“Man is truly a creature of instinct and emotion: a member of the animal kingdom”. How far do Ted Hughes’ short stories “Sunday” and “The Rain Horse” illustrate this idea?
"Man is truly a creature of instinct and emotion: a member of the animal kingdom". How far do Ted Hughes' short stories "Sunday" and "The Rain Horse" illustrate this idea?
"The Rain Horse" illustrates the idea of Man being an instinctive animal more starkly than "Sunday". But nevertheless in both of these stories, Hughes is convinced that the modern man has lost touch with the primordial side of nature. "The Rain Horse" is about Man visiting his own suppressed primitive animal nature and finding he is so far detached from it that he no longer recognise it as part of themselves but something alien and hostile. Both stories have the theme of the painful process of revisiting and attempting to come to terms with this lost bond with nature. There are outbursts of man's instinctive and emotional nature but since they both have a somewhat anti-climatic theme, Hughes is suggesting that man has alienated himself too far to re-establish the once inseparable relationship with nature. In these two stories there is a feeling of incompatibility with the vividly described raw nature due to the restraints imposed by nurture. This feeling is represented by the young man's suit and Michael's Sunday best. Both of these stories contain many descriptions of the stark and savage beauty of nature and how out of place Man looks against such a backdrop.
In "The Rain Horse" there is an almost unreal primitive battle between two creatures in the wilderness with the Man tapping into his predator savage energy. The man seems not to be governed by rational thought (and indeed does not behave as a normal person would towards an animal) but by intense emotions he feels as a result of over-coming his fear, sense of shame and confusion in revisiting his past: "an obscure confusion of fright and shame..." This is a representation of modern man's reluctance to acknowledge his animal instincts and primitive past. Yet "under the surface of his mind" lurks Man's own instinctive animal, which is brought out in both of the two stories. In "Sunday" the idea of man's animal-like nature is in the portrayal in the way Michael uses the image the wolf to as a comforter against constraint, his inherent natural empathy towards the rats and Billy Red's act. In both stories animals stimulate the characters' feelings. This implies a natural likeness between human emotions and predator instincts and some hidden interface between the two.
In "The Rain Horse", the young man seeks to revisit his roots in order to re-establish an emotional link. This symbolises Man as a whole, attempting to re-establish the connection with his primeval nature. Through the young man's feeling of nothingness Hughes is implying that the instinctive bond with nature is lost and in its place is the veneer of the modern man represented by the young man's suit. This story starts with a very striking sense of not belonging as the young man tries to coax out some feeling of acquaintance with the familiar surroundings. It ends on a similar note of nothingness embodying a severed connection: "as if some important part had been cut out of his brain." The man goes on the muddy trek with the purpose of bringing up some feelings towards the land after twelve years. However his initial "little anxieties about his shoes" show the extent human nurture has sought to suppress man's animal instincts.
Nevertheless the young man seems to be governed by instinct and emotions as every time strong emotions swell up inside him, the horse appears. The horse represents his insecurities and his fear at going back to his roots, and in parallel represents the complex of modern man about the animal side of his nature which he has lost touch with. Although the horse makes him feel uneasy and frightened, it is nevertheless a guiding emotion. The first time the horse appears was when the young man felt "a wave of anger" go over him about the land he ...
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Nevertheless the young man seems to be governed by instinct and emotions as every time strong emotions swell up inside him, the horse appears. The horse represents his insecurities and his fear at going back to his roots, and in parallel represents the complex of modern man about the animal side of his nature which he has lost touch with. Although the horse makes him feel uneasy and frightened, it is nevertheless a guiding emotion. The first time the horse appears was when the young man felt "a wave of anger" go over him about the land he knew well. Due to the young man's attempts at re-establishing a link with his roots, the primordial part of him is awakened in this modern man and he finds it in the battle with the horse. The feelings of the man as a result of seeing the horse are largely instinctive. "...a cat, like a dog up to no good." And "a nightmarish leopard" is the reaction of an inborn animal intuition. Although a horse is not recognised by the man as a natural predator, he nevertheless feels threatened by what the horse represents "under the surface of his mind". This echoes his more specific fear of being "embarrassingly remembered or shouted at as a trespasser". Through this is it implied that although nature and animal instincts were once part of man, the modern man fears it and is intimidated by it. This idea is illustrated by the way the young man feels intimidated by the horse as it watches him sheltering from the rain. Throughout the story the reader gets hints that the young man is not unfamiliar with agriculture as he can remember how a horse should act in the rain therefore we know that the world he is going back to is not totally alien to him, yet he feels alienated. This supports Hughes's belief that nature was once a part of man but has since been lost.
The idea that man behaves instinctively is illustrated in the way the young man reacts to the image of the horse left on his mind. He can instinctively feel himself being watched and the image of the horse as a "nightmarish leopard" haunts him so much so as to make "the nape of his neck" prickle slightly. The man is portrayed here much like a prey who although has no reason to fear anything, instinctively senses approaching danger. Unconsciously the image of the horse is associated with danger by the animal instincts in the man's mind. "His scalp went icy and he shivered" as much from the cold as it is from "the unpleasantly strange impression the horse" gives him as it watches him. All these feelings are irrational and instinctive. "Like lightening his legs bounded him upright..." - This is not a conscious reasoned action but almost a reflex action initiated by some survival instinct embedded in the man's head. It shows that although the rational side of him dismissed his instinctive fear and tried not to think about the horse, it is nevertheless overridden by his animal intuition in times of danger. Similarly: "as he fell the warning flashed through his head that he must at all costs keep his suit out of the leaf-mould, but a more urgent instinct was already rolling him violently sideways..." and "...without a thought for his suit" are illustrations of the man's animal survival instincts overcoming his modern-man tendencies. He even thought the horse to be clairvoyant. But if the horse was to be interpreted as a fabrication from "under the surface" of the man's mind then it would know exactly what his fears and anxieties are and hence it would guide the man towards the farm in order to overcome them.
In "The Rain Horse" the man displays the classic symptoms of the fight or flight animal reflexes in his confrontation with the horse, which can be compared to the reactions of the rats in "Sunday". However whereas the rats do not hesitate to act on their intuitive fears, the young man at the beginning when sheltering from the rain, like a modern constrained man, typically took no action about his ungrounded fears and ignored his animal intuition about the horse: "it can share the wood with him if it wanted to". These two kinds of behaviours contrast each other and shows that animal instincts can not only be harvested in man but almost seems like an essential defence, and that man suppresses this vital survival asset at his own peril. When the animal instincts is finally switched on by the horse going after him, it makes the man forget all of his anxieties about his suit and the rain: "without a thought for his suit he sat down on the ground to rest his shaking legs, letting the rain plaster the hair down over his forehead..." The release also brings up intensely felt emotions: "The encounter had set the blood beating in his head and given him a savage energy." The act of throwing stones in defence is a very primitive and almost sub-human act. This is accompanied by a reversal of roles as the enraged man now becomes the predator. The "savage energy" is the predatorial rage that has been awakened in the man as he now seeks to take on the horse. "..roaring with all his strength" and "with another roar he jumped forward..." are also very animal-like behaviours showing that when away from civilisation and constraint man is very much like a member of the animal kingdom.
In Sunday, the longing for freedom, the image of the wolf and Michael's reactions to Billy Red's act all show that animal instincts play a part in the behaviour of man. At the beginning of the story there is an anti-institution feel in the description of the "blue blazer with its meaningless badge...". The "torment of impatience" and "the nerve-ends all over his body prickled and swarmed" show how much Michael resents the constraints imposed by human institutions. He longs to rebel against it as "thoughts of shouting 'oh well'...or simply running out of the chapel brought a fine sweat to his temples." This story shows that the animal instincts in humans are repressed by the constraints of institution such as church, waiting rooms and visitors. But nevertheless it still surfaces as Michael finds comfort and peace from the image of the wolf that comes readily to mind. This shows a natural empathy with animals and the way the wolf appears without effort in his mind shows a natural link between humans and aggressive animals. The wolf represents the animal side of human nature and in Michael's mind it "urged itself with all its strength" implying that the animal instinct is very dominant. The wolf in his mind is in harmony with its "snow-filled, moonlit forest" surroundings whereas Michael is very much in antagonism with his surroundings and longs for the freedom of the Pub. The fact that Michael finds comfort in the image of a wolf suggests an embedded in-born predator instinct which can empathise with the freedom the wolf enjoys. The Sunday atmosphere is in itself a surrounding of constraint, as even the pavements are "untouchably proper". But Michael isn't bothered by all this constraint as "superior to all this for once" he looks forward to the freedom of the grown-up men surrounding of the Pub.
His high expectations of the Pub were not met as it turned out to be an upsetting disappointment. His impatient excitement was shown through the impatience of his wait for his father to finish his game: "...sullen with the punishment he had undergone and the certainty that his day had been played away" illustrates his the degree of his edginess and it implies that Michael has pre-conceived high expectations of the Pub and Billy Red. However neither of his expectations were met.
Billy Red in person was an enormous disappointment and is described as rather sub-human and almost like a rat himself. "Ragged, scarecrowish, tawny to colourless, exhausted, lungless" all speaks of a fragile figure and imply a weak character. Billy Red does not seem to be part of the group and the people in the Pub only pay attention to him for his act. Evidence for this is in the way "Billy Red stood separate" from the crowd before and after his act. His physical descriptions are not that of a powerful predator but rather of a dirty small parasitic animal: "wrinkled, neglected". The eagerness with which he receives his free pints betray a weak and shameless character. However this unpredatorial-like description is soon changes as the Billy Red's act shows that even the most pathetic and weak humans have a savage predator dimension. The act of catching the rat in one's teeth and shaking it to death is very animal-like. Similarly the fact that the men in the Pub enjoy watching this shows that the predatorial side of man enjoys being stimulated by watching death.
Michael's animal instincts enable him to show remarkable empathy towards the rats. The girl shares this empathy: "he recognised his own thoughts in her look of mesmerised incredulity." The story blurs the distinction between humans and animals as the rats are personified. Through this Hughes implicitly emphasizes the similarity between animals and humans. E.g. "...both rats stopped and sat up on their hind legs, like persons coming out of a trace, suddenly recognising people". The rat being described to be screaming is also rather human-like and this scream coming from a cornered prey who instinctively senses danger has stimulated Michael's animal instincts and aroused intense sympathetic emotions in him. So much so that "his stomach began to twist and flex like a thick muscle... he was so worried by these sensations that he stopped looking at the rat". Both Michael and the girl know that something bad was going to happen to the two rats as "Michael saw the girl, extricating herself from the press, pushing out backwards." This again shows natural empathy with animals. This is once more illustrated at the end when Michael goes over to look at the dead rat and the second rat. The "dull pain in his head" shows that Michael is very much affected by not just Billy Red's act, but also by putting himself in the second rat's position.
In both stories, Hughes has used the characters' reaction to the weather and the surroundings to portray how the animal instincts affects the way humans interact with nature. In the beginning of both of these stories, when constraint was still in place and the animal instincts not yet awakened, the characters are made to feel very uncomfortable by the weather. The young man feels the cold and the rain at the beginning, but as he gets further from civilisation on his trek he becomes less aware of the weather and even goes in a trance-like stupor in the wood. As his animal instinct is awakened he no longer feels the rain. In fact he even welcomes the rain as an envelope shielding him from modern life and anxieties ("sodden shoes and ruined suit"). The trance-like stupor induced by the rain shows that the man is no longer in antagonism with nature but in harmony with it. This somewhat echoes the horse being described by Hughes as being very much part of that wild and desolate landscape. It is only in the end, after the young man has released his savage energy that "he became conscious of the rain again". Similarly, Michael was initially conscious of the heat, but during Billy Red's act he did not feel it. Only in the end "he became aware of the heat again". Through this Hughes implies that animals (and indeed the animals within humans) feel in harmony with nature and assimilate into the natural environment without feeling any discomfort (e.g. the wolf galloping through the moon-lit snow filled forest). Therefore the fact that these two characters momentarily forget about the discomfort of the weather shows that during that brief period of time, the animal within was in control. Through the portrayal of the weather and the surroundings, Hughes has created a wild and desolate world where man is treated and indeed behaves no different to animals. In both of these stories nature is also extensively worked into the stories. In the Rain Horse the landscape and the weather creates a primeval atmosphere perfect for the man to exercise his animal aggression. In Sunday it strongly contrasts the church and the streets.
Hence in the end man is truly a member of the animal kingdom because in these two stories the characters both have a special kind of intuitive interaction with the animals. In both of the stories the animals all have a profound effect on the people and awaken their animal instincts. But the animals do not just serve the purpose of stimulating the human's animal side, they also represents an emotion, conflict or anxiety in the character, whether it be fear and shame at revisiting one's roots or realising that the grown up circle is not such a novelty. In the end Hughes has used the animals themselves, the character's reactions and interactions between them and also the characters' own behaviour to illustrate that man has certainly an instinctive emotional link with the animals. And the behaviours of the characters could convincingly explained with argument that man is a member of the animal kingdom.
