AD Fredline
Ever since the nation’s founding, the monster’s form in American horror cinema has chronicled American history, reflecting both our greatest fears and our greatest inhibitions, as suggested in W. Scott Poole’s Monsters in America (2014). While the purpose of monsters in horror cinema is most clearly to thrill and terrify, these creatures also often symbolize the underdog, representing the traits and identities of those who have been outcast by society. As Poole writes, “the marginalized are the monstrous and the monstrous is marginalized. The monster, more than our fears, also represents our hatreds. … The monster is the sickening Other.”[1] As a result of this connection to those deemed abnormal and undesirable, the monster is consequently endowed with extreme liberatory potential, harboring the capability to combat societal expectations in order to establish a new code of conduct.[2] This phenomenon of marginalization leading to revolution is better understood through the applications of deviance theory.
According to the interactionist perspective, deviance can be defined as “the infraction of some agreed-upon rule” with focus placed on who makes the rules and who breaks the rules.[3] In his foundational text, Outsiders (1963), Howard Becker expands this perspective to include an additional feature of the phenomenon of deviance: it is created by society.[4] As the concept of deviancy is socially constructed, the same can be said of the deviant label. This argument constitutes labeling theory. According to labeling theory, a person or group of people in possession of power is given the liberty of setting rules and boundaries for an entire community’s inhabitants. Those who step outside of these expectations come to be known as deviants due to their opposition to the group’s declared rules. In order to control the population and preserve the sanctity of the set rules, the deviant must be either policed into conformity or punished for their crimes. Under this definition, there is no true understanding of deviant. The deviant only represents what those in power find undesirable. Given that this is the case, the definition of deviant within a society could fully reverse itself if there were a shift in power, resulting in a revolution–a new group morality with a new idea of deviance. In this comparison, the monster represents the deviant. While he may be oppressed for his violation of societal standards and for inciting fear within the general populace, he has the power to change the status quo by overcoming those who labeled him deviant in the first place. Only one question remains: if deviance is entirely subjective, how do we know who the deviant is? Who is the monster? As in many cases, in Rob Reiner’s 1990 film, Misery, the answer is not that clear cut.
In the film, Annie Wilkes finds her favorite author, Paul Sheldon, stranded in a blizzard after suffering a near-fatal car crash. She then takes him into her home to care for him. However, after reading his latest works, Annie feels the need to correct him and help him find his true “clean” path by any means necessary, despite his disagreement with her positions. As this is the case, throughout the entire run time, the two struggle constantly for power over one another. Each acting on their beliefs about what is right and wrong, the two characters offer a dramatic contrast that further strengthens the polarity of their beliefs with every interaction. Each views the other as the antagonist: Paul sees a mentally insane woman, while Annie sees a man who has lost sight of his calling in life and needs to be reminded how to use his God-given talent. This mimics dozens of moral battles that have raged throughout history: religion vs. atheism, conservativism vs. liberalism, right vs. wrong. This polarity is further developed by the isolation of the two into a singular home for the majority of the film, creating a sort of simulation of a community through which it becomes possible to examine society’s true inner workings. As such, the struggle for power between Annie and Paul serves as a microcosm of the broader social conflict between deviant and non-deviant identities, showcasing the deviant label’s core interchangeability and instability.
Annie and Paul have vastly different sets of morals and values. Annie represents a more conservative society, disapproving of the use of profanity, drugs, and anything typically viewed as taboo. Paul, on the other hand, represents a more modern view of reality. While he does not explicitly say that he supports things like drugs and profanity, he at least acknowledges their existence by including them in his new novel. Due to this polarity of beliefs, the two are bound to have disagreements. However, despite their differences, the two must somehow work together in order to form a group morality through which to govern over the Wilkes Farm, where the two reside for the duration of the film. This struggle results in the formation of a community complete with a constructed system of power.
While the Wilkes Farm may not assume the appearance of a traditional community, it can be considered such since its inhabitants share “a common sphere of experience which makes them feel that they belong to a special ‘kind’ and live in a special ‘place.’”[5] In regards to a physical space, the two are in close quarters at Annie’s home for the entirety of the film. Annie may travel into town a few times, but she never changes her place of residence, meaning that her permanent position and influence stays at the farmhouse. Paul has no choice but to stay due to his injuries acquired in the car crash from which Annie saved him, so he is a permanent resident too. As a result of this near-total isolation of the two, Annie and Paul also end up sharing mental space as well. They communicate and interact almost solely with each other, experiencing little to no contact with the outside world. As such, the two must acclimate to the culture of this new community, or one must gain enough power to shape it into the culture he or she prefers. This creates a power struggle that holds strong for the duration of the film, propelling the narrative forward.
Within a community, a power structure essentially serves as the skeleton. It is the base on which all interactions, behaviors, and attitudes within the community are built. Since the power structure serves such an integral role in the functioning of a community, it makes sense that all inhabitants would want to reside in the top position of power so that they can form the community in whichever way they choose. As Miller suggests, those in positions of power have “the greatest influence in determining a culture’s overall outlook—its philosophy, morality, social theory, and even its science. The dominant group, thus, legitimizes the unequal relationship and incorporates it into society’s guiding concepts.”[6] In the case of the Wilkes Farm, Annie is the one that claims the position of power. This is due to a multitude of factors. First, the only other inhabitant of the community, Paul, is bedridden due to severe injuries stemming from his car crash. Physically, Annie can overpower him. Her leverage over Paul is strengthened by the fact that Annie serves as Paul’s caregiver. These roles as the physically stronger and the caretaker grant Annie the power to both give and take pain away from Paul. She also has the power to withhold food and even shelter as the owner and provider at Wilkes Farm. Second, the community itself is contained within Annie’s home. As such, it could be argued that the group morality and values had been decided before Paul even arrived. Annie then holds the power to decide what is and what is not considered deviant within the community.
As Annie sets the values, it makes sense that her morals dictate what is and is not acceptable on the farm. Profanity, along with anything she claims to be “dirty,” is therefore not tolerated within their community. This also includes rude and ungrateful behavior, along with writing about anything she deems unacceptable. The individual defying any of these rules is labeled as a deviant. Essentially, the deviant label can be understood as “a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender.’ The deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label.”[7] In this understanding, deviancy is entirely socially constructed within every community almost independently from other conceptions. In the case of the Wilkes Farm, Paul is identified as deviant because he does not subscribe to the behavioral expectations of Annie and, by extension, the community. This is evidenced by Annie’s reference to him as a “dirty birdie” and other accusations. When Paul is officially labeled as a deviant, he must then be treated as such. In order to uphold the values of a community, those who deviate from the expectation must be controlled in one way or another.
In order to neutralize a deviant, the community must first cycle through a process of identification. Acts of deviance are labeled as unacceptable and in need of correction through a form of confrontation: individuals who have violated a norm are met by policing agents whose purpose it is to identify the deviant and punish them for violating the values of the community, thereby preventing the misconduct from threatening the communal values.[8] In the case of Misery, Paul is the deviant who is policed by Annie in three separate fashions, including debilitation, censorship, and punishment. While Paul is technically debilitated prior to Annie’s bringing him into her home, she intentionally worsens his condition in a few different ways. First, she locks him in a room. While this does not physically handicap him, it does confine him in a way that severely limits his freedom of movement. In regards to limiting his physical strength, she also gives him pain medication via pills and injections that put him to sleep, taking away any possibility he has of revolting by keeping him incapacitated. Finally, she resorts to hobbling, which further handicaps him and limits his range of movement for the rest of his life. This serves as an effective form of policing in that the deviant, Paul, is unable to do further harm to the group morality. Paul’s influence on the group morality is also nullified through Annie’s censorship. After reading his new novel, she points out to him that it is not of acceptable quality and forces him to burn the sole copy of the manuscript. In destroying his one copy, she takes away any power it could have had on the group’s values. Annie enforces this censorship by pouring lighter fluid on his body as a threat of burning him alive if he does not comply, strong-arming him into acquiescing to her will. Annie’s efforts then go even further by forcing Paul to write another book that follows the community’s norms. This not only completely neutralizes the possible impact of the deviant but also serves to force him into compliance. And the final method Annie uses to police Paul is punishment. This takes on many forms, such as physical attacks whenever the nurse feels the author is ungrateful, verbal attacks whenever she is enraged by his actions, and even psychological attacks such as when he is forced to burn his manuscript. While these three policing methods differ in approach, they all work toward the same goal: force the deviant into a position where he can do no harm.
In response to these policing efforts, instead of conforming, Paul answers with resistance. In response to his debilitation, he works on building up his physical strength and secretly stockpiles his medication so he can attempt to poison Annie. In response to censorship, he burns the newly written “clean” novel, the Misery novel Annie demanded, as an act of protest. Finally, in response to punishment, he strategically works to overcome the odds against him in order to establish a fighting chance against Annie. This work comes to a head at the end of the film when the two fight after the book is burned. Despite his disadvantages, Paul ends up defeating Annie by engaging in physical combat, eventually hitting her over the head with a metal pig. As a result, Paul gains the position of power. While he may not stay at the physical space of the Wilkes Farm for long, he carries its impact with him long after leaving, as evidenced by the appearance of Annie at the end of the film. Despite her continued influence, Paul holds the power to tell the tale of what happened within the community by being the only one to remain alive. As such, he gets to decide who the deviant is in the public eye. He completely reverses the definition of deviancy by attaining the role once used to confine him to a position of submission.
By counterpointing two individuals with diametrically opposed moralities and codes of conduct, the film disrupts simple assumptions about deviancy, complicating answers as to whether Paul or Annie is the deviant. From the perspective of the audience, it is easy to identify Annie as the antagonist framed in Paul’s point of view: an obsessive super-fan who is so fixed in her beliefs that she deprives the injured author of outside knowledge and influence as well as of any chance of recovery. However, from her own perspective, Annie is merely trying to help a man understand his calling as an author. In portraying how reality and conceptions of normalcy change based on perspective, it becomes apparent that there is no concrete definition of right and wrong and, by extension, no solid definition of deviant, either. There is only interpretation backed by power that makes it so.
Notes:
[1] Poole, 13.
[2] Dumas, 33.
[3] Becker, 40.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Erikson, 18.
[6] Miller, 94.
[7] Becker, 41.
[8] Erikson, 19-21.
Works Cited:
Becker, Howard. “Relativism: Labeling Theory.” Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction, 8th ed., edited by Patricia Adler and Peter Adler, Cengage Learning, 2014, pp. 40-44.
Dumas, Chris. “Horror and Psychoanalysis: An Introductory Primer.” A Companion to the Horror Film, edited by Harry M. Benshoff, Wiley Blackwell, 2017, pp. 21-37.
Erikson, Kai. “On the Sociology of Deviance.” Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction, 8th ed., edited by Patricia Adler and Peter Adler, Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 17-24.
Miller, Jean Baker. “Domination and Subordination.” Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, 10th ed., edited by Paula Rothenberg and Soniya Munshi, Worth Publishers, 2016, pp.91-96.
Poole, W S. Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting. Baylor University Press, 2011.
