Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Or, The Modern Prometheus
Let's begin our discussing with recalling Coleridge's narrative technique in his Rime of the Ancient Mariner. (By the way, what did you think of the direct allusion to Coleridge's poem? Any other implicit connections to Coleridge's poem or characters? Is Walton a failed Modern Prometheus, as Harold Bloom suggests?)
Let's also put the novel into the context of our previous discussions on Romanticism. What elements or tenets of Romanticism do you find in this text? Explain how Shelley may use a particular Romantic element differently than Wordsworth or Coleridge, or for a different purpose.
What type of Romanticism? Some critics find that Mary Shelley was a blend of influences. Her mother's and father's concerns with the underprivileged influenced her description of the poverty-stricken De Lacey family. Her appeals to the imagination, isolation, and nature represented typical scenes and themes explored in some of Percy Shelley's poetry. But Mary's choice of a Gothic novel made her unique in her family and secured her authorial place in the Romantic period.
Paper topics:
Gothicism: Horace Walpole introduced the first Gothic novel in 1764 with The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story. Gothic novels were usually mysteries in which similar and sometimes supernatural events occurred and were ultimately caused by some evil human action. The language was frequently overly dramatic and inflated. Following this movement was the Romantic movement's fascination with the macabre and superstitious aspects of life, allowing them the freedom to explore the darkest depths of the human mind. Most critics agree that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein reflected her deepest psychological fears and insecurities, such as her inability to prevent her children's deaths, her distressed marriage to a man who showed no remorse for his daughters' death, and her feelings of inadequacy as a writer. The Gothic novel usually expresses, often in subtle and indirect ways, our repressed anxieties.
Doppelganger: Many literary critics have noted the Doppelganger effect: the idea that a living person has a ghostly double haunting him, such as Victor and his creature. Presenting Victor and the creature as doubles allows Shelley to dramatize two aspects of a character, usually the "good" and "bad" selves. Victor's desire to ignore his creature parallels his desire to disregard the darkest part of his self. (Think of Victor's fascination with the lightening bolt destroying the old oak tree into nothing.) Freud characterizes this "dark" side as the Id, while Carl Jung refers to it as the anima/ae, or the Jungian shadow. Combine Victor and the Creature into one character in order to appreciate the full spectrum of what it means to be human, to be joyful, compassionate, empathetic, and hateful, and also love humanity, desire knowledge, honor justice, fear the unknown, dread abandonment, and fear mortality. No other character in the novel assumes this range of human complexity.
How does one begin an allegorical reading of this novel? Remember, Mary Shelley's parents and husband were accomplished and published writers while she was applying the winning results of her summer ghost story contest to paper. Thus, she did well to choose a literary tradition where overwritten diction is preferred. With this in mind, however, we are tempted to read this novel allegorically, and if you encounter this text in a college course next year, you will be sure to discover the numerous interpretations of this book. Some biographical interpretations will connect Percy Shelley's creative habits and behavior patterns to the obsessive Victor. With this in mind, notice how the creature simply wants Victor to design him a new mate. Does his treatment of women here parallel Victor's?
Historical Context: Most of the early Romantic writers strongly advocated the French Revolution, which began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille, a prison where the French royalty kept political prisoners. The revolution signaled a throwing off of old traditions and customs of the wealthy classes, as the balance of economic power shifted toward the middle class with the rise of industrialism. As textile factories and iron mills increased production with advanced machinery and technology, the working classes grew restive and increasingly alarmed by jobs that seemed insecure because a worker could be replaced by machines. Most of England's literary thinkers welcomed revolution because it represented an opportunity to establish a harmonious social structure. Shelley's father William Godwin, in fact, strongly influenced Romantic writers when he wrote Inquiry Concerning Political Justice because he envisioned a society in which property would be equally distributed. Shelley's mother Mary Wollstonecraft, also an ardent supporter of the revolution, wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in response to Edmund Burke's attack on the revolution. She followed two years later with A Vindication of the Rights of Women, supporting equality between the sexes.
The Bloody "September Massacres" in which French revolutionaries executed nearly 1200 priests, royalists, aristocrats, and common criminals, occurred in 1792. This event and the Reign of Terror, during which the revolutionary government imprisoned over 300,000 suspects, made English sympathizers lose their favor. With the rise of Napoleon, who was crowned emperor in 1804, England itself was drawn into war against France during this time. After the war ended in 1815, the English turned their attention to economic and social problems plaguing their own country. Much of the reason why England did not regulate the economic shift from a farming-based society to an industrialized society stemmed from a hands-off philosophy of non-governmental interference with private business. This philosophy had profound effects, leading to extremely low wages and terrible working conditions for employees who were prevented by law form unionizing.
John Locke, eighteenth century philosopher, invented the concept of the tabula rasa, the idea that the mind is a blank slate when we are born. Most critics agree that Locke strongly influenced Shelley's characterization of the creature. She wanted her readers to understand how important the creature's social conditioning was to his development as a conscious being. The creature's environment, therefore, plays a critical role in shaping his reaction to and interaction with Victor during their first meeting. While the creature uses both rational and emotional appeals to convince Victor that he deserves and needs another being like himself to share his life with, he tries to emphasize Victor's duties as a creator. The creature eventually realizes that not only has Victor rejected him, the entire race of humankind abhors his image, an image resembling no one else in existence.
Observe the Romantic fascination with German culture, too. In fact, many tenets of Romanticism were inspired by German artist and thinkers. Shelley's Victor resembles several facets of Goethe's Faust. Victor does not visit home during his first six years of study at University. (NB: See the note on the Grimm Brothers on the Romanticism page.)
Romantic poets also believed themselves to be above traditional standards and conventions. They believed that solitude would produce the best poetry.
Shelley invites the nature versus nurture debate: many characters are nursing Victor and others in this book; also appreciate how many characters are being nursed or adopted. There is so much good care, care and parenting extended without the concern, too, of biological ties. Thus, where does Shelley fall in this long standing debate? Also, notice how all of this care, charity and parenting contrasts sharply with Victor's gross neglect of the creature.
Content for the above was copied and gleaned from a great teaching resourse: Poetry for Students, Volumes 1-12. Comp. and Ed. Elizabeth Thomason. Michigan: Gale Group, 1999.