Comparing Ghosts In Stephen King And Algernon Blackwood

Stephen King and Algernon Blackwood both implement the use of ghosts in their horror stories to terrify their audience. Horror stories have several different themes and sub-genres, one of which is the sub-genre of ghost stories. Blackwood is one author who used ghosts in his writings quite often, and Stephen King, maybe the most well-known writer of horror stories, also uses ghosts and spirits in his books. With both these authors being horror story writers, there are some aspects which are comparable between the two. These comparable aspects will be emphasized in order to see how King uses some of Blackwood’s art with horror stories to help his own.
Horror stories are one of the most popular genres in the entertainment industry. The horror
This statement may seem uncomplicated but it nonetheless is the main criterion which ghost stories must meet. Daniel Cohen defines a ghost as “a soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible forms or other manifestations, to the living” (bk. 8). Usually defined as eerie spirits, ghosts haunt “particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life” (Cohen bk. 8). Ghosts can be described as wispy spirits, solid beings, invisible individuals, or any other of the many imagined forms (Cohen bk. 8). The word ghost is derived from the Old English word gast, which is the Germanic word gaistaz. These words come from “a root denoting ‘fury or anger’ reflected in Old Norse geisa, ‘to rage.’” This Old English not only means human spirits or souls of the living or dead, but also refers to the Latin word spiritus which means “breath, blast” (Mencken 108). This description means that ghosts could refer to angels and demons, or even demonic possessions. There are many forms and ideas which a ghost can represent, but the main forms which will be focused on are ghosts which act as the spirit or soul of a deceased
Blackwood would not, however, stick with this Catholic affiliation as he soon became interested in the occult and joined several occult societies (2: “Algernon Blackwood.”). Jack Sullivan found that Blackwood held many different jobs throughout his life including a milk farmer in Canada, a newspaper reporter in New York City, a bartender, and others (38). One position which Blackwood held was the occupation of a hotel caretaker, which just so happens to be the very same job which Jack Torrance, the protagonist in The Shining by Stephen King, holds during the story. Blackwood also happened to be “an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined the Ghost Club” (Sullivan 38). Blackwood also turned many of his strange experiences from his various jobs into novels and short stories. Blackwood’s love of nature and habit of turning life experiences into books both are evident in “The Empty House”, a story set in the remote Canadian backwoods (2: “Algernon