Physicality versus Insubstantiality
"The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford is one of the few ghost stories in The Oxford Book of English Ghosts Stories that presents a physical supernatural being. Before Brisbane, the main character, makes contact with the ghost, he denies the existence of anything supernatural by accounting rationally for the oddities that occur in his room. When he finally comes face to face with the ghost, he describes it through senses of touch, vision, and smelling. The senses persuade the character, and also the reader, that the non-rational is in fact real, which in turn creates more fear than if it were an illusion. Although insubstantial ghosts create considerable fear, ghosts with a physical presence are ultimately more psychologically frightening because their reality makes it more difficult for the reader to rationalize what is being experienced.
"The Empty House" by Algernon Blackwood is an example of how frightening ghosts without tangibility can be. Images of the ghosts are not described, but "there was a sound of scuffling, gasping, and smothered screaming" (Blackwood 235). Aunt Julia and Shorthouse hear what they assume to be the ghosts of two persons formerly employed in that house, a jealous stableman and a servant woman who was chased through the halls by the former before being thrown from the balcony to her death. This assumption is based only on sound, leaving to the characters’ and the reader’s imaginations what the supernatural beings look like and the powers they could possibly possess. The unknown information about the ghosts is fearful because there exists potential for them to be the worst beings imaginable.
But while fear of the unknown possesses a frightening power over the reader’s mind, it lacks a degree of credibility and as a result cannot be as powerful as the fear of a ghost with physicality. When characters do not actually have contact with what is thought to be a supernatural being, they often attempt to reason away what they experience. Many of the sounds heard at first in "The Empty House" are explained rationally by the characters. Upon entering the haunted house, Aunt Julia and Shorthouse hear the sound of someone coughing, but Shorthouse, "with the possibility of a practical joke in mind" (Blackwood 226), urges Aunt Julia to dismiss it and continue. Later they see a mysterious shadow moving, but Shorthouse again reasons it out, saying that it is "only the beastly jumping candle-light" (Blackwood 228). Similarly in "Squire Toby’s Will" by J.S. LeFanu, Cooper the butler gives a rational explanation for mysterious shadows seen by the nurse, saying "not a soul but what ye saw, - it’s just a trifle o’ the fever in his head – no more" (LeFanu 46).
Ghosts with a physical presence, however, are less likely to be rationalized and therefore dismissed as non-real. Beings that are experienced through most of the five senses are more real than those that appeal to only one or two. The aforementioned short story by F. Marion Crawford, "The Upper Berth," contains a ghost with undeniable physicality and presence that is experienced through three senses. Brisbane tells the reader about his encounter, saying "I gripped it with all my might – the slippery, oozy, horrible thing – the dead white eyes seemed to stare at me out of the dusk; the putrid odor of rank seawater was about it, and its shiny hair hung in foul wet curls over its dead face" (Crawford 85). That description appeals to the sense of touch, followed by sight and smell. These sensory details, especially those demanding the senses of touch and smell, seem to add proof to Brisbane’s story, making it more horrific to think that what happens to him is, in fact, real.
The senses of touch and smell add more to the reality of a supernatural encounter than the senses of sight and hearing, and while it is impossible to give a certain answer to why that is, there is an agreement that it is true. In "The July Ghost" by A.S. Byatt, the narrator relates his story of seeing and communicating with the ghost of a young boy. Each time he sees the boy, he comes closer and closer to touching it, but never does. "He went as close as he dared. He had, he thought, the intention of putting his hand on or through the child. But could not bring himself to feel there was no boy" (Byatt 389). The impulse the man feels to touch the boy comes from his curiosity about the reality of the ghost. He instinctively knows that the sense of touch will be the proof of its reality, a view that is irrational and creepy. The famous biblical story of "Doubting Thomas" is more evidence that people need to touch to believe. After his fellow disciples tell him that Jesus has returned from the dead as a ghost, Thomas replies, "First, I must see the nail scars in his hands and touch them with my finger. I must put my hand where the spear went into his side. I won't believe unless I do this" (John 20:25 Contemporary English Version). Sight and touch are clear indicators of a ghost’s reality through its physical presence.
The reality of a supernatural encounter is frightening because of its inability to be explained as something rational, unlike the insubstantial ghosts, but a physical ghost is also frightening because of its suggestion of immediate danger. Supernatural beings possess supernatural powers, and the physical power that ghosts with substance have is frightening. In the horror movie Dawn of the Dead, the underworld becomes overcrowded and the dead roam the earth as zombies. The zombies present physical harm to the living; the smallest bite is fatal. Since "real" physical supernatural beings are encountered through the senses, especially the sense of touch, they are more physically endangering, because if one is close enough to the being to touch it or smell it, one is close enough to be a victim of its physical power, in this case its biting.
When a writer or a filmmaker sits down to create a product that will scare its audience by using supernatural beings, he or she must decide whether to make the ghosts ethereal or substantial. As with any adept author, the decision comes down to which being is more frightening to the audience. Insubstantial ghosts can take the form of whatever the characters, readers, and viewers can dream up. While this fear of the unknown is considerably effective, a physical ghost is actually more psychologically frightening. Physicality is revealed by judgment of reality through the senses. When something supernatural becomes real, rationality loses power to fear.
List of Works Cited
Blackwood, Algernon. "The Empty House." The Oxford Book of English Ghost
Stories. Eds. Michael Cox and R. A. Gilbert. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1986.
Byatt, A.S. "The July Ghost." The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. Ed.
Michael Cox. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Crawford, F. Marion. "The Upper Berth." The Oxford Book of English Ghost
Stories. Eds. Michael Cox and R. A. Gilbert. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1986.
The Holy Bible, Contemporary English Version. New York: American Bible
Society, 1995.
LeFanu, J.S. "Squire Toby’s Will." The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories.
Eds. Michael Cox and R. A. Gilbert. New York: Oxford University Press,
1986.