Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Literature review Example

Name Course Instructor Date The “I” of the Monster in Frankestein by Mary Shelley Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a novel of gothic and science fiction genres and portrayed as a series of letters from a captain to his sister. The highlight of the story is about Victor Frankenstein and his revelation that he created a living monster from dead matter. However, the monster is not visually pleasing and the master rejects his creation, leading to a temperamental reaction from the monster. The monster lacks identity and as he narrates his story the reader feels empathic from the emotional tone of the monster. Various psychological aspects of rejection, isolation hatred, co-dependence, anxiety and vengeance are revealed in the narration. Although the creature has an unappealing, abnormal and monstrous exterior, his character shows him to have the most humane qualities compared to the human characters. A psychological approach will be used to analyze the monster’s lack of identity: content and name, how the monster is an empty form and how this affected his ability to make good choices, or lack thereof, and finally, the monster’s fate at the end. The monster’s lack of content and name The monster cannot sensibly refer to him in the voice of “I” because his survival from creation to destruction is powered by his creator (Dingley 205). The monster’s is Frankenstein’s creation and thus an extension of his mental being. The monster is not a human being in the technical understanding of the term since ‘he’ was created and assembled from discarded human matter rather than be born as normal human beings do (Lancaster 133). The monster is a product of scientific experiment, and his reference as a creature directs to a non-human existence. “I began the creation of a human being” (Shelley 54) is a statement from Victor Frankenstein’s letter which points to him as the creator of the monster. Psychologically, it was Frankenstein’s obsession with scientific advancements that pursued him to attempt creating a living being. However, after seeing his outcome, he becomes ill with anxiety, as the monster turned out to have a terrifying exterior appearance. The monster describes his initial awareness as both physical and psychologically illuminating. He says “it is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being…the events appear confused and indistinct…, I remember a stronger light…by opening my eyes…the light poured in upon me (Shelley 87). So, the monster lacks a human identity and is an outsider because: first, he is made from assembled dead human parts and second, he does not look like humans. As Shelley puts it “the monster only has a connection to death and trauma (315). The search for the monster cannot say ‘I come from a certain tribe or race or parents’ because Frankenstein used heterogeneous races and people to establish his creation (Lancaster 133). One of the most important psychological needs for every living being especially humans is to have a sense of belonging and identity, and being able to connect with those around us. However, the monster lacks this identity, belongingness, and connection with humans, yet he yearns for them. People’s reality of their existence is strengthened when they are given names to show their identity and mark their belongingness to the society. However, the monster is disconnected from reality as he embodies a mythical form from the perspective of the people (Lancaster 133). Myths are associated with a delusional nature and this further perpetuates the monster as an unrealistic being. Frankenstein did not give his creation a name further contributing to the monster’s lack of identity and connection to the human society (Lancaster 134). In addition to lacking a race/tribe and having no complete history, the monster also possesses outstanding qualities that most humans do not share with him. He is taller than all the humans he encounters; “the monster is eight feet in height” (Shelley 314) and often participates in extraordinary triumphs such as climbing a mountain in the split of a second (Shelley 338). People do not identify personally with the monster because of his dramatic physique while the monster yearns for connection with them. In the introduction Shelley (35) describes the monster as “the living metaphor of the other” and explains that the monster “expresses the position of anyone viewed as an outsider” (36). Despite his desire to attain acceptance in the society, the monster never gets the chance to get beyond his terrifying physical appearance which overpowers his character prominently. Psychologically, we are unconsciously attuned with feelings of longing for a father figure, which the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud described as the father complex (Freud 23-26). The father archetype is associated with protection and leadership. This father complex is expressed in the monster and his yearning for his master or a father figure. The monster laments “no father watched my infant days” (Shelley 106). This is because Frankenstein had deserted him soon after creating him and the monster felt alone and lonely without a paternal model to guide, lead and protects him. The monster believes that his desirability and survival depends on his creator’s approval. Lancaster (132) applies the psychological concept of nature versus nurture to understand societal perspectives/reactions to certain physical and behavioral traits that seem unrealistic to others. Although there are certain features that are considered norm because majority of people have them, unique or strange features can be regarded with suspicion, ridicule, but in a few circumstances with awe and appreciation. Therefore, the aspect of stigmatization in which some people’s identity goes unrecognized or ignored and they become isolated is a common phenomenon in the society. Isolated or marginalized people fail to flourish under similar circumstances where others thrive. The rejection of the monster leading to his isolation can be attributed to the fact that people stereotype the monstrous appearance with something villainous or destructive and this explains why even Frankenstein himself avoided his creation. Throughout the creation process, Frankenstein worked himself into a frenzy of hatred for the monster and abandons him upon his first awakening because he was disgusted by it “No mortal could support the horror of that countenance”, (Shelley 319). The monster does not represent ‘the others’ which is a connotation of marginalized people in the society, but actually represents a mythical form of a dispossessed being that the society rejects (Lancaster 134). At least in the case of ‘the others’ the society may marginalize them but still use affirmative action to accept them as part of the human race. The monster does not receive this privilege. According to Freudian psychology, there are three main sources of pain for an individual. The first is the pain caused by an individual’s own body, which tends to self-destruct in sickness and pain. The second source of pain is that caused by the environment in which unforeseen natural events destroy an individual’s surroundings and causes pain. The third source of pain and which is most painful is that caused by relating with other individuals in the society through civilization (Freud 26). The most attempts to commit to civilization through learning the human language and their ways of interaction. Ironically, all individuals need to socialize in order to get through the pains in life, despite the fact that socialization bears the toughest kind of pain (Freud 38). The social systems set norms, belief systems and values that are supposed to homogenize others and those presenting characteristics or habits that are not defined in the norms are considered deviant. Yet, when individuals are not acting as part of the society, they possess inherent raw desires that may be harmful if not restrained, including the desire to kill, rape, or humiliate others (Freud 69). The monster though an empty form without a value system inherent in him is viewed as a deviant by possessing a physique beyond what humans would consider as norm. The Freudian concept urges that when an individual’s ability to seek pleasure is restrained to the extent that they cannot fit in the society, the individual tends to cure this pain through expression, alcoholism, and exploring delusional concepts such as religion (Freud 24). Also, anyone born with unfavorable instinctual constitution and whose energetic components do not go through the transformation and modification necessary to achieve what the society terms as normal and success, the individual will find it difficult to achieve happiness (Freud 31). This is what the monster is going through; being brought to life but lacking the instinctual constitution to fit in the human society. Instead of Frankenstein viewing the monster as an extension of him, he denies the monster identity and belongingness as he sees how his own human form varies from the monstrous figure before him (Smith 209-210). The monster realizes that the only kinship ties he has, is that with his maker, but the maker denounces the connection by rejecting and abandoning him, neither naming him, nor placing him at a place of belongingness. Frankenstein has both created and destroyed a form of life by entirely rejecting a connection with his creation. Thus, the monster is denied both an identity and right to belong. D’Amato relates Shelley’s narration of Frankenstein to Shelley’s personal life (119). Thus, the lack of naming and content for the monster can also be attributed to the psychological state of the author at the time. Mary Shelley had powerful ideas but was much underrated in her contemporary society. She was a highly-educated woman, proficient in five languages, and an ardent classics reader but still, Mary doubted her abilities (D’Amato 120). Mary must have felt a lack of identity in her own life. First, she named after her mother Mary Wollstonecraft and her maiden identity is Mary Godwin, taking her father’s second name, and later Mary Shelley when she marries her husband Percy Shelley (D’Amato 119). The three were influential authors at the time, and Mary must have felt that her identity was being overshadowed by these famous yet significant figures in her life (D’Amato 120). Secondly, Mary’s mother died when she was still young, and her father became estranged upon his realization of his elopement with Percy (D’Amato 124). Percy also seems not to have given her a solid marital relationship as he was already in a tumultuous marriage with another woman and had children with her (D’Amato 121). Mary must have felt empty and hence expressed her emotions through creating the monster that depicts how she felt. Emotions that Mary experiences-depression, loneliness, and anxiety are also present in the monster who feels abandoned by the creator that made him and his only source of connection. How the monster’s empty form affects his ability to make choices The monster lives in a society that doesn’t allow him to express his being as he is, and thus undergoes repression which leads to hysteria (Hobbs 158). The monster’s creator’s deserts him at creation, as he is alone when is consciousness awakens, and the society in which he finds himself in, does not approve of him, thus triggering feelings of depression (Badalamenti 424). The monster feels human emotion of fear, anxiety, loneliness and rejection, but his outer appearance communicates potential danger to others. Initially, the monster is not able to verbalize his feelings as he does not know how to use his form to fit in the human world. The monster’s empty form is that of innocence as he was created without his consent or choice. However, this form does not allow the monster to experience the innocence because of his creator’s cruel and unwarranted rejection of him. The monster complains that his creator and humankind are shifting his nature from goodness and benevolence to that of wrath and violence (Badalamenti 425). The lack of companionship that isolated beings usually experience often becomes a catalyst for aggressive, desperate and even violent attempts in order to gain a sense of self and a sense of purpose in a world that has rendered them worthless. Even though Frankenstein's monster is not grounded and is left free to roam the world, he is affected by the rejection he gets from the society and thus hides from it (Lancaster 134). From a psychological perspective, the rejection of the monster shows the power that human acceptance has in influencing the outcome of an individual’s life. As a creation of a human being, the monster suffers scorn of human judgment from the beginning of his life. Frankenstein’s monster vows to punish man for the social injustices that he has caused him through horrors. When they reunite, the monster rebukes Frankenstein by saying “you detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only and dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us”, (Shelley 363). Another decision made by the monster in order to survive with the nature that he was endowed with was to get away from the human society; to detach from it but not totally isolate from it (Hobbs 160). The monster develops a keen interest to learn and understand the human nature and the characteristics of mankind that separate them from animals. He observes that humanity has a trait of sensibility, and this motivates his decision to feel and speak, even with lack of human and emotional interaction. The monster encounters the De Lacey family and at first, he keeps his distance by avoiding physical encounter (Lancaster 136). The monster empty form led him to choose humanization, by learning the human language and knowledge in order to communicate with them. He learns to read Milton’s book Paradise Lost (Smith 208). However, his self-afflicted identity is still not welcomed among the humans and he continuously experiences a psychological ruin. The monster attempts to merge in a human community but decides to socialize with children and consider them as his source of happiness. The monster recognizes that children carried a certain innocence that lacked among adults, as adults were often cruel to him (Lancaster 137). To determine whether children are kinder, the monster chooses William Frankenstein, a fair child whom the monster considers unprejudiced, and too young to judge things as horrifying. The child was too young to “have imbibed a horror of deformity” (Shelley 409). However, to the monster’s horror, William refuses the monster to impart on him the concept of unconditional love and calls him an “ugly wretch (Shelley 410). The monster is dismayed that he has no place in the humanity realm as even the younger children whom he thought as innocent are prejudicing him based on his deformity. In a society where he is rejected by the young, old and even handicapped, the monster decides that he will never belong (Lancaster 137). The monster enters into a spasm of rage that he is unable to control. When he learns that William Frankenstein is his creator’s brother, he decides to kill him, “you shall be my first victim…I too can create desolation” (Shelley 410). The monster is feeling alone and empty, and this state drives him to make certain decisions that although harmful, are attributed to the psychological need of seeking attention. Freudian concept explains that when individuals are unable to deal with their emotions at the conscious level, they are bound to let them out with rage and aggressiveness in a state of psychosis (Freud 36). The monster kills William, Frankenstein’s younger brother, and this enables Frankenstein to give him attention, even if a harsh one. Frankenstein does not recognize the role he plays in bringing out the aggressive and destructive nature of the monster. Instead, he believes that the monster got the desire to kill because he is a villainous creature. We know this from Frankenstein’s rebuke of the monster that “nothing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer!” (Shelley 338). However, Frankenstein fails to see that he created the ‘murderer’ and still detaches from him because the monster lacked the human physical features. He does not appreciate that the monster he created could be influenced by emotional turbulence driving him to conduct acts that the humans will quickly judge as deviant without assessing the psychological pain. Since the monster attempted the company of man and received rejection with horror, abuse and fear, he decides that the human nature is inherent of both noble and treacherous sides. In an incident, the monster attempts to rescue a drowning girl but when her male companion arrives, he quickly assumes that the monster is attacking the girl and therefore shoots on the shoulder blade. The monster decides that he must always be suspicious of man for his own good (Badalamenti 430). Recognizing his lack of content and connection, the monster detaches from the society but tries to make his own identity and also become an accepted member of the society although he is aware that he is disadvantaged. The monster weeps and refers to himself as a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch” (Shelley 367) condemned to scorn by the outside world. The monster refers to his shack residence as a kennel, and this is located on the community’s outskirts. The low quality of housing makes the monster gain a mental connection with the lower class members of the society. He finds comfort in the kennel from the neighboring family that seems just as disconnected from the mainstream world. The monster makes a decision to feel his emptiness by adopting what he refers to a kind of familial love with Agatha, Felix and De Lacey (Shelley, 387). He even attempts to ease the family’s suffering as a way to obtain the love that he so much desires for him. He does this by gathering food for them in the woods and helping them with chores. However, even with these humane efforts, the family is frightened by his outer appearance and scorns him leading to further emotional turmoil. His attempt to connect with the old blind man is thrashed by the younger family members who drive him away. When an individual does not love the self enough, they are prone to psychological stresses such as low self-esteem. The monster’s esteem weakens when he sees his reflection in water and realizes that his look is terrifying, thus his understanding of his maker’s rejection. Therefore, from a psychological perspective, it is possible that there is an innate cruelty among humans to treat with scorn those that do not belong (Freud 140). The monster decides that humans are one with cruelty and even his good deeds cannot bring him the love he desired from the humans. Nevertheless, both the creator and the monster share a psychological parallel in regards to seeking social companionship. Frankenstein is socially isolated from his friends from the statement “I shunned my fellow creatures” (Shelley 41). On the other hand, the monster seeks social companionship but is forced into isolation when he discovers that the De Lacey family did not accept him as he is. The monster regrets the necessity of his self-enforced social isolation through the words “joy had taken the place of sadness in the countenance of my friends” (Shelley 103). According to Freud (64), individuals who are unable to tolerate the frustration imposed to them by the society through its cultural ideals, become ill with neurosis. Flight into neurotic illness is thus a last possibility for such people to deal with life, and at least gain substitute-gratifications, or else they embark upon a despairing attempt at revolt, though psychosis. The monster attempts to achieve these substitute gratifications by learning the human language and associating with low class members of the society whom he believes have been marginalized just like him. However, after learning that the human society still rejects him no matter how ‘normal’ he tries to be, he resorts to a life of depression and despair, an equivalent of psychosis or neurotic illness as describe by Freud. Towards the end of the novel, the monster’s case is revealed as reflecting psychological concepts of an oedipal relationship. The Oedipal complex was coined by Freud (33) to describe the father-son relationships, in which the son is attached to the paternal responsibilities. However, Frankenstein who was the father figure to the monster is not available to extend any paternalistic relationships. Nevertheless, Frankenstein concerns with the monster’s behavior show that an oedipal complex existed and he is bound to agree when the monster begs him to create a female companion. In many societies, fathers or parents in general have played a significant role in helping or advising their sons to choose a mate. However, just as fathers would have concerns and disagree over a mate chosen by the son, Frankenstein refuses to create the monster a female figure because he feels that it would be too dangerous. The monster threatens to kill Frankenstein’s family if he does not comply on creating for him a companion. Frankenstein reluctantly agrees and travels to an island to accomplish the task. However, he destroys the almost-complete female creature because he feels that he cannot introduce another danger in the society (Lancaster 139). The creator retorted “…cannot do an act of wickedness” (Shelley 437). The monster is angered with this decision and threatens that he will come on Frankenstein’s wedding night. “It is well. I go; but remember; I shall be with you on your wedding-night" (Shelley 140). The next morning, Frankenstein’s best friend Henry Clerval is found dead, evidently killed by the monster, leaving Frankenstein upset and feeling responsible for his friend’s death (Lancaster 138). Frankenstein fears that the monster will come and murder him during his wedding night as he had threatened, but instead, the monster chooses to kill his bride Elizabeth Lavenza (Dingley 204). Frankenstein returns home where his father dies of grief because of the unfolding events (Lancaster 138). Worth-noting is that the monster has a debilitating effect upon his creator. Every time Frankenstein encountered with the monster, he fell ill and weak, and this can be considered as a form of neurosis in which Freud describes as affecting individuals when they are not satisfied with their situations. The Monster’s fate at the end After the monster killing people that mattered to Frankenstein, the latter vows to take revenge on the creature, by looking for him and destroying him. Frankenstein tracks the creature northwards by sailing over ice on a sledge drawn by dogs. He meets Robert Walton and aboard his ship where the narration of the tale of the monster is taken over by Walton. Frankenstein’s voyage and desire to create a monster is marked with a self-absorption and egoistical way of thinking (Dingley 205). He had earlier told Walton that a voyage’s experience should be dangerous and practical so that at the end, the sailors can be glorified as heroes. At the end, it seems that Frankenstein overestimated his abilities as shown by his inability to tame the monster. The monster was able to murder as well as frame others for the murder. In the voyage journey to look for the monster, Frankenstein grew sicker and the attempts to nurse him to health failed and he dies shortly. Walter visits the space where Frankenstein’s body lay and was shocked to find the monster mourning over Frankenstein, and referring to himself as Frankenstein’s slave (Lancaster 139). The monster reveals to Walton that he was filled with immense solitude, remorse, suffering and hatred, and now that his creator has died, he too should end his suffering. The monster was avoiding suicide all this time because he believed that his creator had the power to make his life better; but now his maker is dead. The monster then departs and disappears into the North Pole in the ice, most probably to die. The monster’s story brings an effect of conflicting psychological processes. The oppositions that control the monster’s psychology are made up of complexes of expression and repression. The narration ends with the monster’s physical demise only assumed. Conclusion This has been an analysis about the monster in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Simply referred to as the ‘monster’, Frankenstein’s creation lacks identity and content that would help to establish his origin and belongingness. The lack of naming for the monster reflects his being rejected by his creator because he was such a grotesque, horrifying creature. The monster is however neither benevolent nor malevolent. His life is filled with longing for human companion and his maker’s acceptance, but neither of these was forthcoming. The monster is disappointed with the human nature and their confusing nobility and cruel characteristics. He makes a decision to detach but learn the human ways but still this does lead to his acceptance. The monster conducts regretful actions to get back at his master for creating and abandoning him. The events involve murder of the creator’s closest people when he fails to create for him a companion. Still, the monster has strong feelings towards his creator and the concept of father complex is revealed by the monster’s yearning for protection, guidance and acceptance from his maker. The tone of the narration spans emotional moments and the reader is able to comprehend the psychological manifestations taking place in the empty life of the monster. The lack of “I” in the monster depicts his unwillingness to survive alone and he depended on the creator to either destroy him or make his life better. Works Cited: Badalamenti, Anthony. Why did Mary Shelley write Frankenstein? Journal of Religion and Health 45.3 (2006): 419-439. D’Amato, Barbara. Mary Shelley’s Frankeinstein: An orphaned author’s dream and journey toward integration. Modern Psychoanalysis 34.2 (2009): 117-135. Dingley, Robert. Shelley’s Frankenstein. Explicator 57.4 (1999): 204-206. Freud, S. Civilization and its Discontents. Vienna: Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag Wien. Print. 1930. Hobbs, Colleen. Reading the symptoms: An exploration of repression and hysteria in Manry Shelley’s Frankenstein. Studies in the Novel 25.2 (1993): 152-170. Lancaster, Ashley. From Frankenstein’s monster to Lester Ballard: The evolving gothic monster. Midwest Quarterly 49.2 (2008): 132-148. Smith, Allan. This thing of darkness: Racial discourse in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Gothic Studies 6.2 (2004): 208-222. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Bantam, 1991. Read More