The Freedom of the Werewolf

In Cohen’s essay, his third thesis describes how the monster defies conventional categorization. This helps to explain some of the monstrous elements of the werewolf. Werewolves have a somewhat complicated background with differing types and characteristics. For clarification, I am referring to the version of the werewolf in which a seemingly ordinary person turns into a wolf-human hybrid in the presence of a full moon and is weak only to silver. It has become human nature to seek understanding in the world around us. Classifying people, animals, plants, etc. has made this easier for us; we can classify something and then assign attributes to it based on that classification. This makes us feel like we understand whatever it was we classified and makes us feel safe knowing there will be no surprises. The werewolf, among other monsters, breaks the classification system (or demonstrates the fault in it). The werewolf escapes the confines of biology as we know it by being a hybrid between a man and wolf. Additionally, it possesses superior strength and is vulnerable only to silver. Even if one were able to believe the hybrid of the wolf and the man and then reclassify it somewhere between them, they lose all sense of security when looking at the traits of the werewolf. There is no way to explain how the cross between a man and a wolf would be much stronger than the two and have an arbitrary weakness to silver. The nature of lycanthropy causes even more confusion with classification. A person infected with lycanthropy appears as a normal human being, but the full moon causes them to transform into a werewolf. Someone infected with lycanthropy can then be classified as a werewolf at times and a human at other times. The anxiety associated with the lack of knowledge surrounding the werewolf is coupled with its physical attributes to make a truly monstrous creature.

Because the werewolf is free from the shackles of classification, I was reminded of Cohen’s sixth thesis. In it, he describes how the fear is often rooted in desire. If the werewolf were a physical manifestation of man’s inner demons, people could easily envy the werewolf. The werewolf is an extremely powerful beast that is not held accountable for its actions. It wreaks havoc during the night of the full moon and then transforms back into an ordinary human being to live out its ordinary life. The person is able to release his inner demons vicariously through the werewolf with none of the consequences the rest of us would have to face.