The Scooby Doo gang has always sought to bring justice to every town they have come across. Whether it was a Goo Lagoon monster, Frankenstein, the Black Knight, the Ghost of Captain Cutler, etc. The gang always pulls through, even in a pinch, to bring to justice the villains who are haunting their areas. However this time around, Daphne, Fred, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby may have bitten off more than they can chew regarding Mr. Rochester’s Mansion. The gang finally pulls up to the mansion. At first glance it seems like a very nice house, however the longer you stare at it the less welcoming it becomes.
Scooby: Ruh roh I don’t like the looks of this house.
Shaggy: Come on Scoob, we are here at the request of a very important guest. So what if it looks like there’s a ghost in the window looking at us, I’m sure we’ll be fine.
Daphne: Ya Scooby if you behave I’ll give you this full box of scooby snacks!
Scooby: Deal.
Velma: Okay crew we have arrived at Thornfield Hall. Everyone is on their best behavior.
Fred: Ya gang, and maybe after we can find somewhere to go surfing.
The gang: sigh here we go again.
As the gang fumbled out of the vehicle someone appeared at the front door.
Velma: Whoa! You surprised us. We didn’t see or hear you coming at all.
Mr. Rochester: Welcome to my abode, I hope you enjoy your stay. I’ll have you know there is a girl who resides here by the name of Jane Eyre, don’t pay her too much mind.
Daphne: Okay… do you have any fancy clothes we can wear!
Velma: Daphne remember when you tried to put on Victor’s wife Elizabeth’s dress and caught on fire?
Mr. Rochester: Eh hem, follow me.
The gang: Yes sorry.
As Mr. Rochester leads the group inside they notice compared to the near perfect outside, the inside seems to be lacking.
Fred: So where will we be sleeping?
Mr Rochester: There are 30 rooms in this house with many empty bedrooms, you pick.
Scooby: 30 rooms?! Can we switch between rooms each night?
Velma: Scooby stop! Our apologies Mr. Rochester, the drive here seems to have exhausted us. We had heard rumors about a ghost running amok so we decided to pay you a visit to see if we could help.
Mr Rochester: I see so that’s why you are here. You nobodies should really know your place when regarding the matters of the upper class.
Velma: What was that?
Mr. Rochester: Nothing. There is no ghost here but you are welcome to stay here. It seems a storm has picked up outside and I wouldn’t like it if my guests were to become the spirits to haunt this house.
Shaggy: Haha… Funny. Will we be able to-
Mr. Rochester: I give you till the storm passes. That will probably be 2-3 days. Then you’ll leave. Goodbye.
Mr. Rochester leaves the group going into a room that seems like a study closing the door behind him.
Fred: Well that didn’t work out as well as we’d hoped.
Daphne: It didn’t work at all Fred.
Shaggy: Well let’s enjoy this huge house while we can.
Scooby: Do you rink that rhey have Scooby snacks?
Velma: Guys we may have been told to leave but this storm is a sign that we need to figure out what is going on with this house. We have 2-3 days to figure out who or what is terrorizing this house and bring them to justice.
The gang spent the rest of the day wandering around the house, but to their surprise nothing seemed out of place. There was only this ominous feeling that they were being watched wherever they went. So they all decided it was best to retreat to their rooms for the night, Velma and Daphne went to their room and Fred, Scooby, and Shaggy, went to theirs.
Daphne: This house is so dull and lacks color. Personally, my mom would destroy this house and rebuild it from scratch if she was here.
Velma: I know its hard that we have to live like this Daphne, but it’s because of how society treats people who are different, and even people who just hang out around them.
Daphne: Ya I know, I would never change the fact that all of us are friends, I do wish people were just more understanding.
Velma: Wait, do you smell something burning?
Daphne: Now that you mention it, yes I do.
Velma and Daphne both rush to the door and out into the hallway.
Daphne and Velma: Oh my god!
10 Minutes Prior
Shaggy: Hey Scoob, do you think that this house is haunted? We did see that thing in the window when we got here.
Scooby: Ri ront row? Ro back Ro Sleep.
Fred: Guys do you smell that!
Shaggy and Scooby: Smell what?
Fred runs to the door and bursts into the hallway just in time to see Jane Eyre dash around the corner. His eyes then meet with both Velma and Daphne as they emerge from their room.
Fred: The fire is coming from Mr. Rochester’s room, you guys go get help. I’ll think of a way to put out the fire.
Velma and Daphne: Got it!
As Velma and Daphne go to find help, Fred realizes that the door to Mr. Rochester’s door is locked.
Fred: Damn, Shaggy and Scooby help me open-. Wait, where did they go?
Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby went the wrong way when they exited the room and now find themselves alone in the mansion.
Scooby: I ron’t think re rent the right ray.
As they wandered down the hallway they caught a glimpse of Jane Eyre who seemed to be talking to somebody. As they started to approach her she was suddenly yanked forward.
Jane Eyre: WHA-!
Shaggy: Jane are you okay? We left our room because there seemed to be a fire and we got separated from the group. Do you know how to-
Just as Shaggy was about to finish his sentence a sharp claw grabbed the side of the wall where Jane was standing a moment ago. Then a flaming body slowly walked into the narrow hallway facing the boys.
Shaggy: Zoinks Scoob we gotta go!
Super awesome chase scene happens. Meanwhile while they are being chased around the house, Fred manages to Break through into the room.
Fred: Is anyone in here?! *Cough* Mr. Rochester, are you here?!
Mr. Rochester: Yes I’m here and I have everything under control.
Fred: Your bed is on fire. What do you mean you have everything under control.
As Fred’s eyes dash around the room he notices a fire extinguisher that seems to be stuck behind the glass. Fred Breaks the glass and starts spraying the entire room. As he’s aimlessly spraying Shaggy and Scooby run into the room and get drenched from head to toe in spray.
Shaggy and Scooby: AHHHH
Fred: Sorry guys.
Mr. Rochester: Ahem
As Fred turns he sees that he also drenched Mr. Rochester from head to toe in spray.
Fred: Sorry…
They run out of the room without being able to see straight towards the monster. However, at the sight of them the monster runs the other way. They go up and down the stairs, around the corridors, and eventually run into Daphne, Velma, and a housekeeper.
*Thwack*
As the groups collided The monster seemed to lose its head. As the head flew in the air it landed in Daphne’s lap.
Daphne: AHH Its head fell off! GET IT AWAY FROM ME.
Velma: Wait, this is a mask. That must mean-
As everybody looked at the monster they saw it was actually Jane Eyre in a costume. Fred and Mr. Rochester turned the corridor just in time to see what had transpired.
Everyone collectively: JANE EYRE?!
Mr. Rochester: Jane, why would you do this?!
Jane Eyre: I did this because I’m sick of being treated like a monster just because I’m different. I mean rumors about a creature, which in reality was just me living my life, even reached the Scooby Doo Gang. I’m sick of the justice system and the way we as humans build a social system that allows no room for flaws.
Fred: Jane we have always ghost busted many people without really giving them a chance to explain their actions, even though most of them deserved it anyways. We would like to hear you out and see if we can help at all because we are also victims of the social system this world has created!
The End
Reflection:
One of the most emotionally appealing themes a writer can use is that of the social outcast attempting to find its place in the world, a theme utilized to great effect by both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre despite their character’s different fates, the former featuring a “monstrous” creation who is rejected by society without a second thought, and the latter an orphan child who is eventually able to make herself a strong standing member of society as a governess. I wanted to do something different than a regular essay because I feel like that wouldn’t fit Jane Eyre or Frankenstien at all. Jane Eyre, from Jane Eyre, Is someone who is very traumatized to the point her fantasies blend into her reality and Frankenstien is a monster that never had the chance to live regularly. This is due to her social compass and how she can’t really interact normally with anyone around her. This is why I chose to connect Jane Eyre with Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein. Both stories not only connect to each other, but they connect with Scooby Doo in multiple ways. The Scooby Doo gang has never been able to fit into regular society in any sense, exactly like Jane and Frankenstein. The sense of false justice, social justice, and how that creates a fairy tale like state for all of them.
Scooby Doo always has villains who are caught by the gang and brought to “justice” for doing bad things. No matter the reason behind why they did the things they are always taken away by law enforcement with barely any chance to explain themselves. They are, however, always guilty. I chose to use a story with the Scooby gang to show how both Jane Eyre, and Frankenstien are examples of when people are failed by the justice system. For Jane Eyre, she was basically tortured by her family for no reason at all. This causes her to put herself in a fairytale state of mind where she isn’t able to really understand what is happening deep down, and usually jumps to the supernatural. Nobody helped her, no one came to her aid, in fact, she had to do it all by herself and then she finds herself at a mansion with another person, Mr. Rochester, who is also somebody the justice system has failed. In Frankenstein’s case, he was brought to life, abandoned by his father, and then forced to be alone, which he couldn’t handle so he ended his life. Both of these stories show how society’s justice system is very flawed where we usually blame the victims for what has happened. This is why I wanted to make this into a Scooby Doo script where the gang actually gets it wrong. I thought of this when I was told to watch the Ted Talk called “How Reliable Is Your Memory” by Elizabeth Loftus. She describes the story of someone who was wrongfully convicted of something he did not do just because of someone’s false memories. This is very prominent in Frankenstein where no matter what bad thing happens everyone automatically connects it to the monster, in Jane Eyre when she really believes she saw her uncles ghost, and in Scooby Doo when they always convince themselves that they know who it is only for them to be wrong a lot of the time.
Social Norms and how people are treated is also a big inspiration for why I’m doing this type of un-essay. People don’t usually like different things or when people dont act the way they are “supposed” to act. This is something all three stories have in common; The Scooby gang is shunned by mostly all their relatives, Frankenstein is shunned by the entire world from birth, and Jane Eyre was locked in a room where her uncle died because they didn’t like the way she acted. I want to make the connection that no matter if you are on the side of “good or evil” if you act differently, society will always treat you as such. It doesn’t even stop at how you act, sometimes no matter how much you can fit into society even if you look different like Frankenstien and Scooby you will always get treated differently. Now all three of these stories have a lot of supernatural aspects even though sometimes they aren’t real. I believe this is because of the pressure that society puts onto these groups of people which in turn makes everything and everyone crazier. If Frankenstien was just loved he wouldn’t have become a monster, If Jane Eyre was loved she wouldn’t even be at the mansion, and If the Scooby gang’s families accepted them they wouldn’t have as much trouble when it came to being who they are meant to be. This is very apparent in the episode A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts where not only Dracula and the Werewolf appear, so does Frankenstien. This episode shows that “monsters” have feelings as well and that they are only bad because society has treated them as such. In conclusion, I wanted to make the connection between Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and Scooby Doo regarding Justice because I feel like it’s a very important topic that many people leave out, especially when analyzing literature.
Cites:
Raja Gosnell, David Newman, Laura Z. Wasserman & Gregory Jamrok, R. R. L. (2002) SCOOBY-DOO. USA/Australia.
Loftus, E. (n.d.). How reliable is your memory?. Elizabeth Loftus: How reliable is your memory? | TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_how_reliable_is_your_memory?language=en
Young, “The monster within.” (n.d.). https://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/young.html#:~:text=That%20there%20are%20certain%20affinities,fiction%2C%22%20including%20Jane%20Eyre.
Sprockets and Springes 