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The Horrors Of The Female Body In Monster House

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Home Sweet Home: Exploring the Horrors of the Female Body in Monster House The architecture of the “haunted house” centers on the uncanny, distorting the familiarity of an entity while still encompassing the original characteristics that make it familiar to the human eye. It is this landmark of horror that terrorizes a group of kids, D.J, Jenny, and Chowder in the 2006 animated film Monster House as they attempt to make sense of the supernatural elements that surround the house. And yet the house is not a house, but the embodied spirit of the owner’s — Mr. Nebbercracker’s — deceased wife: Constance. In the throes of their investigation, the kids learn that the house is alive along with the land it is built on, possessing human organs, eyes, …show more content…

In her monstrous form, Constance protects the house and Mr. Nebbercracker by eating any individual who sets foot on the property with her slithery tongue and splintered wood teeth. However, the feminine nature of the house is first implied by Jenny when she points out the uvula which Chowder mistakes for the uterus, seemingly grossed out (Monster House 53:58-53:22). Thus, a close connection is formed between monstrosity and female reproductive bodily functions. The ‘grotesque’ bodily structure of women in this sense produces the monstrous, as it wards off the male individual: it is a site dedicated to evil. As Creed mentions, “the notion of the castrated woman is a phantasy intended to ameliorate man’s real fear of what women might do to him… specifically, he fears that woman could castrate him both psychically and in a sense physically” (Creed 6). Although Constance was previously humiliated for her appetite and large appearance, she utilizes consumption as a weapon to revolt against the higher order, that is, to emasculate men. Constance innately abjects humanity and embraces the monstrous

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The novel writes that “She folded the grocery bag and put it with the others in the drawer, and set the library books on the shelf where they were going to stay forever” and “Constance worked in the kitchen, and it was a joy to watch her, moving beautifully in the sunlight, touching foods so softly” (Jackson, 2010, p. 21), Constance, as the primary caregiver for her sister and Uncle Julian, is usually responsible for cooking, cleaning, and other things in life. Instead of accepting the obligation to care for them as those traditional women are forced to do, she takes the initiative to take care of them, which challenges the traditional gender roles, which gives them independence as women in that society. The character of Constance shows the refusal of others to interfere with her arrangement of some things in the family, which challenges the traditional idea that women need male care. As the story develops in the novel, Constance does not seem to be as weak and passive as seen earlier, she is actually a completely different person who goes out of her way to do everything she can to protect her sister. Constance does a lot for Merricat, as the novel mentioned that "‘Here is treasure for you to bury,’ Constance used to say to me when I was small, giving me a penny, or a bright

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This is the first example of how Constance opposes the feminist

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