Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

and temptation, most especially for women. The fear of womenextended to the belief that some women, “seemingly ordinary andlaw-abiding by day, mutating into ‘wicked women’ at night…thesewomen would remain bodily asleep in bed, but were able to flythrough the night for nefarious ends” (Bildaur 139). At the sametime this wickedness was associated with the devil, and “Demonswere believed to take on the likeness of ordinary people at night inorder to discredit them by engaging in dishonorable deeds” (Bildaur139). The otherness represented by women and by the devil and hisminions came to its full-fledged menace only at night. The night,while also different itself in its literal difference from the light andhappiness of day, is also an agent for all the “others” of the world toexist among the rest of the human population. The darkness fullypersonifies the idea of being different, and shows itself to be evenmore monstrous in this way.Next is a thesis titled, “The Monster Polices the Borders ofthe Possible” (Cohen 12). In this thesis, Cohen asserts that “themonster stands as a warning against exploration of its uncertaindemesnes” (Cohen 12). The darkness is almost certainly always an“uncertain demesne” containing unknown things hidden behindevery dark corner. During medieval times there were strict curfewsin place in most cities to prevent the trouble making and crimethat was believed to happen mostly at night (Bildaur 142). Thereare still some cities today whose officials feel that curfews areimportant for the very same reason, because being out at night isbelieved to be directly connected with mischief and harm. Whilemost people do not live under a curfew and are perfectly willingto go out at night, there is still the modern benefit of streetlampsand lighted buildings to help the exploration of the darker hours,making the darkness much less dark than it could be and much lessfrightening. Cohen also says that, “primarily these borders are inplace to control the traffic in women, or more generally to establishlauren apt 59