Eyes and the End of the World

This week in our "Monsters In The Western World" class, we discussed the Book of Revelations and the apocalypse; and how early Christian fears of the end of the world made the terrors predicted in Revelations seem plausible. And this lead to a natural conversation about more modern ideas of the apocalypse- what or who our monsters are, and why the horrible, graphic demise of humanity seems to be such an appealing concept.

In the Book of Revelations, the monsters almost defy understanding; they are both human and animal-like, as well as composed of entirely abstract images like one might see in a Salvador Dali painting; when John, receiver of the prophecy hears a loud voice speaking to him in Chapter 1, he turns to see: 

someone like a son of man, dressed in a cloak reaching down to his feet, and gird around at the pecs with a golden sash, except his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like flames of fire, and his feet like bronze as if made to glow in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of many waters, and he was holding in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth was coming a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in the strength of it. (6)

Further on, when John discusses viewing the thrones in heaven in Chapter 4, he sees:

in between the throne and the circle around the throne are four living beings, full of eyes, front and back. And the first being is like a lion, and the second being like an ox, and the third being has a human face, and the fourth being is like an eagle in flight. And the four beings, every one of them has six wings each, which are covered completely around with eyes, even inward. (12)

And though we are clearly meant to understand that the presence of the incalculable eyes represents an all-seeing nature, one cannot help but feel disgust and revulsion at the idea of so many clustering eyeballs staring, blinking, emoting. And this idea is perpetuated in more modern monsters, with characters such as Henry J. Waternoose in Pixar’s “Monster’s Inc” to the so-called Angel of Death in “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army”.

Henry J. Waternoose- Via Google Images

The Angel of Death

The latter work, directed by Guillermo Del Toro is not his first to feature a monster in which their eyes are elements of horror and revulsion— in 2008’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” his monster The Pale Man has an eyeless face, and sees his prey by placing eyeballs in his palms, which he then holds against his cheeks like strange, blinking crabs.

The Pale Man

But what does this mean for us? What does sight have to do with monstrosity, and how does this relate to fears of the apocalypse?

Arguably, one could say that as the future and death are the two greatest human unknowns, anything all-seeing, or omniscient opens the door to a world we do not genuinely wish to see or understand. In the western world, we are culturally afraid of death and the uncertainty it denotes; therefore, whether it is the eye-encrusted monsters of Revelations, or the creatures in Guillermo Del Toro’s universe, they undoubtedly provoke anxiety and fear through both our physical disgust and mortal terror.

And we can tie this directly into the Apocalypse itself; if Apocalypse means an unveiling, then it indicates a revelation from blindness— a terrible omniscience we hope to never look at fully. And to reveal it reveals our doom.   

Works Cited

Henry James Waternoose. Digital Image. Fandom: Villains. https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Henry_James_Waternoose_III

The Angel of Death. Digital Image. Cinemablend, 2017. https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1674579/where-hellboy-2s-angel-of-death-came-from-according-to-guillermo-del-toro

The Pale Man. Digital Image. Professor Ramos. 16 November 2018. https://professorramos.net/2018/11/16/the-realm-of-the-pale-man/