'Frankenstein', Extra Notes, Revision

Frankenstein, Extra Notes, Revision

Characterisation

Women as victims –

Can be argued that the principal women exist largely to be rescued to suffer and to die:

• Caroline, V’s mother is rescued by his father
• Caroline rescues Elizabeth, but dies after developing Scarlet Fever
• Justine is rescued from a wretched childhood, only to be put on trial and executed for the murder of William (V’s brother)
• Elizabeth is murdered by the monster on the night of her marriage to Victor

Why are the women victims? – The passivity and victimisation of J and E can be seen as both

• a function of Victor’s character
• an outcome of his obsession with the monster

Justine dies:

• direct consequence of the monster’s resentment of the circumstances of his creation.
• monster’s despair at his creator’s rejection.
• monster’s desire to take revenge on Victor for depriving him of a normal life.

Elizabeth dies:

• Victor’s preoccupation with his work causes him to delay their marriage
• Monster’s intervention to deprive Victor of a relationship he himself has been denied.

If we assume Victor has created the monster and made a second, uncontrollable version of himself, the following points emerge:

• the creature could be seen as acting as Victor’s instrument, as acting on his behalf.
• at some level, Frankenstein wills Elizabeth’s death because of his own fear of sexuality.

• Justine and Elizabeth suffer the consequences of a man with tunnel vision who does not allow the distractions of sexual love and family obligations to distract him from a pursuit of knowledge.

During the months the monster spends watching the de Laceys, the story shows:

• a lesson in human iniquity
• a lesson in family solidarity and fidelity – love and strengthen and enable individuals to triumph over adversity.

The monster then destroys this safe haven.

Walton:

Shares similar characteristics with V –

• masculine desire to explore, discover, conquer and control.
• pitches himself against nature – search for a northern sea passage.
• hopes to acquire fame.

These characteristics also have similar effect to V:

• lack of a permanent home
• lack of lasting relationship.

Walton longs for companionship – fails to find a friend among his crew – none can live up to his requirements – seeks someone like himself.

like humanity cannot live up to V’s ideas          V? recognises someone like himself

Victor Frankenstein:

• Begins the novel with; high intellectual ideas, desire to increase his knowledge and contribute to the benefit of mankind.
• As the novel develops his personality becomes increasingly obsessive and self-absorbed; as he pursues his ambition, he loses ethics and morals, his secrecy leads to loneliness.
• Overwhelmed by a narcissistic self-love
• Each time he shows signs of ‘breaking out’, he visits his family, or seeks solace in the world.
• One obsession (create monster) is replaced by another (desire to destroy monster) – always driven.
• Links with Prometheus > defies the supreme being and continues to pursue knowledge until it has fatal consequencies. P steals fire, F uses lightening to harness the monster.

Victor fears sexuality:

Chapter 4 –

• Victor runs from the lab and hides in bedroom where he falls asleep. He dreams he embraces Elizabeth, but she then transforms into the decomposing body of his mother and when V wakes, the first thing he sees is the monster.

• sex, death and the creature are linked in a single image.

• establishes a link between V’s avoidance of sexuality

(Margaret Homans) – V creating monster, he is excited, but when it is ‘born’ he rejects his own ‘child’. This motif relates to Mary Shelley’s own anxieties about childbirth – difficulties of her own pregnancies and deaths of 3 infants.

Henry Clerval

• Serves as a faithful friend.
• Powerless to save Victor from himself.
• Also eager in pursuit of knowledge, but it is more humanistic (languages) and can balance it with other aspects of life.
• When in Clerval’s company, V leads a more balanced life and is temporarily distracted from his science.
• Clerval’s death is a punishment for V failing to keep a promise.
• He is doomed to be destroyed, like V’s other friends.

The Monster

Can he be considered a Character?

YES

• Goes through stages of human maturity.
• Feelings and motivations are influenced by his conclusions of his own identity.

NO

• His humanity is in doubt.
• Hard to think of him as we do other characters in fiction.
• He is a mechanical creation.

• He is like Adam and Eve before the Fall; without knowledge of sin and guilt.
• OR
• HE is like Adam and Eve after the Fall – immediate guilt simply for being what he is.

• Displays more humanity (early in novel) than his creator – full range of emotions; anger, fear, pity.
• Initially his feelings to others are positive.
• He is also formed by the treatment of his creator.
• All images of the monster are conveyed to us in his own words / by Walton and Victor.
• No detached 3^rd person narrator.
• Our understanding of what the monster is like has to be composed from what we can understand of other narratives.
• May require us to be critical of W/V.