerous femme fatale. She has beauty and developing brains and she clearly stimulates the wants of Baxter, McCandless, Duncan in almost every person that is a male that she encounters. Cohen describes on page 17 that the same creatures to terrify can evoke capers to fantasies. McCandless is the perfect example of one who sees a complete fantasy of his life with Bella, and Duncan sees a perfect sex object yet throughout the novel Bella becomes that which terrifies both. She terrifies Duncan to the point that he seeks refuge in an asylum. For McCandless, she scares him due to the fear that she is going to leave him a heartbroken man. On page 18 Cohen describes that monsters can act as horizons of liberation. Bella acts as a liberator from the repressive sexual nature of women in Victorian society. The cultural expectation of women is to feel shame for sexual desires, yet Bella openly embraces these desires and even acts on them. Bella understands that men view her as an object of desire to please the sexual fantasies of men, yet at the same time she carries a liberating monstrous spirit that can wreck a Victorian man till he is on his knees in submission. Thesis VII addresses Bella at the end of the novel, which is that she is at the threshold of becoming. Bella becomes self-aware through her journey is across the confidence to