The Occupancy of the Uncanny in the Lives of Karla and Helen

Throughout history women have been portrayed as gentle, forgiving creatures. Women have been deemed incapable of any real harm to fellow humans or their surroundings by society; they are never posed as a threat. These angelic images seem to muddle the way we think about reality. In turn, these misconceptions about reality make the texts Killing Killers: Women on Death Row in the United States and Machinal much more unsettling. These two texts place female protagonists in the middle of a setting gone askew. Along with their surroundings, the two women, Karla and Helen display characteristics of the uncanny and similarities to each other. It is through the overt use of the uncanny in these texts that allows the reader to discover a new role for female characters, including how they fall into or out of gender stereotypes.

One is prompted to think about what the typical death row inmate looks like when reading Killing Killers. Most would not answer with the description that is Karla Faye Tucker and her true story. Described as a “Bible-reading, angelic looking woman with pink-tinged lips, lightly freckled face and cascading dark curls” (Shipman 2002, 287). These looks depict a nymph rather than a murderer. Though Tucker is just that, she brutally murdered two people with a pickaxe. The uncanny lies in the fact that Tucker, as a woman, took on the normally masculine role of predator. This fact is only magnified by the sadistic comment that Tucker made to her brother; she said “she had an orgasm every time she swung the axe that Killed Jerry Dean” (O’Shea 1999). Tucker lived a destructive life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll at a very young age. This lack of a traditional upbringing continues to build the foundation of Tucker’s uncanny existence. Though it is after she is convicted, Tucker falls back into a common gender role for women. This reversal away from the uncanny brought Tucker back to the American public, “the media focus on the stereotypically beautiful repentant bad woman made the image of Karla at the end of her life undeniably appealing” (O’Shea 80). During her 14 year stint on death row, Tucker turned away from the uncanny gender role she previously took up and begin to go the more traditional route.

On the opposite side of these events the reader will find Helen in the story Machinal. Helen is a conflicted damsel in distress. Life, family, and love weigh her down. No one seems to understand her plight as she walks through the scenes of the play. Like Turner, Helen occupies a gender role, but it is one that the audience has been confronted with time and time again. Helen begins to grow weary of this mundane lifestyle. She eventually murders the man she is married to (Treadwell 59). This comes as a complete shock to the audience, especially when the play was published in 1928. A male dominated society was certainly not ready to see a female protagonist kill off her husband. The character of Helen falls into the uncanny once the act of murder is complete. She seems as though we would have known her character and her path within the play. This action completely throws away any preconceived notions about the character. Helen has completely done away with any gender roles assigned to her by the society reading the play.

The surroundings of the two women also play a part in making the reader uncomfortable. Tucker’s setting is in prison; there she found God and a new view on life. She became thoroughly immersed in the gospel and repented for what she did. There “a murderer who, in the moment of death, chooses life” (O’Shea 80) is a true unfamiliar description of a life. Prison is depicted as a place of low morals and waning hope. There, Tucker was given a new life, including a husband. Tucker falls into a typical gender role in an atypical surrounding. Helen’s surroundings do not necessarily contrast her mood, but perpetuate it until it reaches a breaking point. The opening scene of the play is the office where she works and the interactions with her coworkers. These and other interactions in the novel come off as animatronics and fake. Placing the audience and the main character in the middle of a cold, mechanical world. The reader is familiar with the surroundings but instantly perturbed by the way it interacts with Helen. These surroundings force the characters to continue to convey their uncanny personalities.

It is through eerie images and unsettling role reversals that these two women connect with the audience. The two women meet at a crossroads in their journey. One leaves a life of sin and brutality and the other delving into murder. The uncanny serves as a tool to portray these women and their stories in a certain light; to strip the notions the reader has about a role a woman should have.