The archetypal description of Victor Frankenstein is much the same, although he is depicted as the Romantic hero, he is the true doppelganger of Walton and is described by him as “the brother of my heart” with an intimacy unequalled. Walton also throughout this opening stage portrays Victor with language flourishing with eloquence to be the noblest of creatures, both passionate and gentle. But this description is just an archetype deliberately inserted by Mary Shelley to provoke a judgement of Victor from the reader that portrays him as the conventional protagonist. This device should emphasize the contrasting judgement later on in the novel, because he, like Walton, is part of the one-sided coin of narcissism and pomposity that they together make up and he, like Walton, is not deserved of our sympathy, pity or pathos.
The monster, in contrast, deserves our sympathy because he is unfairly both reviled and violently attacked due to his physical appearance by all mankind that perceives him. Often referred to as a “daemon” or “wretch” the monster is cowardly abandoned by Victor and forced to experience his ‘socialisation’ stage alone in a cold world that he soon realises will never accept him, “…I am an outcast in the world forever”.
The monster represents a newly born child thrown into a world of adults, forced into orphanage by a neglecting ‘father’. He knows no discrimination, like a young child he does not distinguish between race, gender, age or appearance and, in his earlier life establishes strong ‘human’ qualities such as gratitude and love for the natural world that surrounds him. The monster in its own way symbolizes a pure form of human being, untouched. He does not develop the shallowness that we as a society perceive as a normal reaction to something that appears so different to ourselves. This is the key factor that separates Walton and Frankenstein from the monster, which is why we must sympathise with the monster and not with his antagonists. They do react to difference and think of themselves as higher, god-like beings, doppelgangers of each other’s egotism. Walton, who compares himself to “the names of Homer and Shakespeare”, isolates himself merely because he believes only a minority matches his intellect, because although he is lonely, “I have no friend”, he himself effectively chooses to be lonely. Whilst Frankenstein does not contemplate the follies of playing God because he, like Walton, can only visualise success for himself and does not contemplate the consequences of his monomania, “I seemed to have lost all soul for this one pursuit”.
Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein was born in London in 1797, about to embark upon a life that would witness the Romantic era, the industrial revolution in Britain and more importantly events in her life that inspired one of the most profound and shocking novels in science fiction history and indeed the literature world.
Her mother, just as Victor’s does, died ten days after Mary’s birth, leaving her father, William Godwin to care for her. This loss of her mother was one of the most influential events in the creation of Frankenstein from that point Mary had a very deep understanding of death. Both Mary’s parents were prominent political thinkers of their time, her mother one of the first feminists and her father a philosopher. They shared many great friends including the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the writer of ‘The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner’ who visited their house one day. His poem, based upon the killing of an albatross, which was then thought to have brought bad luck, may have inspired Mary a little. The monster in Frankenstein, once given life, undoubtedly brought the downfall of Victor Frankenstein whilst the albatross, when given death, provokes dreadful luck upon its slayer. This connection may be an inadvertent symbol or juxtaposition for the creation of the monster.
Another piece of classic literature that inspired Mary Shelley came in the form of John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’; which is centred on the demise of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We can see this represented in the shape of Victor Frankenstein’s life where he had all the world could grant him, health, prosperity and love; but lost it all to temptation; in his case the playing of God. Just like the formation of Adam and Eve by the Christian God, the monster represents the first of his kind and like the first humans, his creation was intended to improve and enlighten the world. But the monster does not receive the same acquiescence as the first humans as he, in chapter 12, quite biblically tells Frankenstein “remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed”. The monster obviously feels betrayed by mankind and his creator, the one person he can truly call a father.
Obviously Mary Shelley had an excellent childhood surrounded by great minds and literature, which may have inspired the creation of Victor’s similar upbringing in the novel. And, inevitably from this fortune she grew up with a hunger for knowledge and admiration of writing. At the age of fourteen Shelley went to stay with friends of her father’s in a remote area of Scotland. Here she began writing quite seriously, inspired by the sublime landscape that surrounded her.
After this stage in her life she met and fell in love with a young poet named Percy Byshe Shelley, a radical thinker of the time and the equivalent of a rockstar of the Romantic era. In an act of spontaneous passion the two eloped to Europe but upon doing so they were both unfortunately disowned by their disapproving fathers (like the ‘orphaning’ of the monster by Victor). Out of their native lands, the couple travelled to Switzerland, where Frankenstein is initially set, here they also meet an atheist poet named Lord Byron who invited them to stay with him in his admirable dwellings. In the midst of the Romantic era, Mary started taking large quantities of drugs, predominantly opium, as it was the fashion of the time to do so and began indulging in the excessive lifestyle of the era, the free attitude towards sex and the love of the naturally sublime. At lord Byron’s mansion she began writing Frankenstein under the influence on many occasions high levels of opium. This state of mind, combined with her truly sublime surroundings in the Swiss Alps, gave her the incentive to write language full of mystery, surrealism and emotion.
Looking back on her life you realise that, precisely like the Frankenstein family, she was quite sheltered from the anguish of her time or the imperialistic ruling of the British Empire, which was also ignored, to a degree, by anyone enjoying the luxuries of the Romantic era. The only even indirect contact Mary experienced was when her male friends and in-fact Percy ventured off to fight in such revolutions as the French’s just for self-improvement and glory. Percy’s endeavors caused Mary great distress, stricken with worry and fear for his life. This lead to the inclusion of Elizabeth in Frankenstein as the doppelganger of Mary, both sick with anxiety for the safety of their lovers, Victor and Percy, also doppelgangers. This mirror image was created to portray Mary’s anger and reveal to Percy the discontent his ‘heroic’ acts were causing her.
Except for this though her life with Percy in Lord Byron’s chateau was altogether quite comfortable, allowing Mary adequate time to concentrate on the writing of her novel Frankenstein. Peace and comfort were granted to her because at that time political equality had just been given to Switzerland after the French occupiers declared it a neutral state. This allowed the wealthy and privileged to embark on spontaneous tours around the picturesque landscapes of Switzerland and, because the British Empire was at it’s most economically and politically powerful, Britons were culturally encouraged to take part in the ever so fashionable ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe. This obviously inspired Mary significantly because, in search of each other, Victor and the monster journey across vast European landscapes such as the highlands of Scotland, the Alps in Switzerland and the irrepressible glaciers of the Arctic. But we learn in chapter 1 before Victor actually encounters upon his creation he too, like Percy, Lord Byron and Mary, was living out his life in this metaphorical bubble, only dining, socialising and only generally existing with others like himself, the higher class.
This period of her life was dramatically diverse to the one that followed which brought back the gloom of the death of her mother. When Mary was seventeen she gave birth to her first child but was devastated when only twelve days later her baby tragically died. It was said that she then had a dream where her baby came back to life, which, in Frankenstein, is symbolized by the rebirth of the monster. Her familiarity of death only deepened when she experienced the suicides of both her half sister and the ex-wife of Percy. Did Mary then feel guilty for maybe causing the death of Percy’s wife by effectively depriving her of Percy by denying their companionship? Also can we see this in-directly represented in the guilt of Frankenstein when he instead quite carelessly gives something to the monster (life) whom then takes the life of many others?
The only positive aspect that came out of the death of Percy’s wife was that, upon hearing of this news, her father finally started talking to Mary again after a long period of neglect (because her relationship with Percy was not at the level of marriage and regarded as ‘sinful’ by Mary’s father). This reunion was short lived though as her father passed away shortly after. Mary’s loneliness was then completed when Percy, whilst under the influence of drugs, drowns, leaving her isolated and desperately forlorn. This isolation inspired the emotional torture that the monster experiences when he is abandoned because of his “wretchedness”. Reflecting on Mary Shelley’s life we realise how relative Frankenstein is to hers. It too opens with such harmony and Romanticism and it too then develops into an existence that is overflowing with death and dispair.
Frankenstein’s themes revolve around the nature of man on how we judge by appearance, our fears, the ways in which we abuse science and the manner in which we seek knowledge and self-improvement.
The novel, in one respect, was influenced by the sudden jump in technology by mankind in the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century. What the novel was playing on was the fear of the improvement and functionality of the machines and the way in which they might one day be superior to man. This was provoked by the sudden unemployment for ‘hands-on’ workers where machines suddenly performed their jobs faster and more efficiently, for example the group of Nottingham mechanics called The Ludittes responded after being replaced by machinery by attempting to destroy their competition. So the concept that Mary Shelley was trying to portray by the ‘creation’ of the monster, an effectively physically superior version of man, was that in the future man will be made, rather than given birth to, and then improved and functionalised by machines.
Other themes include the disapproval of playing God and the follies of abusing science. It is perhaps a prophecy for the inevitable future mankind waits for, dominated by cloning, GM foods and the supremacy of machines, which in our day gradually seems a not too distant reality.
The novel though has progressively become an attack on the superficiality and self-righteousness of mankind, a huge allegory on the shallowness of our species. It is a criticism of the way we can judge our fellow man so without guilt or a second thought on the way he or she looks, dresses or speaks. This is why the monster is such an enormous character in the novel. He is subjected to this judgement immediately but does not know how to react after his own creator denies him in regard to his facial deformities, “A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch”, were his metaphorical father’s words.
Finally, although Mary Shelley was, like many in the Romantic era, a concrete atheist, religion still remains one of the strongest influences in Frankenstein. Victor, upon descending into deeper obsession with his experiment, begins to use the language of religion and refer to God; usually after declaring himself as something similar to, or as powerful as God or as the soul subject in God’s watchful eye, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent nature would owe their being to me”. From this statement, Victor appears to usurp the ‘almighty creator’ of mankind and by this feels he is worthy of the levels of worship encouraged in the bible. Other themes were based around the gothic sublime so celebrated in the Romantic era, “the sublime shapes of the mountains; the changes of the seasons; tempest and calm; the silence of winter, and the life and turbulence of our Alpine summers.”
What makes Frankenstein such an incredible novel is the feeling of suspense you experience after reading it. This is generated by the consideration of the events that would have occurred if Victor had actually been ‘successful’ in his endeavors. Would he then have used any further creations to cure the ills of the developing world? Or in fear of eliminating the ‘true’ human race would Victor have then destroyed any evidence of the monster? This consideration though is why this suspense is so effective in capturing the reader’s imagination. He or she can make up their own minds about these alternate events and could effectively be shocked or intrigued about their results. What I mean by this is that if the monster’s creation had proved entirely successful and it had happened in reality, what would its effects be? Could it have ruined the ‘cycle of life’ that previously ended with the ‘eternal rest’ and would, by eliminating death, their be a heaven or hell? And surely the conservation of life and physical improvement of mankind would eventually lead to an infinitely overpopulated planet and, respectively, the extinction of many species of animal like the lion, bear or elephant, ridiculed by the now ‘in-human’ strengths of the new superior race. From these aspects we must realise that Frankenstein was extremely shocking for its time due, taken from many reasons, to the fact that it included one of the first anti-heroes (the monster) whom the reader both sympathises and relates to the most; even though he proves to be the microcosm of our inner most fears and insecurities, both hideous and murderous. In conclusion, Frankenstein is a perfect example of the gothic era, the big issues, Life, Death and the obsession with death.
