Werewolves

Werewolves are essentially treated as humans that have given into the base desires and instincts that reside in us all. Very rarely (if at all) do myths mention the wolf that seeks to become human. Werewolves relinquish the "higher human" capacities such as reason, civility and restraint, and have embraced the "animalistic" drives and urges normally suppressed. As a result, however they are essentially treated, symbolically they are treated as are wolves - savage, wild, instinctive and "beyond the boundary" of civilization. Like trickster, they are border walkers, they continually cross the boundary between human and animal, culture and nature. Trickster, then, is an abject character, as are women, wolves and werewolves. Also, like trickster, werewolves have been considered as a source of cultural violence, and like the wolf, a cultural scapegoat. It is important when considering the symbolic function of wolves to not ignore the werewolf, as it emphasises many misconceptions about the "gap" between human and wolf. In a way, the werewolf can be understood as the bridge between human and wolf, the trickster character that came to be seen as only negative. Therefore, if trickster is a personification of the shadow, the werewolf is also the shadow and this facilitates shadow projection onto the wolf.

For instance, a werewolf casts off civilizing restraints and embraces its primeval urge to kill. Superficial analysis says this reduces it to the level of the wolf. However, if one studies the behaviour of wolves it is notable that wolves do not hunt their own kind, unlike werewolves, which seem to prey almost exclusively on their own kind (humans, as the species of origin, are their own kind). Wolves will kill other wolves, but only in territorial conflicts (Mech, 1981: 104) and very rarely in status challenges (Mech, 1981: 70), but not as prey. So whilst a simple analysis makes it easy to blame the wolf side for the killer instinct, the fact that the werewolf is hunting its own kind points towards human nature.

The werewolf symbol is a useful tool in analysing embedded constructions of the wolf, as it seems to embody most negative perceptions about the wolf without possessing any of its redeeming qualities, such as strong family ties and a complex social structure, and excellent care of offspring (Mech, 1981). It seems easy enough to make the step that if a person sees a wolf, it is a wolf, but if a person sees a wolf and creates a werewolf, then no guilt whatsoever will be felt in hunting down and dispatching such an evil, base monster, in fact, hunting it down becomes a priority, a noble cause. The wolf may be abject, but the werewolf is more so, and threatens not only life, but also humanity.

References

Mech, L. (1981) Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.