Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story about a man who questions science, life, death, and the unknown. The man, Victor Frankenstein, is the oldest son of Alphonse and Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein and lives a sheltered life filled with love and happiness. However, the unexpected death of his mother, combined with being sent away from home to attend University, causes him to delve into the teachings of the physical sciences. With his newfound knowledge, Victor finds himself yearning to “infuse life into an inanimate body” and soon becomes obsessed with the quest to do so (56). Soon, Victor’s sole concern becomes his creation and he is unable to function normally within society and he abandons reality and succumbs to a world filled with exaggerated thoughts and ideas. Victor’s obsession with his creation and the consequences of his behavior destroys his family, his marriage, and eventually leads to the demise of Victor himself.
He arduously works toward his goal and became infatuated with finding the right ‘building material.’ Victor “collect[ed] bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame” (52). He goes on to say that:
“No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me [Victor] onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light onto our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; maybe happy and excellent natures would own their belonging to me.” (51)
It seems as if Victor envisions himself as God. He sees himself as the sole creator and source of the life that he is constructing and feels that he should, and will be, rewarded for his efforts. Therefore, upon completion, Victor finds himself in awe of his creation; which is described with vivid in detail:
“Beautiful!-Great God! His [the monster’s] yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes,…his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips.” (55)
However, immediately after creating the monster, Victor finds himself unable to endure the thing for which he had given up the last two years of his life for. “[N]ow that I [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (56) As a result, Victor becomes paralyzed with fear and abandons his creation. This causes the monster to feel lonely and rejected by its creator. In a way, the monster represents all of the feelings and characteristics that Victor felt after his mother’s death. Similar to Victor, the monster feels alone and dejected. Highly distressed, Victor tries to forget his creation but keeps having nightmares. In one of his dreams, Victor is wandering the streets and sees Elizabeth (his childhood friend and future wife) turn into his mother. As he holds his mother, worms start crawling out of her shroud causing Victor to wake up in alarm.
Spiteful against Victor for leaving, the monster seeks revenge by vowing to take away all the things, or people, that make Victor happy. As a result, the monster wanders the countryside in search of Victor and his family. In the meantime, Victor’s childhood friend, Henry Clerval, comes to visit and nurses a terror-stricken Victor back to health. The monster’s first victim is Victor’s youngest brother William. However, Justine Moritz, the family housekeeper, is falsely accused of murdering William. Although Victor knows that it was the monster that had strangled William, he cannot tell his family or the police. Grief stricken and terrorized from the fear of realizing that the monster was able to find his family, Victor flees the town.
Upon fleeing, Victor finds himself confronting the monster on a desolate mountain. Enraged, Victor again rejects the monster, telling it to leave before he kills him. However, the monster pleads with Victor to be allowed to tell his side of the story. Much to Victor’s surprise, the monster not only speaks eloquently but has is actually quite civil. As a result, Victor calms down and listens to the monsters story of how it wandered the countryside, using the sun as guide, feeling “no sentiment but that of hatred” towards Victor (165). The reader learns of how the monster observed the family dynamics of the DeLaceys and how, by watching their devotion, love, and care for one another, it developed emotions. The DeLacey family is a reminder of Victor’s carefree childhood. Once again, the reader is faced with the realization that the monster and Victor are not all that different.
The monster, unable to rationalize his being and find answers to his doubts, blames Victor, saying that he “endowed me [the monster] with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind.” (166) After learning about all of the hardships the monster faced, the reader cannot help but somehow feel sorry for the monster and angry at Victor for having concocted something without thinking about the reciprocations of his actions. Feeling alienated from society, the monster demands Victor to create a companion for it since it feels that “one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects.” (171) Victor, enraged at listening to the monster’s account of killing his younger brother, refuses to create another creature. However, the monster insists that:
“[I]nstead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable…if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my archenemy…[so] have a care [or] I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you curse the hour of your birth.” (173)
Realizing that the monster had “some justice in his argument” and that Victor, as his creator, “owe[d] him all of the portion of happiness that it was in [his] power to bestow,” Victor consents to the task of creating another creature (174). However, Victor changes his mind upon realizing that the monster, who promised to leave him alone, might return with its “evil passions…renewed, and you [the monster] will have a companion to aid you in the task of destruction.” (175) Yet again, the monster tries to convince Victor that once it finds happiness in a companion, it will not be angry or revengeful against anyone. Once again, Victor, upon looking at his creation realizes that:
“His words had a strange effect upon me. I [Victor] compassionated him, and sometimes felt a wish to console him; but when I looked upon him, when I say the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened, and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred.” (175)
After reflecting upon the monster’s statements, Victor again agrees to build another creature. This is the first time that both the monster and Victor meet in the novel and it is interesting that it does not result in a full-fledged fight but rather a well-structured conversation. Although Victor experiences a rollercoaster of emotions as the monster speaks, he ends up actually seeing things from the monsters point of view and realizes that it might be beneficial to create another creature. Keeping to his promise, Victor researches and tries to work toward creating a second creature. He does not tell his family or friends and they become alarmed when he once again becomes disheveled and sick looking. Not only did Victor keep the monster as a secret, he keeps the fact that he is building a second one a secret as well. It is interesting that Victor, who was once proud of the goal he was working toward, has not shared his findings, his ability to create new life, with anyone. Although his achievement is great for science, Victor is somehow ashamed and frightened with what he has created and tries to reject the monster.
Despite being unable to tell his family and friends what he is doing, Victor tries his best to work and applies himself to what he is doing. However, at one point, when the monster visits him in his ‘laboratory’ Victor becomes furious with the situation and the monster and destroys the half-finished creature in front of the monster and tells it that he will not continue. Enraged, the monster reverts back to his old ways and goes on a quest to fulfill his threat that if Victor did not comply and build a companion, it would take everything that Victor cared about away from him. As a result, the reader finds out about Henry Clerval’s death, for which Victor is charged for and the killing of Elizabeth on Victor’s wedding night. Additionally, Victor’s father Alphonse is overcome with grief upon learning of Elizabeth’s death and also dies.
Victor, having had everything taken away from him, sets off in search of the monster. His chase leads Victor to the North Pole, where he is almost able to catch up to the monster when the ice cracks and separates the two from each other. It is at this time that Victor is found, and tells his story, to Arctic explorer Robert Walton. It is there, aboard Walton’s ship, that Victor eventually dies. Soon thereafter, the monster breaks into the ship’s cabin and is confronted by Walton. The monster tries to tell his side of the story to Walton and says that even though he did kill, he never enjoyed doing so and that all he really wanted was to be able to be acknowledged by his creator. The monster says:
“Think ye that the groans of Clerval were music to my years? My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy; and, when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture, such as you cannot even imagine.” (271)
Walton, who “at first [is] touched by the expressions of his [the monster’s] misery..[quickly recalls] what Frankenstein had said of his powers of eloquence and persuasion” and shuns the monster (272). When Walton shows no sympathy towards the monster, it vows to remain at the North Pole until its death, saying:
“Farewell! I leave you [Walton], and in you the last of human kind whom these eyes will every behold. Farewell, Frankenstein. But soon…I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My sprit will sleep in peace…” (275)
Victor spends his entire life trying to destroy what he has created. However, he fails to realize that the monster is actually a good representation of himself and his thoughts and feelings. Like Victor, it too feels alone and seeks to fill a void in its heart; in a life that it feels is incomplete. Furthermore, the book shows the progression of Victor toward alienation; just like the monster’s sense of estrangement. Its inability to cope with Victor’s rejection is similar to Victor’s inability to deal with his mother’s sudden death. Furthermore, both Victor and the monster seem to have a subconscious tie to one another and seem to be able to feel the others presence at all times. As Victor chases the monster, it is as if he is trying to find himself. Through the monster, Victor is forced to face his feelings and emotions.
In hindsight, Victor Frankenstein’s project was destined to fail from the very beginning. In his attempt to recreate life, Victor takes on the role of God and sees himself as the sole creator who will be thanked for his efforts. Although he is serious in his pursuit, he does not realize the consequences of his actions and thereby spends his entire life trying to destroy what he has created.
References
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Pocket Books, 2004.
