Classic horror where depression is symbolised as a demon?

[WackyChunkyMonkey]

I'm looking for a little advice from classic horror fans more knowledgeable than me.

I'm working on an essay and need to reference a book (if it was made into a film afterwards that's totally fine - but it does need to have started as a book) where depression is symbolised as a demon character. I'm trying to find something similar as to how Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's monster represents loneliness.

I'm racking my brain but nothing is springing to mind.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Can it be a story rather than a full novel? If so, "Green Tea" by Sheridan Le Fanu might suffice. The demonic creature in the tale eventually drives a man to suicide, so it could be seen as a symbol of depression.

Read it here:

https://web.english.upenn.edu/~nauerbac/tea.html

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

That's a good suggestion. I second the recommendation.

 

[Extollager]

Yes, agreed.

 

[Randy M.]

I agree that's an excellent example. If you need a longer work, my hazy memory suggests a "Green Tea"-like thread in The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison.

Randy M.

 

[Toby Frost]

Maybe "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, although it's more a ghost that's suggested than a demon. The Haunting of Hill House has mental health aspects, although I would exactly call it depression - and again, it's a ghost rather than a demon.

 

[Toby Frost]

Sorry, my previous post should read "I wouldn't exactly call it depression".

 

[paranoid marvin]

I would say that the novel Frankenstein in many ways represents depression. The way that his creature is abandoned at birth by his 'parent', is subsequently treated as a monster by one and all simply due to his looks and forced into becoming more violent and angry.