Werewolves in Psyche and Cinema: Man‐Beast Transformation and Paradox

The phenomenon of human beings undergoing transformations into other species has been a prevalent notion since the dawn of consciousness. It occurs readily when boundaries between humans and animals are perceived as indistinct or when the presence of those boundaries is being tested or established. Such changes may be voluntary-brought about in an effort to obtain certain desirable characteristics possessed by an animal-or they may be involuntary-inflicted wantonly by an outside force upon an innocent person or intentionally upon a guilty individual as a punishment. Over the course of history, this so-called "shape-changing" has involved many animals, with the wolf being one of the most frequent and persistent. From the Anglo-Saxon wer, meaning man and wulf meaning wolf comes the term werewolf, defined as a man temporarily or permanently transformed into a wolf (Spence 426). Lycanthropy is the magical ability to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf, and is also used to denote a mental disorder in which a person believes himself to be a wolf. Our contemporary technological world is imbued with positivism that leaves little room for humananimal forms like werewolves to prowl the night. For industrialized society, belief in the actuality of werewolves has all but vanished; yet the creatures still exist in the human psyche, lying in wait to disturb our dreams. They remain "alive and well in the twentieth century," according to recent psychiatric case studies (Keck 113; Kulick 134). They survive in popular culture through fantasy fiction, Gothic horror novels, tabloids, and even in a 1978 song about werewolves in London. No single classic gave rise to the werewolf image in the way that Mary Shelley's work established Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's novel created Dracula. Rather the contemporary humanwolf has been inspired largely by cinematic representations. The werewolf is the subject of films which have recurred quite regularly over the last six decades and in which the idea of becoming a werewolf is a real possibility, depicted with creativity and enthusiasm, encoding many symbolic meanings. The 1994 Hollywood hit, Wolf, described as "the thinking man's werewolf movie" (Janusonis D5), stars Jack Nicholson, whose "normal feral intensity and lupine features" including "demonically" arched eyebrows are said to fit him for the role ("Wolf" 13; James 13). He plays Will Randall, book editor of a New York publishing house who, when the story begins, is a polite, intelligent individual described as the "last civilized man." He is known as "a good man," but as someone remarks, "the worst things happen to the best people." His character changes after being bitten by a wolf while traveling in the wilds of Vermont. Not only does this event occur during a full moon, but also on the very night the moon was closer to the earth than it had been in 100 years. The first sign that anything unusual had happened to him is the reaction of extreme fear that he inspires in a horse. Later, birds fly in panic out of the trees when he approaches. Soon, dense hair grows around the bite wound on his hand. Then he develops an extraordinarily keen sense of smell, allowing him to detect the odor of another man on his wife's clothes, betraying her infidelity. He no longer needs glasses, hears conversations through closed doors, and can move each ear separately. Hair grows on his face. He twitches his nose and sniffs the air. His habits change to sleeping by day and being active at night. He makes love to his wife after a long abstinence, first pulling off her bathrobe belt with his teeth. She responds by calling him "You animal!" He feels 20 years younger and suddenly has courage to decide to start his own company. He beats up three thugs who attempt to rob him and leaps over a wall when policemen chase him out of a zoo where he has gone to feed. He gives up his former vegetarian lifestyle and craves meat-the bloodier the better. Randall's conversion is complete when at the next full moon he jumps out of a window, growls revealing fangs instead of teeth, chases a deer through the woods and brings it down. …