AN EXAMINATION OF MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN

When we talk of horror and science fiction movies, we can't help but think of Mary Shelley's iconic Frankenstein. It can be recalled that it was one of the firsts or at the very least the start of its kind. It is the first effort on the big screen to produce a "monster" when explaining the scientific method of making life. However, before delving into "Frankenstein," it is better to first read a brief synopsis of the novel.

Robert Walton, the captain of a ship heading for the North Pole, recounts the success of his perilous journey to his sister back in England in a series of letters. Successful early on, the mission is soon interrupted by seas full of impassable ice. Trapped, Walton encounters Victor Frankenstein, who has been traveling by dog-drawn sledge across the ice and is weakened by the cold. Walton takes him aboard ship, helps nurse him back to health, and hears the fantastic tale of the monster that Frankenstein created.

Victor first describes his early life in Geneva. At the end of a blissful childhood spent in the company of Elizabeth Lavenza (his cousin in the 1818 edition, his adopted sister in the 1831 edition) and friend Henry Clerval, Victor enters the university of Ingolstadt to study natural philosophy and chemistry. There, he is consumed by the desire to discover the secret of life and, after several years of research, becomes convinced that he has found it.

Armed with the knowledge he has long been seeking, Victor spends months feverishly fashioning a creature out of old body parts. One climactic night, in the secrecy of his apartment, he brings his creation to life. When he looks at the monstrosity that he has created, however, the sight horrifies him. After a fitful night of sleep, interrupted by the specter of the monster looming over him, he runs into the streets, eventually wandering in remorse. Victor runs into Henry, who has come to study at the university, and he takes his friend back to his apartment. Though the monster is gone, Victor falls into a feverish illness.

Sickened by his horrific deed, Victor prepares to return to Geneva, to his family, and to health. Just before departing Ingolstadt, however, he receives a letter from his father informing him that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered. Grief-stricken, Victor hurries home. While passing through the woods where William was strangled, he catches sight of the monster and becomes convinced that the monster is his brother’s murderer. Arriving in Geneva, Victor finds that Justine Moritz, a kind, gentle girl who had been adopted by the Frankenstein household, has been accused. She is tried, condemned, and executed, despite her assertions of innocence. Victor grows despondent, guilty with the knowledge that the monster he has created bears responsibility for the death of two innocent loved ones.

Hoping to ease his grief, Victor takes a vacation to the mountains. While he is alone one day, crossing an enormous glacier, the monster approaches him. The monster admits to the murder of William but begs for understanding. Lonely, shunned, and forlorn, he says that he struck out at William in a desperate attempt to injure Victor, his cruel creator. The monster begs Victor to create a mate for him, a monster equally grotesque to serve as his sole companion.

Victor refuses at first, horrified by the prospect of creating a second monster. The monster is eloquent and persuasive, however, and he eventually convinces Victor. After returning to Geneva, Victor heads for England, accompanied by Henry, to gather information for the creation of a female monster. Leaving Henry in Scotland, he secludes himself on a desolate island in the Orkneys and works reluctantly at repeating his first success. One night, struck by doubts about the morality of his actions, Victor glances out the window to see the monster glaring in at him with a frightening grin. Horrified by the possible consequences of his work, Victor destroys his new creation. The monster, enraged, vows revenge, swearing that he will be with Victor on Victor’s wedding night.

Later that night, Victor takes a boat out onto a lake and dumps the remains of the second creature in the water. The wind picks up and prevents him from returning to the island. In the morning, he finds himself ashore near an unknown town. Upon landing, he is arrested and informed that he will be tried for a murder discovered the previous night. Victor denies any knowledge of the murder, but when shown the body, he is shocked to behold his friend Henry Clerval, with the mark of the monster’s fingers on his neck. Victor falls ill, raving and feverish, and is kept in prison until his recovery, after which he is acquitted of the crime.

Shortly after returning to Geneva with his father, Victor marries Elizabeth. He fears the monster’s warning and suspects that he will be murdered on his wedding night. To be cautious, he sends Elizabeth away to wait for him. While he awaits the monster, he hears Elizabeth scream and realizes that the monster had been hinting at killing his new bride, not himself. Victor returns home to his father, who dies of grief a short time later. Victor vows to devote the rest of his life to finding the monster and exacting his revenge, and he soon departs to begin his quest.

Victor tracks the monster ever northward into the ice. In a dogsled chase, Victor almost catches up with the monster, but the sea beneath them swells and the ice breaks, leaving an unbridgeable gap between them. At this point, Walton encounters Victor, and the narrative catches up to the time of Walton’s fourth letter to his sister.

Walton tells the remainder of the story in another series of letters to his sister. Victor, already ill when the two men meet, worsens and dies shortly thereafter. When Walton returns, several days later, to the room in which the body lies, he is startled to see the monster weeping over Victor. The monster tells Walton of his immense solitude, suffering, hatred, and remorse. He asserts that now that his creator has died, he too can end his suffering. The monster then departs for the northernmost ice to die.”

The story as a whole reflects the beginning not of science per se but of application of science and its system in literature. The identity of Victor as the man of science is very much prominent and lingering. Whenever there is a dilemma in the story, science seems to pose and even offer a solution. Another example of this is when Frankenstein longed for a mate. Victor tries to answer Frankenstein by re-creating another creature, however this was thwarted after Victor realizes that it would result in a bigger catastrophe.

Frankenstein was created during the time when the belief in “science” was already emerging. It was during the industrial era when people long for something new to better their lives. It was also during that time when the hope to resolve sickness, death and suffering was getting bigger. Science was the supposedly superhero of the age, one that can answer the needs for survival and even death.

The story practically mirrors the industrial revolution wherein there were the technological changes such as the use of iron and steel, the use of new energy sources including fuel and steam engine. The invention of new machines also marked the said revolution. It can be noticed that Frankenstein was created by Victor, practically in these very means. Victor’s ways in his laboratory and the procedure described in the story of combining energy sources are very parallel to the era in which the story was born.

It can also be noticed that on the sides, the writer has also applied other practical facts in the story, the one which reflects the real world. Children during the industrial revolution were already forced into labor. In this story, it can be seen that Justine Moritz, the adopted little girl who was accused of killing, was already adopted by Victor’s family for the purpose of child labor, a help in the household.

Another parallel event which can be deduced form the story is the presence of urbanization which can be seen from the longing for knowledge of the protagonist Victor. His continued search for information and learning led him to creating something which he hoped to give answer to his need to end death. However, this sort of “urbanization” of the mind and living has also degraded the kind of life he lived in. This is not far from the real-world urbanization wherein there has been population growth, pollution, diseases, outbreaks like cholera and even death. The biggest irony that the story offered is the longing to create supposedly a better place, a better world and a better situation which in the end, has rather created a worse atmosphere and a sadder ending. In this story, the solution of Victor never really worked for him. The only thing which ended the catastrophe he started was his death which has to be paralleled to the death of Frankenstein, perhaps because that’s the only way to end it. Science which was originally thought of as a “saving matter,” became the very cause of an “end.”

The emerging curiosity over “science” was prominent in the story. This is also further referred to as “science in its infancy.” It reflects the society’s eagerness to test it as a tool for changing life to the point that the cost became much bigger than the very reason it’s being used for. In the story, the realization became too late. There had been a lot of victims already and the only way to stop the series of problems was to stop the root of it, for the protagonist to vanish along with the monster he created. Again, as we try to parallel this in the era of industrial revolution, the story created by Mary Shelley was silent though suggestive of how the negative effects of the revolution can be stopped. It was supposedly to stop the root just like the one in the story. But the question is how do you do this now in the real world.

Another aspect that is worth a lot of attention is the touch on religion. In whatever kind of society or religion, there is this belief that no one can ever be so powerful than God. However, Shelley’s Frankenstein became brave enough to deal on the so called “power of creation” which is vested only to the God. Victor, other than exploring science, he also ventured in the feeling of being “God” by creating life out of something. This act is supposedly done by religion’s highest form, the creator. The story played with this idea of being able to “create.”

There are two sides in which the story may be interpreted. The first one is the brave intrusion to the long-settled belief that creation is a powerful action reserved for the divine and the “Creator” himself. It can be seen that Victor played “God” when he created Frankenstein when in reality, he should not. The story also partly opposed the notion of “death” which should be the means to end everything that is living. The concept of death is permanent, or should be. But in the story, death was even questioned as regards the possibility that it may not occur at all. Organized religions in the world is settled about permanency of death but in this story, it opposes that belief.

The second interpretation on the other hand, goes back to the belief that death is still permanent and agrees with the world religions that everything has an end. This is by putting Frankenstein and its creator Victor to an end as well. This may well be related to the concept of “Karma” if not in the concept of “punishment” which was applied to the tragic protagonist. In a way, he was faced with the consequences of “creating” a life. After creating Frankenstein, his life started to crumble with the guilt for all the deaths caused by him. It continued when he got married to Elizabeth along with the deaths that followed it. It can be seen that he was in a way, punished for delving into the realm of “divine power.” Cliché as it may sound but it seems that he was taught a lesson of not interfering with “God.”

Lastly, the concept of death was again bravely intruded into by Shelley’s Frankenstein. It has long been told that death is a natural occurrence which happens to all the “living.” Victor tried to put an end not to life but to death by his creation. This can be deduced to the fact that humanity, while it accepts the concept of death, still has its fear to reach that stage. This fear in the story was played to create a life form which imitates life itself. The irony however is in the fact that as Victor created “life,” it also created death or deaths even.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein does not die in the heart of literature. It is for the reason that it reflects a lot of elements in the society of the time when it was created. It reflects humanity in its actual sense without hiding its frailties. Again, it tells of the time when people seek to see themselves to still be better off than the situation where they are by exposing themselves in this story where however difficult and painful, still tells that life can be better.

Another reason perhaps why Frankenstein marked the era of science and religion combined is because in times of suffering, pain, diseases, and death, people or at least the reading public could relate to it being a perfect example of humanity which continues to thrive in a chaotic world. It tells of the need to survive the environment where the person is in no matter or no matter what kind of life they are living in. Just like in the story, life needs to continue and the living to move on. There should be no holding back. If there are consequences, it has to be endured and even suffered because the cause and effect, just like science, is a balancing agent.

SOURCES

Horton, R. (2014). Frankenstein. New York: Columbia University Press.

Michaud, Nicolas. Frankenstein and philosophy: the shocking truth. Chicago: Open Court, 2013. Print.

Sparknotes, (2017, April 20). Frankenstein Mary Shelley. Retrieved from http://www.sparknotes.com