Man and Monster in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein - Essay Example

?Man and Monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Frankenstein is one of the most famous works of world fiction and is considered to be one of the first works of science fiction in the history of English literature. Written by Mary Shelley, the wife of one of the most revolutionary poets of the Romantic age and the daughter of extremely rebellious parents who sought to challenge the order of things in the society, the work challenges our traditional notions of things. The role of the creator and the father is problematized in the text and through this, the relation between Victor Frankenstein and the monster is problematized too. This involves the blurring of the lines between the man and the monster, thus rendering both of them porous categories. The fact that in popular culture the monster is sometimes mistaken for Frankenstein is proof of the fact the two are categories that are extremely similar despite the obvious differences that appear to us at the outset of the novel. This is consciously done in the novel through the employment of various devices b the novelist herself. This shall form the argument of this paper and it shall seek to discuss the various means in which this porosity of categories is achieved in the novel Frankenstein. The title of the novel itself contributes to the ambiguity of the categories of the man and the monster. The epithet of the “modern Prometheus” is applied, at the surface level, to the man of science, Victor Frankenstein. He is the one who seek to breathe the fire of life into a new creature that would then populate the earth and be indebted to him in the same manner in which man is indebted to the Greek mythic hero, Prometheus, who provided man with fire. His ambition is thus, to become like a god, to whom an entire species would be grateful for, for their creation. Frankenstein is urged to his activities through an extreme interest in science and confidence in science to change the way one lives on earth. For this purpose, he does what would horrify people of Shelley’s times; he exhumes corpses from the graveyard and turns them into his monster, using different parts of the human body from different corpses. This practice was all the more horrifying for the people of the nineteenth century because of the allusions that it would draw with the practices of black magic. The element of horror is thus, induced not only by the monster but also by the man in this case, Victor Frankenstein. This is at a point in the novel when the monster has not even come into being. Even before the monster comes into being, the man is able to create horror in the way that a monster would. The term Prometheus and the urge to people the earth with creatures that would be indebted to one is significant also due to the fact that it is present also in the monster. The impulse of the monster to have a partner is similar to the urge of Adam, who is in some senses, the Christian Prometheus, because of his sin of having stolen the fruit of the tree of knowledge. There is thus, a great similarity between the man and the monster in this regard and this serves to blur the lines that divide the two categories. The monster inverts the hierarchies between the conventional creator and progeny, however, by demanding, with threats, from the creator, for a partner. Its desire for a partner and for populating the world with a species that would be of its own kind mirrors that of the man of science, Frankenstein. The fact that the monster is able to invoke the book that the Romantic poets considered to be one of the most rebellious against conventional authority, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, is also significant. The monster clearly expresses whom its sympathies lie with while it talks of the book. Its feelings of empathy for Adam, speak of not only his intelligence that Frankenstein repeatedly refers to, but also the similarity between him and his creator. The intelligence that Frankenstein refers to is another feature of the monster that draws it closer to its creator. The monster’s feelings of empathy for the fallen man and the sire of all mankind help to place him closer to the man and also to the idea of revolution that the Romantics felt Adam to be partially a symbol of. The monster takes on the form of Adam in so far as he wishes for a partner with whom he may spend his time. In another way, however, he mirrors the character whom many have considered to be the tragic hero of Paradise Lost, Satan. The intensity of the monster’s challenge to his creator, who in a sense can be compared to the Christian God, can be compared to the challenge that Satan offers to the real Christian God. Victor Frankenstein, too, however, in a way offers a challenge to the Christian God through an appropriation of the function of creation that the Christian God is characterized by. The manner of revolution and the trajectories of it differ, but Frankenstein’s and the monster’s forms of revolution are similar in the principles that they follow and the objectives that they seek to achieve. The fact that the monster’s rebellion is directed against the man, Victor Frankenstein, it does not take away from the rebellion that it seeks to effect. This similarity is evident to the reader right from the point in the novel from when the monster makes clear his intentions to cause harm to Frankenstein and his family. These intentions are later (chronologically this event occurs later on but it is narrated right at the beginning of the novel) echoed by Frankenstein to the captain of the ship which he boards. The similarity of intentions continues right till the end. This causes the reader to create similar impressions in his or her minds regarding these two characters, who are in a sense, both the protagonists and the antagonists of the novel. It is such similarities that are carefully constructed by the author that create in public culture the confusion between the monster and its creator, Victor Frankenstein. The characters in the novel are unconscious of this similarity between themselves. This ignorance on the part of the characters is too, a device consciously employed by the author that heightens the effect and creates only in the mind of the readers, who along with the author and to an extent, the captain, are aware of the differences and the similarities between the man and his monster. This ignorance too, is a factor that creates similarities between the categories of the man and the monster. The employment of such devices serves to render the categories of the man and the monster porous and there are several characteristics that overlap both these categories. The appearance of the monster is what serves to distinguish it from humans in every possible way. The fear that other humans feel when they encounter the monster is largely owing to his appearance that is not very human. By the end of the events in the life of Frankenstein, his appearance too takes a turn for the worse, rendering it monstrous and hideous. While questioning the nature of appearances and what is natural and what is not, Mary Shelley, through the ultimate similarity even in matters of appearance creates a similarity between the categories of the man and the monster that cannot be one of social conditioning. Through an attack on the appearance of the man and the monster together, Shelley manages to destabilize the civilizational notions that man holds regarding his superiority with respect to the beasts. This serves to upset the Christian notion of the divine chain of being whereby man occupies the position between the angels and the beasts. By upsetting one position in this hierarchy, Shelley carries on the project of Milton and her character, Victor Frankenstein who seek to challenge the authority of a tyrannical God. By doing so, Shelley is also able to challenge the authorities that serve to oppress women in a patriarchal society. The roles that men are supposed to play in a society are constantly critiqued in the novel through a critique of the creator of the monster and the monster who seek to assume the roles of patriarchs but are miserable failures. Both Frankenstein and the monster do not have any roles for women in the worlds that they envision for the future. Women figure not as mother-figures but as instruments for both these characters in a process that would create worlds which they are the rulers of. By creating several similarities between the man and the monster in the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley seeks to subvert the civilizational notions that man holds. Such a subversion, while it destabilizes civilizational notions, also shakes notion that structures like religion give rise to. It also serves to critique these institutions that ultimately define the roles that women are supposed to play in the society. Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New Delhi: Wordsworth, 2000. Print. Read More