I ~ A first-person account of birth
Very striking as owing to unusual circumstances of his creation (as an adult), the monster is able recount his increasing awareness of his own existence. Effectively a birth account, but told in the first person.
a) The monster’s initial inability to understand his environment – “all … confused and indistinct” (ln. 2). Excess of stimulation and no means to organise information – “a strange multiplicity of sensations” (lns. 2-3). Consider how the verbs of perception are listed with no structure, nor any objects (ln. 3) – syntax used to show senses arriving simultaneously and order not being imposed about them. Repetition of “all was confused” ln. 31. In the next sentence the play on words on “light” (weightless/illumination) deceives the reader at first, conveying the impression of confusion.
b) Yet passage marked by an evolution from this confusion to understanding. Traditional motif of light/darkness as enlightenment/ignorance used in the first paragraph, with understanding coming with the light that “poured in upon” him (ln. 8), leading to “a great alteration in my sensations” (lns. 9-10), which he makes explicit with the comparison between before and after. So his awakening (metaphorical) mirrors the arrival of day and the sun. Gradual awareness of more and more things, starting with his own physical needs: heat/fatigue (ln. 13-14); hunger/thirst (ln. 16); cold (ln. 20). Later also perception of his environment: bright moon (ln. 34); day/night (ln. 35); birdsong (lns. 39-40) and so to aesthetic pleasure.
c) Yet the latter only comes after physical needs are met – ln. 31 “No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was confused.” Emphasis initially on a repeated pattern of the perception of a need to be satisfied followed by the satisfaction of that need (see above where he shelters himself, eats and drinks, sleeps and covers himself). A suggestion then that the life of the monster – indeed life in general – can be defined as this constant attempt to satisfy one’s own needs, that “torment” (ln. 16) the monster, leaving him a “poor helpless, miserable wretch” (lns. 23-24).
Transition: Yet we see that the monster’s needs are met, and that he even experiences emotional pleasure in his new environment. On each occasion nature is his provider, and as we shall now see, Shelley uses the passage to explore man’s relationship to nature.
II ~ A benevolent nature
a) All of the monster’s needs are met by nature, which is presented by Shelley as nourishing and protective. Each time that the monster becomes aware of a need, help is provided by nature. So it is that nature provides him with a place to sleep (ln. 15), and then food (ln. 17) and water (ln. 18). Later when cold, the monster finds a “huge cloak” (ln. 30) with which to cover himself. This relationship is made more explicit later in the passage where the active form is used to imply a will behind nature’s provision – “the clear stream that provided me with drink and the trees that shaded me with their foliage” (lns. 37-38). Part of his growing comprehension – shared by the reader – is a proper understanding of nature as a provider.
b) Moreover, nature not only meets physical needs but also provides aesthetic delight to the monster. Again the active form is used to bestow nature with a benevolent will, with personification emphasising the technique: “various scents saluted me” (lns. 34), with the verb repeated though this time with birdsong as the subject (ln. 39), which is also later described as “pleasant” (ln. 43) and “sweet and enticing” (ln. 53). His first positively pleasurable experience is appreciating the sunrise (lns. 26-28), just as he also enjoys “the bright moon” (ln. 34), and the “radiant roof of light” (ln. 42). Interestingly the sunrise invokes arouses “a kind of wonder” (ln. 28): Romantic idea of wonder at the natural world, which is seen as innocent and removed from the vices of society.
c) Shelley further underlines the idea of nature as benevolent by drawing on Christian motifs, endowing nature with the qualities given to God in certain biblical passages. The monster being satisfied by a “brook” (the word is used twice, ln. 15 and ln. 18) recalls Psalm 42 (“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” Ps 42:1, KJV). Similarly, as we have already seen, nature provides trees to shade the monster, just as God provides Jonah with a gourd (“And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” Jonah 4:6, KJV). The reference to “light … over the heavens” (ln. 26) recalls the religious themes in the passage. Indeed the Romantic ideal of a prelapsarian natural state owes much to the Garden of Eden, and the monster’s experience in the world is analogous to Adam’s.
Transition: So the religious themes of the text might allow us to read the monster’s account as an echo of the Garden of Eden, and therefore of creation itself, which is Shelley’s ultimate concern in Frankenstein.
III ~ Creation
a) The monster’s birth then takes on a far larger scope when considered in the light of the creation myth in Genesis. Indeed rather than being the account of one birth, perhaps it might be more properly read in a universal sense, with the monster, one man alone in an unpopulated world, being Adam. Indeed Mary Shelley referred to the monster as ‘Adam’ when discussing the book. The structure of the text is very similar to the Genesis account of creation: (light -> forest -> water -> berries -> winged creatures -> herbs), with a gradual progression through the different natural phenomena.
b) The final paragraph of the passage points again to another archetype of creation myths with man’s discovery of fire: the monster is “overcome with delight at the warmth” of the flames, and progressively learns of its dangers and also how to use sustain and manage a fire. Obvious parallel to draw, particularly in light of the full title of the work, is with the myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. A reminder then that the “Modern Prometheus” of the title is Victor Frankenstein, who also created life. In the work, Frankenstein then is the creator, and the monster his creation.
c) Yet perhaps the passage provides a means to explore the concept of creation at a more nuanced level. For just as the monster narrates his first experiences in a manner reminiscent of a creation myth, so too does Mary Shelley, the author, rewrite her own creation myth through him. The act of writing is always an act of creation (consider author, from auctor, augere), and all the more so in this passage since the author orders the world through the monster’s experience of it. Indeed the very act of giving a narrative voice to the monster is an assertion of the writer’s creative omnipotence, as it allows her to write what is otherwise impossible (a first-person account of a birth). Moreover, certain clues in the text point perhaps to the significance of authorship and voice. What in ln. 40 were “little winged creatures” have become “birds” by ln. 44: they have been given names – a written and verbal form. Moreover, the monster’s attempts to imitate their song are unsuccessful, producing “uncouth and inarticulate sounds” (ln. 45), though he wished to “express [his] sentiments in [his] own mode”. That is he sought a voice, a means of expression, just as Shelley did in writing the novel. Remember she was only 18 at the time of writing, and that Frankenstein was her first novel. Ultimately then, the creation myth is also a record of the writer’s attempt to create.
Conclusion
A striking passage in which the monster, who up until this point in the book has only been described by Victor Frankenstein in his narration, is given the power of a narrative voice. What is most immediately interesting is that this allows Shelley to present the reader with an account of a being’s creation told by the being itself. Thus using a metaphor of illumination, we see how the monster gradually understands more and more of his environment, and also that he must satisfy his physical needs. Shelley presents nature as a benevolent provider that not only feeds, shelters and warms the monster, but also provides him with solace and delight. Such themes fit with the Romantic view of nature as a source of wonder, whilst also playing on religious ideas of a benevolent provider and creation. Ultimately it is through an analysis of this archetypal dimension of the creation story that we can consider the parallel drawn between creation within the diegesis of Frankenstein and between the creative act of writing the work itself.
