Tutor Associate Professor Ioana Zirra

Galie Madalina

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley

Othello, Don Juan, Micawber, Becky Sharp - such characters have

become popular terms; but out of that vampire-laden fug of gruesomeness
known as the English Gothic romance, only the forbidding acrid name
Frankenstein remains in general usage.
Frankenstein, published in 1818, underneath its coarse and horrifying
exterior, advances a very complex philosophical debate concerning the
exacerbated hybris of human kind and the monstrosities which it might bring to
life.
There are two central figures- or rather two in one, for Frankenstein and
his significantly unnamed monster are bound together by the nature of their
relationship. Frankensteins plight resides in the Monster, and the Monsters in
Frankenstein. This fact has received wide, if unwitting, recognition in apparent
from the common mistake of naming the monster Frankenstein and emanated
from the first principle of the story; Frankenstein is perpetuated in the monster.
Several implicit themes show these characters as both complementary and
antithetical beings.
The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as Victor
attempts to surge beyond accepted human limits and access the secret of life.
Likewise, Robert Walton attempts to surpass previous human explorations by
endeavoring to reach the North Pole. This ruthless pursuit of knowledge, of the
light (see Light and Fire), proves dangerous, as Victors act of creation
eventually results in the destruction of everyone dear to him, and Walton finds
himself perilously trapped between sheets of ice. Whereas Victors obsessive
hatred of the monster drives him to his death, Walton ultimately pulls back from
his treacherous mission, having learned from Victors example how destructive
the thirst for knowledge can be.

The motif of revolt against divine oppression and indeed against the
concept of a benevolent deity, which is prominent in much of Shelleys thought,
underlines the Modern Prometheus theme of Frankenstein.
Generally speaking, therefore, it is the emotional and the intellectual that
conflict in the form of Frankenstein and his Monster. The culminating emotional
frustration by the intellect is reached in the murder of Frankensteins bride by
the Monster. Thereafter, Frankensteins hysterical pursuit of his fleeting reason
completes the story of his madness- a condition perceived in the tale only by the
Genevan magistrate who, when Frankenstein demands of him the monsters
arrest, endeavored, says Frankenstein, to soothe me as a nurse does a child.
By imitation, trial and error, the Monster learns the rudiments of survival;
the domestic manners of the cottagers, whom he observes from the peep-hole in
his hut, awaken his communal instincts; while the books he (miraculously)
comes by- Plutarch Lives, Sorrows of Werther and Paradise Lost- are carefully
selected by the author to stimulate the mental process which his learning of the
language has initiated.
Once more, Mary Shelley emphasizes the influence of outward
appearance on human relationships. The monster has evolved into an intelligent
though simple man. Who was I?, What was I?, Whence did I come?,
What was my destination?.The Monster was then able to ask himself; and he
has acquired a moral sense.
The development of the Monsters character does not cease here, although
his first murder gives it a new direction. It is only after his almost- completed
female counterpart is destroyed by Frankenstein that he is depicted as an all-out
perpetrator of evil. One important factor in the unfolding of his character is his
lack of emotion. What passes for emotion- his need for companionship; his
feelings of revenge towards Frankenstein- are really intellectual passions arrived
at through rational channels. He is asexual, and demands his bride as a
companion, never as a lover or even merely as a mate; his emotions reside in the
heart of Frankenstein, as does Frankensteins intellect in him.
Human beings thus become playthings, far weaker than mountains of
ice, mere puppets in the hands of destiny. Mary Shelley adopts a behaviorist
model of human nature. Human beings are, like nature itself, only machines

manipulated by external forces. Since fate controls human destiny, Victor

Frankensteins downfall is caused not so much by his own presumption and
rash ignorance as by bad influences. Frankensteins curiosity about the
workings of nature is presented as innocent and healthy. It is accidentally
perverted by his reading of Cornelius Agrippa. His father, who was not
scientific(238), was unable to explain Agrippas errors.
What could not be expected in the country of eternal light? asks Walton,
displaying a faith in, and optimism about, science. In Frankenstein, light
symbolizes knowledge, discovery, and enlightenment. The natural world is a
place of dark secrets, hidden passages, and unknown mechanisms; the goal of
the scientist is then to reach light. The dangerous and more powerful cousin of
light is fire. The monsters first experience with a still-smoldering flame reveals
the dual nature of fire: he discovers excitedly that it creates light in the darkness
of the night, but also that it harms him when he touches it.
The presence of fire in the text also brings to mind the full title of Shelleys
novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. The Greek god Prometheus
gave the knowledge of fire to humanity and was then severely punished for it.
Victor, attempting to become a modern Prometheus, is certainly punished, but
unlike fire, his gift to humanityknowledge of the secret of liferemains a
secret.
All in all, I consider that Frankensteins attempt to create a new being
(perhaps he was not even in the quest to reenact a human being), just as
Pygmalion sculpting his Galathea, is a perfect combination between the rigidity
of a character such as the Monster, as far as his appearance is concerned, and the
sensibility and nobility of his core as it, at some point, is capable of feeling
shame or rage. The fact that the creator ends up persecuted by his creation only
suggests that the human mind should be aware of its limited nature.

Bibliography: Muriel Spark Mary Shelley, 1987

Anne K. Mellor Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her

Monsters, 1989.