Text № 3

Horrors!

Everyone thinks about the supernatural – things that cannot be explained. Things that are frightening. People have always been fascinated by the supernatural. The men and women of ancient Greek literature believed in and feared the power of the supernatural. Many of the ancient Greek plays are full of fear and horror. Today, in parts of the world like Haiti in the West Indies, people believe strongly in the power of magic or woodoo. You and I are afraid of things that can’t be explained. But we are fascinated by the fear. We are afraid, but we are curious. Stories of mysterious and horrible events frighten us and attract us.

Shakespeare’s plays included ghosts and spirits. The Jacobean tragedies, written in the early 17^th century, were often blood-curdling. But for English readers, horror stories really became fashionable in the middle of the 18^th century. In 1764 Horace Walpole wrote «The Castle Otranto». His book was the first «Gothic novel». The Gothic novels started a fashion that continued for more than two hundred years. The stories were full of violence. They were usually of medieval times and often took place in gloomy castles. The plots are very complicated and the characters don’t seem very real. In fact, so many horrible things happen in these stories that they often make us laugh.

The best of these horror novels didn’t appear until 1818. This is «Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus» written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, wife of the famous English poet Shelly. Why did she write it?

She was staying in Switzerland with her husband and Lord Byron. The weather was very bad - it kept raining, so they couldn’t leave the house. In order to amuse themselves, Byron suggested that they should each write a ghost story. This is how Mary’s famous story began. The Shelleys and Byron discussed the work of Darwin. One night Mary had a dream after these conversations. She dreamt of a student, Frankenstein, who had made a monster which came to life.

Frankenstein made his monster out of parts of human corpses. When he had made his monster, he became excited and frightened by what he had done. The monster was a gentle creature and rather clever. He taught himself to read Milton’s «Paradise Lost», Plutarch’s «Lives» and Goethe’s «The Sorrows of Werther». He wanted humans to love and understand him. Because no one could understand him and no woman could love him he became violent and destroyed Frankenstein.

It is an unforgettable story. Hundreds of other stories and films have been based on it.

Horror films have also been popular since the silent film «Cabinet of Dr Caligary». There have been many horror films which have no real plot – only a lot of blood and screams. There have been also some very serious films about the supernatural. But now there is a new kind of horror films, funny horror. They are like the old films but the actors do too many «horrific» things. So the old situations look extremely funny, not frightening.

Writers and film-makers will continue to use horror – in a serious way or in a funny way. And the public will continue to buy the horror stories and queue up for the horror movies. The fascination continues. Horror is here to stay!

Вариант 4