Too often I get impatient and irritated with tropes. This doesn’t apply to Halloween ones.
One of my favorites is the gentleman vampire in his long, flowing black cape, often lined with red silk, often accompanied by bats or wolves lifts my spirits at the very sight of him. A witch, cackling with unabashed maniacal enthusiasm, stirring a cauldron in the company of a black cat, spiders waiting in the webs around her is another.
Embodying the holiday spirit is the classic grinning pumpkin, wearing a variety of carved smiles, lit by a candle within. A ghost drifts with the melancholy grace of the disembodied, a sheet of white, a gauze veil, or translucence flickers between worlds, reminding me that there are other worlds. Not to mention there’s the haunted mansion, promising this and other forms of spookiness inside.
We may have to invite these creatures in, but I always felt I was always welcome to walk into their lairs. They’ve been used as images of evil, yet there’s a comfort in their portrayal.
I’ve never felt this comfort when I face real life manifestations of evil which plague me every day, manifestations such as prejudice, hate, or abuse.
A Halloween monster might eat me, but it won’t discriminate against me. If anything, the Halloween spooks might give our enemies a good scare, reminding them that they’re as edible as the rest of us.
It’s tempting to tell a tale within the parameters of these Halloween tropes, to relive these classics. To willing to walk into their lairs and become a part of them.
What about you, dear reader? What are some of your favorite Halloween tropes?