Are We Enthralled By Violence?

The entire world is drawn to violence and power, but we were taught at a young age that we aren't suppose to be.
At any moment a kid could trip down the stairs and hurt themselves. It’s sad to see, but you have to see the pain.
A ten car pile up could be happening on the other side of the road, but we don’t look away. We continue to look at it even when several people could be seriously injured or even dead.
When a sibling annoys us, we scream. Scream till you lash out every bit of anger towards them, but you don’t say “sorry” after the fact because you don’t feel bad that you were able to feel all that power.

In Phantom of the Opera, The Opera Ghost had a deformity in his face. The main character, Christine, is hypnotized though by the horror of this man, because of his past actions and the horror that lies underneath his mask. She wants to get away from him, but something about the violence of that man kept her from doing so.

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is slowly slipping away. She wants her husband to kill the king, because she wants to feel power. In order to gain that power she turns to the night to cloak her so she can go forth with the deed of killing the king.
“Come, dark night.
And pall thee, into the dunnest smoke of hell.”
She turned to evil. Although it seems scary that’s the price of feeling that power and violence.

We can all admit that we never want to do anything bad that can hurt others. Once you get that little taste of power though, you can’t help wanting more.




In Jekyll and Hyde, Mr. Utterson meets Hyde for the first time, “There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scare know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point. He’s an extraordinary looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way.” (43-44) Although, Mr. Utterson sees the horror in Hyde, he can’t stop feeling enthralled with how he looked.