How does William Blatty convey the theme of supernatural and how does he present the elements of the supernatural in ways which work?

Specialist Study

Sarah-Jane Slattery

Galashiels Academy

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How does William Blatty convey the theme of supernatural and how does he present the elements of the supernatural in ways which work?

William Blatty's novel 'The Exorcist' is said to be a landmark in the history of popular literature and it can still cause hype when it is being discussed. This novel was made into a terrifying film that was banned for many years because of its horrifying content. Although people's attitudes and perspective of what is scary has changed, it still manages to cause controversy after almost thirty years. Due to the impact that this supernatural novel, which unearths Satanism and possession, still has, I was influenced to read it. I wanted to see if this novel deserved its reputation of being a disturbing and completely frightening experience for the reader. After reading the novel, I decided that it would be a good piece to examine because the supernatural is a very interesting and unknown issue and I feel the way in which Blatty presents the elements of the supernatural in this novel, make it quite fascinating. To achieve this there are many elements he uses, such as the conventional prologue, setting, climaxing of events, dangers of dabbling in the supernatural, religious angle and the language.

The novel begins by emphasising how mighty and uncontrollable evil is by conveying to the reader how it has been around for thousands of years. The evil is in the form of a demon called Pazuzu whose dominion was sickness and disease. This conventional prologue, which is suggesting supernatural evil is as ancient as the ruins of the demons temple, creates an enemy character who is more powerful and knowledgeable than the usual rivalry in a battle. This ancient evil causes so much fear to a priest on the archaeological dig of these temples that he is filled with ...

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The novel begins by emphasising how mighty and uncontrollable evil is by conveying to the reader how it has been around for thousands of years. The evil is in the form of a demon called Pazuzu whose dominion was sickness and disease. This conventional prologue, which is suggesting supernatural evil is as ancient as the ruins of the demons temple, creates an enemy character who is more powerful and knowledgeable than the usual rivalry in a battle. This ancient evil causes so much fear to a priest on the archaeological dig of these temples that he is filled with terror and dread at the thought of having to face it, as illustrated in the quote

“… his heart encased in the icy convection that soon he would have to face an ancient enemy.”

I believe that the element of evil be age ancient and everlasting is effective in conveying the theme of supernatural. As demons and other supernatural matters are only doubted because nobody knows for sure if they exist. take place but if supernaturalism occurs then it being older and wiser would surely wish to be doubted so nobody thinks to take real action against them.

From the dusty Northern Iraq city with the blazing, fiery sun prologue to the more normal, modern expensive mansion style house in America setting is quite a contrast. I believe that if the novel had been carried on in the same setting as the prologue then the eerie ancient buildings and beliefs would have made it very scary. The fact that it is set in modern day society, in my opinion, makes it even more frightening as the story is not set in some strange far of country where their ways of life is very different but in a society with characters who we can understand and relate to. This makes the supposedly distant subject of supernatural occurrences seem a bit closer to home and having somebody become possessed is not such a far fetched idea. Thus resulting in the theme contributing to making this novel more believable and therefore more frightening.

Blatty is successful in building up events into a dramatic climax, this technique is very effective in securing the readers attention. An example of Blatty creating a climaxing situation is the part in the novel when the little girl says that she hears voices and has an imaginary friend with the innocent sounding name of Captain Howdy. This is an effective technique Blatty uses to leads the reader into the novel