Great God Pan
{{The Great God Pan}}
Basic Info
- Author: Arthur Machen
- Year: 1894
- Type: #primary2
Summary (brief)
-horror/fantasy novella inspired by Machen's experiences at the ruins of a pagan temple in Wales. An experiment to allow a teenager named Mary to see the supernatural world. The scientist rescued her from the streets for this purpose. Afterwards, a bunch of scary happenings and deaths follow a woman named Helen Vaughan for years. This girl ends up being the child of the experiment girl, which is pretty f'd up because who is the father?
Major Themes
Key Passages / Quotes
Quote 1
quote:: “I am no bird.”
page:: 197
themes:: freedom, identity
Genre Notes
Characters / Concepts (if relevant)
Theory Connections
Related Texts
My Argument / Interpretation
Dissertation Relevance
How could this matter to my project?
-Novella is expressing a fear of women (even though the ultimate source of horror in the story is a male deity).. Helen's metamorphosis remains one of the most dramatically horrible and misogynistic in fiction.
-Silence of the main character = misogyny
Helen's fate = punishment for sexual impropriety;
Machen's tendency to make empowered female characters sexually monstrous