Joseph Rossi
English 102
Cline
October 12, 2011
Switching Roles
I enjoyed the whole idea of the story. I think that it had a lot of great meaning to it. When I first knew of us having to read Frankenstein I thought to myself, what does this book have to do with anything, but after knowing what it is about you find that it has many different meanings. It all depends on how you interpret it. To me some of the themes and motifs that stuck out was the fact that Victor kept running away from his problems, he never really wanted to deal with them. First off his housekeeper being framed for murder of his brother, even though the monster, Frankenstein was the one who murdered him. Victor also ran away from his female version monster he was going to make for Frankenstein to have a companion. But then Frankenstein ended up strangling Victor’s new wife on their wedding night. So as far as him ignoring his problems and not going through with what he says he is going to do. But the book can also be looked at as far as the time period of the industrial aging moving toward a new technological era, but with the belief that it will fail. Especially In the time period that it was written In. The book I’m sure has many different symbolic meaning in it other than what I described. I think that Shelley’s purpose for writing the novel was to show two different worlds from different perspectives. Victors world which started out as a thriving, young exploring of science who creates this being, turns into a dark depressed man who himself slowly becomes a monster. Victor’s creation starts out as a grotesque, ugly, 8ft tall monster that is abandoned in the world and learns how to communicate. Shelley shows that people can change for better to worse or vice versa. The monster who feels abandoned along the way does terrible acts but Victor is the one to blame for creating this being and not supporting it.
As you read Frankenstein you will see that the monster becomes unhappy with himself in the abandonment that he feels. He goes onto say,
“Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery” (Shelley. Chapter VIII. Pg. 91-92. Lines 1-6)
The monster that was created by this young scientist was left in the world alone to die. Victor underestimated his monsters brilliance and ability to learn even though his mind was as of a child was he was given life. Shelley almost relates this story in so many ways to abortionist lifestyle. There are many instances that talk of abortion. One previously quoted by the monster, “Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence...?” (Shelley, Chapter VIII. Pg. 91. Lines 1-2) The monster who was in the beginning looked upon as shear genius quickly became the creators worst nightmare. Percy Bysshe Shelley goes onto say in his criticism of the book,
“Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked. Requite affection with scorn; - let one being selected, for whatever cause, as the refuse of his kind – divide him, a social being, from society, and you impose upon him the irresistible obligations – malevolence and selfishness. It is thus that, too often in society, those who are best qualified to be its benefactors and its ornament, branded by some accident with scorn, and changed, by neglect and solitude of heart, into a scourge and a curse.” (P, Shelley. Pg. 186 Lines 3-10)
When you look at this scenario and compare the monster to a young child who has no clue as to what the next steps are in life, the young child will look to his parents for guidance. The monster in sense was in the same boat. Victor his guidance deserted him and he had to figure out things for himself. Along the way the monsters anger got the best of him at times and he lashed out and murdered Victor’s brother and his soon to be wife. Both Percy and Mary Shelley both lean towards the idea that the path you choose in life can either lead to success or destruction and the monster and Victor both start on opposite ends of the spectrum but each do a complete turn around and almost switch roles. Just by listening the monster gets a very good education, this shows that he was taking his first steps to survival, since his creator, Victor abandoned him. Croker summarizes,
“Here the monster, by the easy process of listening at the window of a cottage, acquires a complete education: he learns to think, to talk, and to read prose and verse; he becomes acquainted with geography, history, and natural philosophy, in short, ‘a most delicate monster.’” (Croker. Pg. 187-188. Paragraph 3, Lines 14-17)
Victor tried creating what he thought was going to be a beautiful creations by mixing different body parts and was it was going to be his prize possession, his first creations. But thing went wrong and his creations turned out to be hideous and one of ugliest creations on the earth. This caused Victor to immediately become his own worst nightmare and became the monster himself. At the very moment the ugliness of the monster and the brilliance of the creator switched roles. Croker explained,
“…But by some little mistake in the artists calculation, the intended beauty turned out the ugliest monster that ever deformed the day. The creator, terrified at his own work, flies into one wood, and the work terrified at itself flies into another.” (Croker. Pg. 187. Paragraph 3, Lines 10-14.)
Victor became an animalist and ran into the wilderness to hide. The monster also runs off but in time forces himself to learn. If you relate this story to life there are many times that parents are not happy with their children and put them up for adoption, or even sometimes will have abortions before the child is born. Mary Shelley does a very good job at making this close to the same scenario. As stated previously the monster was at a point where he didn’t even want to live anymore and Victor was so ashamed of his creation he literally keep running away. Later on he told the monster that he was going to create a partner for him but ended up destroying her before finishing. This made the monster really upset and because of it he ended up murdering Victors new wife on their wedding night, like he said he would if he didn’t follow through with his creation.
The monster and Victor show what it is like to have problems within a relationship not matter what kind it is and Mary does a great job at portraying what happens when you run away from your problems. I am a firm believer at solving your issues and dealing with them at that moment. Victor and the monster needed to resolve their problems; if they did circumstances would have definitely been different.
Sources Cited
Croker, John “From the quarterly Review” January 1818
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1196.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “On Frankenstein”
