Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus"Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus A Tale of Intense Passionsby Wayne Peake
You may ask why should I care about an old horror novel, and what does it have to do with ancient mysteries?
Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" is perhaps more relevant today than when it was written, for we are fast
approaching the time when her nightmare scenario may become a reality. Cloning, genetic engineering all make
Shelly's tale more plausible then could been imagined when it was published in 1818. Perhaps only someone
living in our time could understand the fear of being supplanted by superior scientifically engineered beings.
The novel deals with man's fear of death and an obsession to conquer it and like Prometheus the main character
suffers the tortures of the damned for his audacity, for trespassing on the territory of Gods. His quest to
penetrate the womb of nature and force from her her most hidden and intimate secrets leads to death of all who
are closest to him.
Death is perhaps the greatest ancient mystery of all and Shelly's "Frankenstein" is one man's struggle to
Conquer it. Even with advancements of science and the promise of faith, death remains the great mystery, the
hidden realm. Perhaps mankind will always struggle to understand and reconcile himself with it.
The intense passions we are confronted with every day are amplified, set in stark contrast by the bizzarre
events that unfold throughout the novel, Love, loss, revenge, depair, hatred, alienation, intolerance and
ignorance.
In fact Shelly says that the story of the Monster is only a sort of backdrop on which to set the intense emotional
drama of the characters. But above all emotions the one most central to the story is obsession a drive to
achieve a goal no matter what the consquences, no matter the cost in lives and personal relationships.
written by Unknown
several species of small furry animals gathered together and grooving with a pict in a cave
***
The Summer of 1816
Kim W. Britton
Copyright 1996-2003
Last Modified: June 26, 2001
Mary Shelley spent the greater part of the summer of 1816, when she was nineteen, at
the Chapuis in Geneva, Switzerland. The entourage included her stepsister, Claire
Clairmont, Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori, Byron's physician. Lord Byron rented
the Villa Diodoti on the shores of Lake Geneva, which John Milton, the author of
Paradise Lost, had visited in the 1600's . Rousseau and Voltaire had also resided on
these shores. Mary considered the area to be sacred to enlightenment.
The weather went from being beautiful and radiant to melodramatically tempestuous.
Torrential rains and incredible lightning storms plagued the area, similar to the
summer that Mary was born . This incredible meteorological change was due to the
eruption of the volcano, Tambora, in Indonesia. The weather, as well as the company and
the Genevan district, contributed to the genesis of Frankenstein.
All contributing events that summer intensified on the night of June 16th. Mary and
Percy could not return to Chapuis, due to an incredible storm, and spent the night at
the Villa Diodati with Byron and Polidori. The group read aloud a collection of German
ghost stories, The Fantasmagoriana. In one of the stories, a group of travelers relate
to one another supernatural experiences that they had experienced. This inspired Byron
to challenge the group to write a ghost story.
Shelley wrote an forgettable story, Byron wrote a story fragment, and Polidori began
the "The Vampyre", the first modern vampire tale. Many consider the main character,
Lord Ruthven, to be based on Byron. For some time it was thought that Byron had
actually written the story but over time it was realized that Dr. Polidori was the
author. Unfortunately, Mary was uninspired and did not start writing anything.
The following evening the group continued their late night activities and at midnight
Byron recited the poem, Christabel by Samuel T. Coleridge. Percy became overwrought
during the reading and perceived Mary as the villainess of the poem. He ran out of the
room and apparently created quite a scene. This incident undoubtedly affected Mary,
leading to feelings of guilt that contributed to the story ideas she later developed.
For the next couple of days Mary was unable to begin her story. The poets dropped
theirs but Mary persisted in her creative endeavor. She felt that her ambitions and her
value were at stake and attempted to turn the pressure and frustration into creative
energy.
On June 22nd, Byron and Shelley were scheduled to take a boat trip around the lake. The
night before their departure the group discussed a subject from de Stael's De
l'Allemagne: "whether the principle of life could be discovered and whether scientists
could galvanize a corpse of manufactured humanoid". When Mary went to bed, she had a
"waking" nightmare:
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put
together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, then, on the working of
some powerful engine, show signs of life...His success would terrify the artist; he
would rush away...hope that...this thing...would subside into dead matter...he opens
his eyes; behold the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his curtains...
The next morning Mary realized she had found her story and began writing the lines that
open Chapter IV of Frankenstein - "It was on a dreary night in November"- She completed
the novel in May of 1817 and is was published January 1, 1818.
several species of small furry animals gathered together and grooving with a pict in a cave
Mary Shelley and the Desire to Acquire Knowledge: As Demonstrated in the Novel
Frankenstein
Kim W. Britton
Copyright 1996-2003
Last Modified: June 26, 2001
This essay was written by Kim A. Woodbridge, the owner of this site.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, was the daughter of the radical feminist, Mary
Wollstonecraft, and the political philosopher, William Godwin, and the wife of the
Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Through these familial affiliations, she was also
acquainted with Lord Byron, Samuel T. Coleridge, and other literary figures such as
Charles and Mary Lamb. Surrounded by such influential literary and political figures of
the Romantic Age, it is not surprising that as an adolescent, at the age of 19, she
wrote Frankenstein. Though critically a failure, (British Critic,1818 and Monthly
Review, 1818) the novel has never been out of print and has been translated into
numerous languages. What is surprising, however, is the enormous body of knowledge
contained in the novel. The novel contains references to the fields of literature,
poetry, science, education, politics, history, and mythology. How did such a young
girl, living a life considered morally objectionable to society and harassed by family
and financial burdens, acquire such a vast amount of knowledge in all fields of study
that encompassed the important issues of her day? Through examination of biographical
information and Mary Shelley's journal entries, we will be able to answer this
question. Following, I also plan to highlight Mary Shelley's knowledge of literature
with primary emphasis on the works studied by the monster in relation to his origins as
well as Mary Shelley's.
Mary Shelley was born with notoriety simply by being named Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.
Her parents were well known and somewhat suspect individuals due to their radical
political beliefs and writings, such as Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of
Women and Godwin's Enquiry Concerning the Nature of Political Justice. Mary Shelley's
mother died from complications shortly after giving birth to Mary. The infamy of her
existence was heightened by her father's subsequent publication of Memoirs of the
Author of the Rights of Women. In this work, William Godwin described many aspects of
Mary Wollstonecraft's existence in great detail such as; her relationship with an
American and subsequent birth of an illegitimate daughter, her suicide attempts, and
the fact that she was already pregnant with Mary when William Godwin married her. To
our late 20th Century sensibilities we may not approve of these behaviors but we
certainly don't consider then shocking or extraordinary. The above mentioned events,
however, occurred in the late 1700's and were not morally acceptable, were abhorrent to
the conventions of society, and were certainly not to be discussed or published in a
memoir. William Godwin's publication of this memoir, more than any other event, created
an air of societal stigma around Mary Shelley almost from the moment of her birth.
Mary Shelley increased her already infamous existence by running off with Percy Bysshe
Shelley when she was 17 in 1814. Percy Shelley was already married and abandoned his
pregnant wife and his daughter to live with Mary Shelley. They lived together and had
two illegitimate children prior to getting married in December 1816. They married a
couple of weeks after Percy's wife, Harriet, committed suicide by drowning herself in
the Serpentine. Mary Shelley became a societal outcast for these actions and had few
friends. "Within days she discovered that all of her old circle shunned her, intimates
who had cherished her and friends who professed the most liberal principles" (Sunstein
88). Her own father, hypocritically enough, who lived with Mary Wollstonecraft without
being married, would not speak to Mary until she and Percy were legally married. Godwin
publicly stated, "Mary has committed a crime against hallowed social arrangements,
morality, her family, and Harriet Shelley"(Sunstein 89).
Mary and Percy also had numerous other family and financial problems. Even though Percy
was to eventually inherit a considerable amount of money, he had many debts and was
constantly harassed by creditors. The couple continually moved in order to evade bill
collectors. The first ten months of their relationship they moved four times and, in
fact, never shared a permanent home together. The couple also had to deal with
ostracism from their families as well as many deaths in the family. During their first
two and half years together their first child was born prematurely and died two weeks
later, Percy's first wife committed suicide, and Mary's half sister, Fanny Imlay,
committed suicide. In the midst of numerous pregnancies and family, financial, and
societal turmoil, however, Mary Shelley managed to conceive of, write, and publish the
enduring Frankenstein Again, one must ask how such a young woman, not much more than an
adolescent, who was besieged by so many difficulties that few would be able to
withstand, could have the creative imagination and even find the time to write this
novel.
Not only was Mary Shelley born with notoriety due to an infamous name but was also
considered the child of two literary parents and high expectations were placed on her
creative output. There were many prestigious visitors to the Godwin household, with one
of the most notable and influential being Samuel T. Coleridge. When Mary Shelley was
very young, she heard Coleridge recite the famous "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which
would later be referenced many times in Frankenstein. She never received a formal
education, normal for women for that time period, but grew up surrounded by literary
figures and the writings of her parents and was always encouraged to study and be
creative.
Influenced by Godwin, Mary Shelley developed a lifelong habit of deep and extensive
reading and research" (Bennett, "Romantic Revisions" , 299).
Mary Shelley's desire to acquire knowledge and her disciplined study and research
habits are demonstrated in her journal entries. She rarely wrote anything of a personal
nature so there is little biographical information to be gained from the journals. She
did, however, keep a detailed record of what she was reading and studying on an almost
daily basis. On a typical day she generally studied a complex work, read some of a
novel, and studied a foreign language. For example, on September 19, 1814, Mary studied
Greek, read Rasselas, by Samuel Johnson, and read a novel called The Sorcerer (Feldman,
27). Almost every day is filled with a similar pattern of study. Even in the midst of
all the difficulties discussed previously, she still spent a considerable portion of
each day doing research. The only times that the amount of her work and research abated
was when she was ill, which was often due to her many pregnancies, or something truly
traumatic happened, such as the death of a child or other family member.
The desire to acquire knowledge and the intense passion for research and study is
evident throughout the novel, Frankenstein and is demonstrated through the three
narrators; Victor Frankenstein, Walden, and the monster. Frankenstein's and Walden's
quest for new knowledge of the unknown and the monster's search for knowledge of his
origins parallel Mary Shelley's lifelong scholarly pursuit and her interest in her own
biological origins due to her birth causing her mother's death.
At the very beginning of the novel, Mary Shelley's educational experiences and love of
literary research are told through Walden, the arctic explorer.
"My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading. These volumes were
my study day and night" (Shelley, 2).
"These visions faded when I perused, for the first time, these poets whose effusions
entranced my soul and lifted it to heaven. I also became a poet and for one year lived
in a paradise of my own creation; I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the
temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated"(Shelley,2).
In narrating his experiences to Walden, Victor Frankenstein also tells of his yearning
for a higher knowledge. The following passages demonstrate this;
"One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the
knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the
elemental foes of our race"(Shelley,13).
"You seek for knowledge and wisdom as I once did; and I ardently hope the gratification
of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been"(Shelley, 15)
The above passages give the reader a glimpse into Mary Shelley's fascination with
knowledge and are typical of the discussions of scholarly pursuits central to the
novel. The voice of Victor Frankenstein provides evidence that Mary Shelley did not
believe that all knowledge was "good" knowledge and instead thought that there were
some areas that were beyond human understanding and should not be pursued. Obviously,
Victor Frankenstein's desire to explore the mystery of biological creation belonged to
the realm of knowledge that should not pursued and that can only lead to dire
consequences. Walden was also following the same quest in his search for a passage
through the Arctic regions. Only by hearing the tale of Frankenstein is he dissuaded
from his pursuit and turns back toward home rather than placing his crew members in
mortal danger.
Many of the works that Mary Shelley studied are evident in the voice and character of
Frankenstein's monster and through this character the reader is given a demonstration
of the pursuit of knowledge as related to one's search for his origins. Since Victor
Frankenstein abandoned his creation, the monster was left to fend for himself in a
society hostile to his gigantic and terrifying appearance and was forced to learn and
develop without any parental guidance. Mary Shelley introduced the theory of the
development of human knowledge and awareness as defined by John Locke in his Essay
Concerning Human Understanding which she studied almost daily in December 1816 and
January 1817 (Feldman, 148-154 and Pollin, 107). During this time she was already
working on the novel. Her assumptions of the development of human understanding
"correspond to those of Locke, concerning the absence of innate principles, the
derivation of all ideas from sensation or reflection, and the efficacy of pleasure and
pain in causing us to seek or avoid the various objects of sensation" (Pollin, 107).
The following passage is one of many examples of Mary Shelley's belief in John Locke's
theory.
"It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being; all
the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of
sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time; and it was,
indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operation of my various
senses" (Shelley, 87).
Another considerable influence on Mary Shelley and in turn the monster, was the works
of Rousseau. Mary studied Rousseau early in her own intellectual development (Marshall,
182) and during the period that she composed Frankenstein"(Feldman, 93-97). In
Rousseau's Second Discourse is a discussion on the state of natural man or what
Rousseau calls the "noble savage". Frankenstein's monster is an embodiment of this
state of being developed by Rousseau, in which the monster first discovers himself and
later the knowledge of language and the conventions of society. The monster's narration
of his personal development and later acquisition of knowledge has been recognized by
critics of the novel as a "noble savage whose early life in the forest (drinking at
brooks, eating nuts and berries and not meat, sleeping under trees, encountering fire
for the first time, acquiring language, and so on) conforms in general outline and
specific details to the life of Rousseau's savage"(Marshall, 183).
In addition to the developmental and natural state theories introduced in the novel,
there are also four literary and historical works that Mary Shelley read and studied
between the time that she eloped with Percy in 1814 and the publication of Frankenstein
in 1818, that were of primary importance in the creation of this novel. They are as
follows; Paradise Lost by John Milton, The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, Lives by
Plutarch, and The Memoirs of the Author of the Rights of Women by William Godwin. The
first three assist in the monster's education and understanding of human society, which
will be discussed shortly. First, however I will discuss the Memoirs as related to the
monster's discovery of Victor Frankenstein's journal, and how the journal and Memoirs
relate to Mary Shelley's and the monster's search for the knowledge of who they are.
In addition to trying to understand and fit into human society, it was of primary
importance for the monster to understand who he was and his origins. He developed, by
himself, through the experience of sensations without guidance from similar beings. He
was shunned by society and had no understanding of why he was different, why he had no
family and why there was no one else like him.
The most significant mark of the monster's alienation from society was his lack of a
name. The absence of a name denies the monster the knowledge of who he is, his familial
origins, and a connection to successive generations (Duyfhuizen, 480). The monster's
lack of a name and place in society, which caused him such distress, is shown in the
following passage when he his narrating his experiences to Victor.
"But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no
mother blessed me with smiles and caresses. I had never yet seen a being resembling me,
or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? (Shelley, 106)
The monster finally learns of the origin of his creation by discovering the journal,
that Victor kept while forming the creature, in the pocket of his clothes. The journal
described in graphic detail the procedures that Victor utilized to create this new
being during the four months preceding the night that Victor brought the creature to
life. For the monster, this discovery was a relief because he finally knew more about
his "family" and from where he came but the discovery was also equally disturbing
(Homans, 149). The monster notes that "everything is related in them which bears
reference to my accursed origin; the whole detail of the series of disgusting
circumstances which produced it is set in view; the minutest descriptions of my odious
and loathsome person is given"(Shelley, 114-115).
In the above passage Mary Shelley may also be relating the discovery of her own
origins. As discussed earlier, William Godwin published the Memoirs of the Author of
the Rights of Women shortly after Mary Wollstonecraft's death and this biography
described in great detail Wollstonecraft's life, affairs, suicide attempts, and
relationship with Godwin. The work also provides a graphic account of the birth of Mary
Shelley and the subsequent demise of Mary Wollstonecraft. Godwin's Memoirs were
considered to be "the most hurtful book of 1798" (May, 503) in which Godwin provides
"gynecological explicitness in describing his wife's death after bearing Mary"(May,
503). Mary Shelley read this work while growing up and probably studied it further
while developing the novel. The supposition that she read the Memoirs while working on
Frankenstein is conjecture as it is not noted in her journal. It is, however, probable
that she did because there is such a similarity between the creation of the monster and
her own origins and she may not have wanted to note such a personal work in her journal
that would one day possibly be subject to public scrutiny. As the monster discovered
the horror of his own creation, similarly Mary was subjected to the "horrors of her own
origins as a matricide by the fact that she, along with every English speaking person
of her age, was able to witness the primal scene of her creation in Godwin's
memoirs"(May, 503).
The three works, previously mentioned, that Mary Shelley studied while developing the
novel are of primary importance in the monster's understanding of the aspects that make
one human and part of society. Mary Shelley conveniently has the monster discover these
three works and study them after he had developed language skills and the ability to
read. Through the study of Paradise Lost The Sorrows of Young Werther and Plutarch's
Lives the monster acquires an understanding of the spiritual, emotional, and civic
aspects of human society. The monster obtained knowledge through the study of these
works, but he read all three of them as histories of human civilization, when Plutarch
was the only one that was actually a biographical history.
Mary Shelley studied Plutarch's Lives in 1815 (Feldman, 91) the year prior to beginning
Frankenstein. It is a biographical account of noble Romans and their heroic deeds.
Through the study of this work, both Mary Shelley and the monster learned about models
of human conduct (Sunstein, 49). The monster states, "Plutarch taught me high thoughts;
he elevated me above the wretched sphere of my own reflections, to admire and love the
heroes of past ages" (Shelley, 113). Unfortunately, for both Mary Shelley and her
monstrous creation, few noble deeds were encountered, and instead, both received
ostracism and even hatred from society.
The second important work is The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Mary Shelley's
journal notes that she studied this work in 1815 (Feldman, 91). This work is the tale
of a man who experiences unrequited love and eventually commits suicide. Through the
study of this work the monster gains an understanding of the emotional aspect of human
nature and learns about the feelings of love and despair. In relating the experience of
studying this work to Victor the monster states,
"The diquisitions upon death and suicide were calculated to fill me with wonder. I did
not pretend to enter into the merits of the case, yet I inclined towards the opinions
of the hero, whose extinction I wept" (Shelley, 113).
The Sorrows of Young Werther were important to Mary Shelley in the understanding of her
dead mother as they were important to the monster in understanding human emotion. Mary
Shelley's mother tried to kill herself due to her unrequited love for Gilbert Imlay,
the father of Mary's half-sister, Fanny. Due to this, William Godwin saw many
similarities between his wife and the character created by Goethe. In Godwin's Memoirs
he calls Mary Wollstonecraft the "female Werther" and states that her letters to
Gilbert Imlay bear a striking resemblance to the romance of Werther (Marshall, 218).
Mary Shelley would have been aware of this having already read the Memoirs. Thus, Mary
Shelley utilized the work, that helped her understand the emotional state of her
mother, in the novel, so that the monster to could also learn about the experience of
human emotion.
The final work, that influences the novel and the monster, is Paradise Lost by John
Milton. Mary Shelley spent a considerable amount of time studying this work and read it
a number of times prior to writing Frankenstein ( Feldman, 89 and 96). Mary Shelley
utilized this work to give her novel mythic scope and the following passage was used as
the epigraph;
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man, did I solicit thee From
darkness to promote me? (Johnson, xii).
The monster also read this literary work as the true history of the origin of the
creation of human beings. He saw aspects of himself in both the characters of Adam and
Satan. He was like Adam in that he was the first of his type of creation and was unlike
any living creature. The monster, however, felt a stronger connection to the character
of Satan in that he was spurned by his creator, Victor, just as Satan was cast out of
heaven by God. The creature related his feelings about his identification with the
characters from Paradise Lost in the following passage;
"Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his
state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the
hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous but I was wretched, helpless, and
alone. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition, for often,
like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within
me"(Shelley, 114).
It is my personal belief that Mary may have also felt, at times, as the monster does in
the above passage. She was human, like all others, but had parents who were political
radicals, had a singular educational experience, had the origin of her own creation
published for the entire world to read, and ran off with a married man. The combination
of the above experiences set Mary apart from society and caused her to feel the
isolation and alienation of an outcast; an outcast like her monster and Milton's Satan.
She differs from the monster in that she is notorious for her name, not her appearance,
while the monster has no name and is instead an outcast due to the differences in the
way he appears to others. In many ways Mary Shelley saw herself as the monster that she
created and identified further with the monster by having him read the same works that
she did.
Through the study of Mary Shelley's journals and her biography, one becomes aware of
how important study and research were to her. Her biography tells how the influence of
her literary parents and husband provided her with a unique educational experience and
how she was encouraged to conduct research. Her journals provide a detailed list of all
the works that she studied and assist in relating what she studied to the creation of
her timeless classic and all of the knowledge, especially of human origins, that is
contained in the novel. Most importantly, the combination of the journal and her
biography help answer how such a young woman with such a troubled life created such an
enduring piece of literature. She had a great love of research and knowledge and used
her studies in her creative output.
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'The author is become a creator-God' (Herder). The deification of creativity in
relation to 'Frankenstein'.
Kim W. Britton
Copyright 1996-2003
This essay was written and submitted by Ruth Bushi, who recently completed work on her
Masters at the University of Durham. She can be contacted at
r.bushi@blueyonder.co.uk You can vist her website at ReDGhost
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein can be read as an allegory for the creative act of
authorship. Victor Frankenstein, the 'modern Prometheus' seeks to attain the knowledge
of the Gods, to enter the sphere of the creator rather than the created. Like the
Author, too, he apes the ultimate creative act; he transgresses in trying to move into
the feminine arena of childbirth.
Myths of divine creation are themselves part of the historical process that seeks to
de-throne the feminine; this is the history of Art, itself at first denied to women as
an outlet of self-expression. It is a process recorded in Art itself, in stories like
that of Prometheus. Prometheus in earlier myths stole fire from the Gods (analogous to
the author at his craft). Later he was credited not just as Man's benefactor but as his
creator. Man creates God through myth so as to have a power to will towards.
At this point text, analogy, and reality twist upon each other. As Victor moves into
the female space of the womb, an act of creation aped by the Gods in mythology and
religion, Mary Shelley as author moves into the male domain of art, aping the creative
power of the Gods.
Reading Frankenstein as an analogy for Art can be more fruitful if done within the
framework of Oscar Wilde's essay, 'The Decay of Lying', in which the author argues that
the artist creates the world and not just imitates it: this will conclude this essay.
At the meal between mortals and the Gods at Mecone, Prometheus tricked Zeus into
accepting the bones over the choicest entrails. Man was punished by the denial of fire;
Prometheus again defied the Gods in stealing it. As punishment, he was chained to a
cliff, and Zeus sent an eagle daily to peck at his liver. In the dramatisation by
Aeschylus, Zeus is depicted as a tyrant who would kill all mankind; Prometheus is
defiant against tyranny: 'let him raise/ my body high and dash it whirling down/ to
murky Tartarus. He cannot make me die.' (Cassell Dictionary of Classical Mythology 338)
In later versions of the myth, Prometheus in some way becomes the creator of Man,
fashioning him out of mud. After the great flood, Prometheus' son and daughter-in-law
were the only survivors, and re-propagated the sexes.
The concept of Frankenstein was created in part in the summer of 1816, through Lord
Byron's literary challenge, inclement weather, and a nightmare. Literary sources
included Paradise Lost and Ovid's Metamorphoses, which the Shelleys read the year
before. Thus the idea for a story based on the Prometheus myth, and of the baseness of
the condition of existence without God seems intentional, and engendered by these
sources.
The novel reflects a climate in which literary worship of the divine was to an extent
forsaken in favour of the awe-inspiring wonder of Nature; the concept of the sublime
was in itself a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. The Romantic Movement
saw a concerted effort to return to superstition and excess of imagination. It was
marked by a Gothic 'revival' and the birth of science fiction in Shelley's text, and by
the deification of the Natural world, and Man himself.
Frankenstein begins with a narrative that in some ways mirrors the tale it tells.
Robert Walton's polar expedition is, like Frankenstein's, a search for the unknown and
amidst the breathtaking beauty of the natural world:
I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a
thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming
eccentricities consistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight
of a part of the world never before visited - these are my enticements. Frankenstein 10
The enticements, in fact, are firmly rooted in potential glory. What Walton desires is
to 'obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are
consecrated' (Frankenstein 11). He too wants to share in the cultural deification of
authorship; in his youth he to had been a poet, in later life he substitutes the hopes
of fresh discovery as supplementary to creation. The deification of authorship in both
these forms is aggregated in his reaction to Victor Frankenstein as a 'divine wanderer'
(Frankenstein 24). The adjective is a reference to Frankenstein's grace in misery, his
unabated ability to appreciate the wonder of Nature; at this point Walton is unaware of
the divine aspirations that his patient has in fact attained.
Frankenstein himself makes the analogy of exploration and writing, 'The world was to me
a secret which I desired to discover; to her [Elizabeth] it was a vacancy, which she
sought to people with imaginations of her own.' (Frankenstein 30) The divide is not so
great; Victor also populates his world with the creation of his imagination.
The deification of science as described in Shelley's work, depends upon the defiance of
God. Victor is at first charmed by natural science because of the grand dreams of its
masters in seeking power and immortality; he is able to study modern chemistry after
attending M. Waldman's lecture: '[These modern masters] penetrate into the recesses of
nature, and shew how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens'
(Frankenstein 42). In succumbing to Waldman's lecture, Frankenstein does not become his
student, but his disciple. Wilde called Science the history of failed religions; more
than this it is in itself a kind of religion-substitute, favoured by rationalists, and
for the Romantics reflective of a artistic climate unable to rely on the benevolence of
God. And yet, despite an absence of God, there is still a lack of free will, or at
least a reliance on 'bad faith'. Frankenstein feels his meeting with Waldman fixes his
destiny; inexorable fate also condemns him to pursue the monster to the arctic.
Gilbert and Gubar reiterate the concept of textual creation as birth allegory: 'anyone
who has read Shakespeare's sonnets knows about this comparison of the child to the text
as a way of securing one's immortality.' (Waxman 15) In Shelley's text, then, the
author attempts not only a dissection of the (male) Soul as a product of the Romantic
age, but she also pushes forward the boundaries of knowledge of 'feminine' creation.
Victor transgresses the Natural order in moving into the feminine sphere in a physical
capacity. He creates around him a 'work-shop of filthy creation' (Frankenstein 50);
this is the male womb of creation. His progress at this time is recorded in the
language of pregnancy:
After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of my
desires, was the most gratifying consummation of my toils. But this discovery was so
great and so overwhelming, that all the steps by which I had been progressively led to
it were obliterated, and I beheld only the result. Frankenstein 47
Moreover, as Waxman also suggests, Frankenstein's creative experiment results in the
doubling of identity as happens during pregnancy; some critics have read the monster as
Victor's double, a symbol of both the goodness inherent in Man, and his fated Fall from
Grace. Frankenstein's initial motivation is feminine in that it is benevolent, born of
a wish to benefit mankind. Waxman calls it the 'female realm of the Gift' (Waxman 19).
Finally, Victor attains something of the feminine in achieving a new understanding of
Life and Death: Life and Death are as inseparable as two sides of the same piece of
paper. 'A pregnant woman usually intuits how close she is to death even as she is
carrying life and feeling the pulses of the creative process in her own body' (Waxman
19); this can be juxtaposed against Frankenstein's dream of his dead mother. The
warning of the dream is impressed further by an earlier description of natural
creation: 'never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vine yield a
more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature.'
(Frankenstein 50, emphasis added) Instead, he is rooting in charnel houses, forcing
decaying remains to cohere, to renew the vital principle.
Ultimately, Frankenstein's creation ends in chaos and confusion; Victor is unprepared
for the reality that lies beyond socially imposed gender constraints. Women are
inherently maternal, and yet he notes, 'when I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my
eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so
thoughtlessly bestowed.' (Frankenstein 87) Thus Frankenstein seeks, in vain, the
feminine arena of creativity; his actions also parody the myths of divine creation.
The concept of God as known in Christianity is present only implicitly in the text, for
example in that Frankenstein is compelled to make the monster in his own image (thus
begging the question, who is the real monster?) This is emphasised through explicit
reference to the gods of mythology, such as in the novel's subtitle.
An explanation of this is perhaps to be found more in the monster's tale than in
Victor's, and in its parallels with Paradise Lost. The comment that seems evident in
Frankenstein is that God has abandoned Man; the progression of history sees Man abandon
God in the Victorian era. 'Oh truly I am grateful to thee my Creator for the gift of
life, which was but pain, and thy tender mercy which deserted me on life's threshold to
suffer' (Frankenstein 114). The monster, then, is made a symbol for Man: his alienation
from his creator mirrors that which Victor himself feels in the torture of free will,
which through bad faith he interprets as inexorable destiny, and evil at that.
The monster's tale may itself be read as allegory, of a paradise not even gained.
Agatha and Felix would appear to be representations of Elizabeth and Victor. DeLacey
could either symbolise Victor's father, or perhaps the repressed merciful aspect of
Victor's character: God the Father rather than just the Creator. Two parts of the text
which can be compared with the latter would be firstly the monster's parody of Victor's
spiritual and moral blindness in covering his eyes; secondly Felix's violent reception
of the monster. 'Begone, vile insect!' as Victor cries, 'or rather stay, that I may
trample you to dust.' (Frankenstein 94) The arrival of the Arabian marks one possible
conclusion to the monster's story, though one that remains unfulfilled.
The potential for creation is not entirely denied to men. As the monster demonstrates,
Man makes Man. After Victor's literal creation, it is the literary creations of Goethe
and Milton which in turn fire the monster with virtuous feeling. His reception by the
DeLaceys develops his spiritual monstrosity: 'Many times I considered Satan as the
fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my
protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.' (Frankenstein 125)
At this stage he is utterly alienated from his own Creator. He realises that he is
wholly alone, without mother, father, or friend; it is the condition of Man to live, as
Joseph Conrad wrote, as he dreams: alone.
Thus Frankenstein's monster himself seeks to share in Man's mimicry of creation through
connection with Others. He wants to be 'made' (affirmed, sexually and non-sexually) by
a female companion, and in turn wants to affirm his companion. He is denied this
supplementary womb by the 'No of the Father', and instead (un)makes Elizabeth on her
wedding night in lieu of Victor.
The only kind of creation that the monster can achieve is out of line with the natural
order. He is gleeful when he kills William: 'I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is
not impregnable' (Frankenstein 139, emphasis added).
If God is absent in Frankenstein, the sublime wonder of Nature is a substitute; it
produces in Victor feelings of almost religious ecstasy: 'my heart, which was before
sorrowful, now swelled with something like joy' (Frankenstein 93). It is Nature, the
natural order, which Frankenstein seeks to subvert. As Shelley's text is analogous to
the Prometheus myth, there is a similar textual reflection in Wilde's essay mourning
'The Decay of Lying'.
For Wilde, the magnificence of Nature, which can inspire such awe in Victor, is not a
factor: 'Out of doors one becomes abstract and impersonal. One's individuality
absolutely leaves one.' (Wilde 215) So Nature would appear to 'unmake' one; it is Art
that affirms us, and indeed creates the world. Frankenstein's monster is partly made by
literature: 'As I read,' he remarks, I applied much personally to my own feelings and
conditions.' (Frankenstein 124) If writing is supplementary to the speech of the
authors, ultimately it is still the case that human connection creates personality: Man
makes Man.
In his essay, Wilde reiterates the principle of Art that views the artist as God;
'Nature is no great mother who has borne us. She is our creation. It is our brain that
she quickens to life.' (Wilde 232) Nature, then, is a very poor muse that the artist
improves through defamiliarisation: 'people see fogs not because there are fogs, but
because poets and painters have taught them the mysterious loveliness of such effects.'
(Wilde 232) Moreover, Art is made feminine by the male tradition; once again it is
feminine creativity that is overthrown.
Art begins by creating the brown fog of London: thereafter people begin to see the fog
in actuality. Hence it is not even a case of defamiliarisation that Wilde is proposing.
So, Life imitates Art. Artists, Wilde asserts, create a type, and Life tries to
reproduce it in popular form. An example would be notions of femininity as a result of
the image of Woman in Art. Wilde writes, 'the world has become sad because a puppet
[Hamlet] was once melancholy.' (Wilde 230) Eventually, fictions replace reality, such
as the example the author gives in his essay, of a Man seeking to find the 'Japan' of
oriental art: eventually he must concede as a searching for the irretrievable.
Art is Power, and the Artist is made all-powerful. Moreover, Wilde's aesthetics also
support the idea of an artistic elite. Art (ornate falsehood) is achieved only through
study and devotion: it is not for the common, 'uneducated' man to practice, or to wield
power. Artists, furthermore, should not seek to revert to realism: to do so produces
work that is 'vulgar, common and uninteresting.' (Wilde 225)
The apex of Wilde's argument is that Art is the product of beautiful falsehoods. This
assertion can be read as affirmative of the concepts of the Romantic era and the Gothic
revival, of worlds peopled with the creations of wild imagination. 'Art begins as
abstract decoration with purely imaginative and pleasurable work dealing with what is
unreal and non-existent' (Wilde 225): this surely is true of Frankenstein.
Read in light of 'The Decay of Lying', Frankenstein on another level illustrates the
'divinity' of authorship. Art, Wilde said, is superior to Nature because the former
constantly evolves new techniques; new ways of seeing new worlds. Hence consider
Shelley's work as the product of an age rebelling against the traditions of the last,
the Enlightenment. Finally, 'Art talks of nothing but itself' (Wilde 234);
Frankenstein, like the myth of Prometheus is not symbolic of any age, it is these ages
which are symbols of Art. Thus, to discuss Frankenstein is to discuss, at a tangent,
Paradise Lost, Ovid's Metamorphoses as well as Wilde's essay.
As well as codified symbols woven into the text, Shelley's act of authorship further
emphasises the Artist's relationship to divinity. Victor's miraculous creation, his
renewal of life, is literary wish-fulfilment. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf exorcises the
memories of her dead parents; she lays them to rest, textually. Through Frankenstein,
Shelley plays out a desire to resurrect. Victor's lessons of Life and Death are born of
Mary Wollstonecraft's death in childbirth. As he metaphorically gives birth, he dreams
of Shelley's, dead mother. (Unnatural) childbirth also eventually kills Victor.
The historical process is one of rebellion and succession. Texts can also be part of
this process; such is the case with Frankenstein. Man overthrows the Gods, as
Prometheus, and later, in a different sense, the intellectuals of the Victorian and
Modernist periods did. Frankenstein usurps the divine role; he is in turn made slave by
his creation. Even within the narrative, there is a battle for supremacy of voice:
Waldman's tale is taken over by Frankenstein's and in turn by that of the monster.
Since the success of Shelley's novel, and the birth of the horror and science fiction
genres, and the affect it has likewise had on the film industry, the monster has not
only overthrown his monster, but has taken his name. In popular use, particularly since
the transition of the story to film, 'Frankenstein' has often mistakenly been used to
signify the monster. This transition itself reflects the process of progression and
substitution. As in the case of the non-existent deerstalker that Conan-Doyle never
wrote about, celluloid representations have come to denote the essence, supposedly, of
Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein--------------------
several species of small furry animals gathered together and grooving with a pict in a cave