Analyzing Richard Matheson's Short Story 'Prey'

Rakshit Bhasker
Dr. Jonathan Ball
ENGL 1400 A05
9 December 2015
[Research Paper Title]
Horror stories are created in such a way to create fear, fascination, and excitement amongst the readers. They frequently comprise of different elements, a supernatural force or creature, for example monsters and zombies, or a psychotic figure being the more commonly used ones. Psychosis is a disorder in which a person has difficulty distinguishing between reality and perception, due to their impaired thoughts and emotions. Madness is relatively similar, in which the behavior of that person is usually not under control, therefore, seeming like a threat to personal safety or safety of others. The short story “Prey” which appears in Richard Matheson’s collection
As it mentions in the story, while conversing with her mother, she repeatedly looks at the doll and feels like it is glaring at her, which is unrealistic because the doll is just an object and was designed to look that way. This delusional thought is another symptom of psychosis, feeling things that are not real but are so frightening to that person resulting in anxiousness. The phone call ends on a bad note, leaving a very confused Amelia who now has to choose between her mother and her boyfriend. Although concerned of hurting her mother’s feelings, the fact that she is a thirty-three year old woman who recently moved out of her mother’s house but her mother constantly tries to make her decisions, frustrates her. At this point in the story, Amelia is in a state of uneasiness, worrying about the consequences of picking one over the other, aggravating her even more. Soon after the phone conversation, the significant golden chain on the doll falls off. The doll can be assumed as Amelia and the golden chain as her controlling mother and knowing the importance of the chain, which is to keep the spirit of the deadly hunter from escaping the doll, this could be an indication of a very bad omen, causing suspense amongst readers. All the anger, confusion, and frustration that were piled up inside Amelia, triggers her psychotic behavior to a certain point, resulting in an
Occurrences in which she imagines the doll is glaring at her, and violently chasing her, and capturing her soul support this statement, as both Amelia and readers are in fear and anticipate a bad outcome. As mentioned before, psychosis, takes over a person’s emotions and thoughts causing them to do the peculiar things, in which under a normal state of mind they would not think of doing, resulting in a possible threat to personal order, as noticed in this