already transmits gothic elements through the fact that Victor’s story is embedded within
Walton’s. Though he had an outwardly happy childhood and ‘no creature could have had
more tender parents than mine’ (p. 19) he was only subject to perfection of appearance
and nature, reminiscent of the features of the popular romance novel. Although his
childhood was tender we wonder at the lack of familial conflicts – surely domestic bliss
incorporates every aspect of human nature? We see Victor evolve as the father of his
creature as he becomes immersed in his obsessions for deep study, becoming
increasingly isolated in his desires, which are at first noble but are corrupted through his
fixations.
‘My hours were fully employed in
acquiring and maintaining […] knowledge.’ (p. 25)
Pip’s meeting with the ‘corpse-like’ (p. 57) Miss Havisham can be read within the gothic
genre. The vision he has of Miss Havisham hanging from the beams is significant as it
displays aspects of his psyche that the narrator cannot communicate through realist
features. It also serves as a premonition as he later has the same hallucination, which
proves to be true to the fact that Miss Havisham is burning to death.
‘I saw a figure hanging there by the neck. A figure all in
yellow-white. […] the face was Miss Havisham’s.’ (p. 61)
This is Dickens at his most compelling. As Miss Havisham is seen as a parent figure in
Pip’s eyes later in the novel, as he assumes she is his benefactor, we can see this as his
repressed urge to destroy his parentage. Miss Havisham treats him exceptionally
unfavourably by misleading him in many ways, and this communication of the hanged lady
is similar to that of the introverted desires appearing indirectly. Dorothy van Ghent
suggested that the expression of Miss Havisham and her psychological decay is
represented through the perishing of her surroundings. (‘On Great Expectations’, The
Realist Novel, p. 246) This is how we understand Pip’s psyche with regards to his
parentage – he has vivid hallucinations that suggest his own mental state and the guilty
secret that plagues him.
In Frankenstein we progress with Victor’s obsession of bestowing ‘ animation upon lifeless
matter’ (p. 34). His fantasies and desires cause him to follow an unnatural route of
usurping the female role in the creation, thus he becomes both mother and father to the
child he creates in his ‘workshop of filthy creation’ (p.36). This element draws much
attention to the gothic genre. Though Shelley uses a real time and place, she is only using
the framework of realism to explore the deeper psychology of the human form – and this
can be vividly composed through the far-reaching boundaries of the gothic genre, which
serves to heighten the fear and disgust we feel. The dream Victor has following the
animation of his creature is dramatically symbolic of the guilty secret of his fatherhood.
From here Victor proves himself the irresponsible father;
‘[The creature had] one hand stretched out,
seemingly to detain me, but I escaped’ (p. 40)
An accumulation of events turns the ‘demoniacal corpse’ (p. 40) into a murderer. However,
within the gothic genre we are compelled to read the creature, not only as the child, but
also as a double of Victor – acting out his repressed desires – similar to that in Great
Expectations.
Through the early years of Pip’s life it is Mrs Joe that ‘brings him up by hand’ (p. 9), whilst
Joe assumes the role of step-father. Through Orlick we see Pip’s psyche operating. When
Orlick cause brain damage in Mrs Joe, Pip realises that he is part guilty of this crime.
‘It was horrible to think that I had provided the weapon […] I could
hardly think otherwise […] I suffered unspeakable trouble’ (p.113)
Orlick is Pip acting through subconscious desires to wreak revenge on Mrs Joe, the parent
figure. He also concretes the abstract of Pips mind though his attraction for Biddy. Orlick
persists the notion of being Pip’s double throughout the novel and only with the final
confrontation at the sluice house can Pip fully purge himself of his darker self.
The creature in Frankenstein provides us with another angle of the parent-child
relationship. Through his story, embedded within Victor’s, we learn of his quest to become
part of a family and the route he followed which led to evil.
‘I learned of […] all the various relationships which
bind one human being to another in mutual bonds.
But where were my friends and relations?’ (p.97)
Shelley, here, makes use of the genre of realism in order to display the monsters
knowledge; she refers to ‘real’ texts, which we as readers can identify with – and the
emotions constructed through them. This includes Paradise Lost, which sets up a
persistent theme throughout the novel; that of man and his creator, God and Satan.
Through the creature’s self-education, and reading of Victor’s journal, he learns of the
horrific tale of his abandonment by Victor.
‘Everything is related in them which bears
reference to my accursed origin.’ (p.105)
Victor, after much deliberating, decides not to make a mate for his creature, thereby
ignoring the necessity of creator and father. We learn that the creature is not inherently
evil, but following the events of the De Lacey family, the incident where he was attacked,
and the repulsion of William, he seeks to wreak revenge on the person who created him –
his father. From here, Shelley takes us deeply into the gothic as Victor’s dreams become
realised when he sees Elizabeth ‘lifeless and inanimate, […] flung by the murderer on her
bridal bier’ (p. 165). The animosity felt by the creature for his creator resulted in the deaths
of many;
‘I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be
spurned at ,and kicked, and trampled on.’ (p.190)
Similarly, the anti-hero Pip’s search for his origins also results in the deaths of many,
though not quite so directly as the creature. His origins are realised when Magwitch
declares he is his ‘second father’ (p.293). It is ironic that his blood daughter Estella has
also been treated in awful way – being constructed to wreak Miss Havisham’s revenge like
Pip has been made ‘a gentleman’ for Magwitch to wreak revenge on the society that
repelled him. Pip has to make the decision to forgive both Magwitch and Miss Havisham,
both at the point of death, before he can progress with the reconciliation of himself.
Although Joe has been more of a moral father than either Magwitch or Miss Havisham he
can never be fully reconciled with him, as his social progression will always set them apart.
Dickens appears to be being realistic here, although as a fairy tale we would want a full
reunion it just would not be possible in the social structure of the time. ‘As I became
stronger and better, Joe became a little less easy with me.’ (p. 428)
We, as readers, are taken on a turbulent journey through both Great Expectations and
Frankenstein. Though both set the scene within a realist skeleton we see that the depths of
the central characters can only be fully explored through using the conventions of other
genres. The boundaries between the genres are so fluid that it is plausible to incorporate a
multitude within the same text. Shelley even explores the genre of romance but as a
critique of Victor who finds solitude in nature, whereas, Dickens employs the theatrical
aspects of comedy (Trabb’s boy), melodrama (Pumblechook and Wopsle), and caricature
(Mrs Coiler). The limitations of the realist genre are clearly not restrictive and serve the
purpose of making reading enjoyable!
TOTAL WORDS: 1562
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Penguin Popular Classics, Middlesex, 1994
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 1818 Text, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford, 1998
Dennis Walder ed., The Realist Novel, The Open University, London, 2002
The Open University, AC 01, The Language of Realism
The Open University, TV 1, Building the Perfect Beast: Frankenstein
Approaching Prose Fiction, The Open University, Milton Keynes, 2002
Jeremy Hawthorn, Studying the Novel: An Introduction, Third edition, Hodder Headline Group, Bristol, 1997
Raman Seldon, Peter Widdowson, Peter Brooker, A Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, 4th edition, Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, 1997
Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2002
Martin Montgomery, Alan Durant, Nigel Fabb, Tom Furniss and Sara Mills, Ways of Reading: 2nd edition, Routledge, London, 2000
Text referred to is: Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Penguin Popular Classics, Middlesex, 1994
Text referred to is: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 1818 text, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford, 1998
