The year is 1965 and a plague has emerged in Europe that eventually makes its way to the United States. The main character, Morgan, is a scientist at a research lab that is attempting to find a cure for the horrendous disease. With no success, both his wife and daughter ultimately succumb to the illness and demonstrate some uncanny symptoms. When Morgan buries his wife, he discovers that the infected do not die but rather become the living dead that take on vampirical attributes, thus he is forced to slay his once loving wife. After three years of being the last man on earth, Morgan continues to endure the hardships of life and soon realizes that he is not wanted in a world filled with the walking dead.
Morgan’s days consist of the same routine every day: he wakes up, sets out into the city to hunt vampires, gathers materials he may need, and finally heads home where he locks his doors and listens to the infected that are attempting to break in. A life like Morgan’s is enough to make anyone go insane, as a result when he encounters a woman he believes is unaffected, he quickly chases after her, yelling at her to stop because he wishes to help her. After a few minutes bickering, she finally agrees to go with him, but little does Morgan know that she is part of a group of people who see him as a threat to their growing society. Morgan’s behavior has now altered the way the infected survivors perceive him as a monster and so Cohen’s essay facilitates Morgan’s new identity.
The author of “Monster Theory: Reading Culture,” Jefferey Cohen, goes on to explain numerous ways a monster may be depicted in a story, that of which Morgan fits perfectly. Cohen’s monster theory explains how the “monster threatens to destroy not just individual members of society” but the society and cultural aspects as a whole (Cohen, 12). Being the last human on an Earth overflowing with vampires, Morgan is seen as a monster due to his lack of ability to discern between those who have already turned into vampires and those who are still fighting the disease. As a result, Morgan goes and accidently slaughters members of a group of people attempting to rebuild society and becomes feared by them. This fear soon turns into hatred and is why the group of individuals now see Morgan as a monster so when he is finally cornered by group, they impale him with a spear, but before he dies he whispers to Ruth, “they were afraid of me, they were afraid of me…” demonstrating how he has become the outcast in a society that only accepts those that are infected which is why he is no longer viewed as normal in the new world (Last Man on Earth).
Dr. Robert Morgan was a man of science dedicated to saving humanity by finding a cure and ridding the world of the heinous creatures. Ironically, being the last human on Earth has made Morgan the new monster that the infected individuals yearn to kill, but fear. Cohen’s monster theses describe several types of monsters and in the film Last Man 'on Earth, Morgan exhibits these inferences further demonstrating that he has become the monster at the end of storyline.
References
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, Monster Theory: Reading Culture'. U of Minnesota P, 1996
Last Man on Earth. Directed by Ubaldo Ragona, and Sidney Salkow, performances by Vincent
Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, 20th Century Fox, 1964.
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