Helplessness

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When you're watching a horror film, you tend to feel more for the person when look or feel fearful. We feel for them because they feel helpless. Nothing feels worse than watching a character who can't change there fate. Not only does feeling hopeless grab the attention from the viewer, it allows the film to portray that suspenseful plot. Helplessness is a major element in horror. While watching a horror move we see someone who getting chased around their house with a knife and they trip and fall. The protagonist in this situation is helpless. There is nothing that can really be done at this time besides for watching the fate of the protagonist.

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The Wife's Story

In this story helplessness appears at the end, when they wife sees that her husband turns into a human. She can see the transformation that is becoming of her husband.She cannot do anything for him to stay as a werewolf, therefore she feels helpless.

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Jekyll and Hyde

So far in this story we can have seen one example of helplessness. This is when the girl is trampled by Mr.Hyde. The girl screams helplessly but he just keeps walking in his route. Jekyll also feels helpless because Hyde is taking over his body & personality. He is having a hard time dealing with it. He can no longer control it due to the fact that Hyde is becoming more powerful.

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The Phantom Coach

At the beginning of this story we can already see the topic of helplessness. This man looses his direction home and a snowstorm is approaching as night comes. He sees an old man walking home and decides to go home with him. The old man takes him to the land lord and the man explains his situation and the master of the house lets him stay the night for the sake of "self preservation". This man is now in a house twenty miles away from his newly wedded wife and has no sense of direction back to her. The man was in a terrible coach crash and wakes up and all of the doctors say he has been dreaming and no one believes him.

The Family of the Vourdalak

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Summary

The Family of the Vourdalak is a horror story about a narrator who tells his story about a difficult mission. He begins by basically admitting to the readers that he when he was a young man that would loathe his looks to the young women.The story begins by him going on his journey but has him take shelter due to weather complications. The family lives in a small Serbian village. During his stay the father Gorcha has gone off hunting with the Turkish brigand Ali Bek. Meanwhile he leaves his two boys George and Pierre and his daughter Sdenka at home.They were awaiting the return of their father. He had told them that if he was not home in ten days sharp, he would be vourdalak (vampire) and that they would have to stab him in the heart. Ten days later Gorcha arrives but Georges suspects his father became a vourdalak, Pierre insists otherwise. Then Georges's son dies unexpectedly. Meanwhile, the narrator who is a French Diplomat is trying to get with Sdenka but fears what the family will say. He leaves and continues his journey. The story then fast forwards to 6 months in. Everyone by then says that the village is plagued with vampires. He then finds out that Gorcha was a vampire when he had returned from his trip and prey on his family. In disappointment he sees Sdenka, the one he loved and find himself being seduced by her. He then realizes that he had been cursed and stabs Sdenka in the heart. Lucky him was able to escape with his horse.

Where Helplessness was Played In The Family of Vourdalak

Helplessness was viewed when the narrator realized Sdenka was a vourdalak. In the beginning he was very please that she liked him, but that was the curse. After he realized that he was cursed, he felt helpless because he knew he had to kill her. He had seen the dangerous predator she has become. Even though he wants to be with her, he stabs himself while embracing her which kills her.

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I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

Helplessness is very evident in this short story. All of the characters were manipulated by the AM. These four characters have been living in a computer setting for a little more than a hundred of years and want out. As one of the members tries to commit suicide, AM blinds him instead. AM can create any situation for these five people and they have no clue of what is going on. AM will put these people through hell but they will not die. No matter how battered they get, they just keep on trekking through the wasteland that AM has created for them. At the end of the story we learn that the narrator needs to scream helplessly but he does not have a mouth to scream with.