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Book beginning: page 15

The story

• Who exactly is the final narrator of the novel? The most obvious option would be that the captain made it back to England alive and told the story, but if not? Is the book perhaps the story as it originally unfolds between Victor and Walton or did Walton’s sister eventually receive his letters?
• If Victor misinterpreted the monster’s intentions to kill Elizabeth on their wedding night and not Victor, is there anything else he may have misunderstood? The reader progresses through the story as if it were all perfectly clear, but as there is one sole narrator for so many characters, maybe what Victor relates is not so precise. What he tells as the truth he has had time to think about, draw conclusions and disregard anything he deems irrelevant, not to mention the problem of any information he may have lacked to begin with.

Victor’s character

• The most important line of the novel could be when Victor says: “the threat I had heard weighed on my thoughts, but I did not reflect that a voluntary act of mine could avert it” (p170/71). It seems as though throughout his life, Victor is incapable of learning the importance of a ‘voluntary act’ and the impact it causes to those around him. Whether it be leaving Clerval when they were on their travels, worrying his father with his strange behaviour, leaving Elizabeth behind once and again without real insurance of their marriage, or originally creating the monster.
• Victor talks of how he is “haunted by a curse” (p154), but is he referring to the monster or the original inner urge to create him?
• A good metaphor for the way Victor lives his adult life is shown when he goes to dispose of the second monster’s remains and states “a few boats were returning towards land, but I sailed away from them” (p171). He always seems to be doing something different to everybody else, whether it be pulling away from his loved ones when they are coming together, like they did when William died; applying himself body and mind to experiments when his fellow classmates are socialising; or travelling when his family is thinking of marriage.
• Victor is quite able to fight both sides of any argument. He originally tells the sailors under Walton’s command to “be men, or be more than men” (p215) in an attempt to persuade them to stick with their expedition and not return to their families. He then tells Walton that to find happiness in life he should follow the tranquil road and avoid ambition (p217). Both arguments convinced their listeners, it was only when the majority of sailors had not heard his final speech directly that they were determined to go home.

The monster’s evolution

• When the de Laceys rejected the monster, he instantly gave up and concluded “every country must be equally horrible” (p139), but it is a part of life to fail, brush yourself off, and start again. Did he not endeavour to try again simply because he had not come across the concept and therefore thought you had to succeed on the first attempt, or was he just not strong willed enough as a character?

The monster

• The monster’s development of mind and emotion was quite traditional, albeit in a shorter space of time than usual. Some aspects like his size (he was “born” with a fully developed adult body) and his capability to walk and run, were abilities he possessed from “birth”, but most other things were acquired through experience over time (p102).
• An indication that the monster was most likely always evil is that when faced with a crossroads, such as he was when the de Laceys rejected him, he chose destruction over pursuing his dreams. When he found himself rejected, alone in his hovel, rather than taking his time to rationalise his options, he gave into his momentary passion and burnt down their house. He chose to do this instead of enacting the improvements of his original plan, where he thought he “ought to have familiarised the old de Lacey to [him], and by degrees to have discovered [himself] to the rest of his family, when they should have been prepared for [his] approach” (p137) that he could have applied onto a new blind subject.
• When it seems Victor will not create a female counterpart as requested, the monster threatens to destroy Victor so he “shall curse the hour” of his own birth (p145). He does not want Victor to regret making the monster, he would rather have Victor regret his own life as the monster does.
• Would the monster’s suicide really be a sacrifice, as he describes it? (p222). What he most wishes for is companionship and by this point he knows he does not fit into society and that he will never have a mate, given that he has also turned from inner goodness to the total destruction of his maker, does he really have anything to live for?

The monster as a species

• The fact that the monster was created by a human and not born by natural means, tends to lead to the conclusion that he was not part of the human race. But what is it that makes us human, is it how we are born, our exact appearance, or how we comport ourselves and what physical faculties we posses? If it is how we are born, then modern day test tube babies would be called into question as to whether they are a new species. What could be important here, is where the original DNA came from, if the genes came from humans then you are consequentially human; if it is appearance, then how do we adjust for each variation of physical human traits to constitute ‘one species’; and if it is how we compose ourselves emotionally and intellectually, and the physical capabilities we have at our disposal, then would the monster not have been considered human?
• On another note, the monster’s original body parts were taken from deceased humans, and unified into his form by another human, does this not in fact mean all existing ‘parents’ are of the human race, making him also human?
• When the monster loses all hope of being accepted by humans, he declares an “everlasting war against the species” (p136), making him the first in evolution to purposely hunt humans.
• The monster boasts of no need to kill animals to survive, that he is capable of doing so on acorns and berries (p146), but this does not make him non-human as there are plenty of vegetarians and vegans in the world.

Character comparisons

• Elizabeth is somewhat the polar opposite of the monster: she was taken in by a family that is not her own (so does not truly belong there), loved and cared for, and won Victor’s heart, all because she was beautiful, gentle, and kind. The monster, however, was technically born as part of the family, but due to an ugly appearance, was cast away, even though he was kind and somewhat gentle for such a large being.
• There are similarities between Walton’s circumstance and Victor’s. Although on a smaller scale, the captain still faced death / mutiny with his crew, much like Victor faced death with his monster.
• Women appear to have better instincts than men, as witnessed in the first letter Walton sends his sister: “You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.” (p15). However, Walton is not in complete ignorance as in his second letter he writes “I may receive your letters on some occasions when I need them most to support my spirits” (p22).
• Was Victor so suspicious of the monster’s reasons to build him a female counterpart because he forged the same type of excuse to ask his father to go to England? (p152) Both stories focused on all of the positive points but the reader knows that at least Victor is hiding the truth.
• As grand as Walton’s excursion is, his endeavours are not as unique as Victor’s, who says of his own life “so frightful an event is single in the history of man” (p197). Walton looks for glory in discovery but is reminded by Victor how “often the same accidents have happened to other navigators, who have attempted the same sea” (p213).

Guilty conscience

• Why when Victor was constructing the second monster did he believe he saw an expression of utmost “malice and treachery” (p166) on the monster’s face? Victor was doing what he requested, was it maybe in his imagination as his conscience wanted him to tear his work to pieces?
  
  Also, if the monster possessed such skills in eloquence, he would probably understand how the concept of bribery works, and know that any signs of victory before completion would put his desires at risk.

• Victor says that “if for one instant [he] had thought what might be the hellish intention of [his] fiendish adversary [then he would not have] consented to this miserable marriage” (p191), when realising that the monster had intended to murder Elizabeth and not him.  However, two chapters before he had worried about the idea of those he most loved dying under the monster’s grasp if he were to return to them (p169). It seems that Victor really could not think straight: he first of all feared something, then put it out of his mind, and then was surprised when it happened.

Hero complex

• In Victor’s mind he will always know that 1) he could have ended the human race (p165/66); and 2) he could be saving his own race.
• If Victor was going to be remembered he wanted it to be for good, he “shuddered to think that future ages might curse [him] as their pest” (p166). If his memory was to live on, he wanted it to be celebrated.
• Upon revealing to the monster that he would not create a mate for him, Victor wonders why he had not then followed him and “closed with him in mortal strife?” (p168). Therefore, not even Victor knows why he waited until all of his loved ones were dead, with the exception of his eldest brother, to pursue and kill the monster.

Thinking ahead

• Did it ever occur to Victor not to marry Elizabeth? He knew of the possibility that the monster would kill all those he loved (p169), and the monster stated he would be there on his wedding night (p168). So would it not have solved the problem if Victor were simply to sacrifice marrying Elizabeth, after all, he had put it off this long. And in seeing Victor’s suffering from not marrying the one he loved, would the monster not have been satisfied by his misery?
• Victor insists that “there must be perfect confidence between” himself and Elizabeth (p189), a statement he makes after divulging he has a secret but will not tell her until after they are married. One can imagine he did not want to tell her before in case she refused to marry him, but was he secretly hoping the monster would kill her before he had to tell her, leaving her memory of him unstained?

Love and marriage

• Is it possible that Victor desired a somewhat intellectual woman as his wife? In his description of Elizabeth after William’s death, he says: “time had altered her since I last beheld her; it had endowed her with loveliness surpassing the beauty of her childish years. There was the same candour, the same vivacity, but it was allied to an expression more full of sensibility and intellect” (p80).
• When Elizabeth proclaims Justine’s innocence and Victor is the only one to support her, it gives them something to bond over and let him save her from despair (p81).
• The monster says “one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me” (p144) when thinking of asking Victor to make him a female companion. However, thinking she will automatically be attracted to him because they are of the same species shows he does not hold a strong grasp on the workings of love, even in the wild animals only mate if they consider the other a strong specimen.
• Does the monster really believe that everyone has someone to love, and furthermore that they are truly in love? He says “shall each man find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?” (p167). Why did Victor not educate him? Was it perhaps because he believed the same of the world as he was so privileged?

Religion and Science

• Why did the monster live? Was he a life lesson for Victor, a part of God’s plan, or simply a scientific fact put into motion?
• Victor originally stated that he was going to create “a being like myself” (p53) but very quickly focuses on the fact that it would be a “new species” (p54). This change came about due to the intricate nature of the work and the need for larger body parts to have better access and vision. However, he still supposedly acquired them from human graveyards, so would the monster not still be human?
• Because the monster was made by a man, he was ugly. Only God can create a being of beauty (p99).

Society/ Civilisation

• When it is just the monster and one other, he tends to win physical confrontation but against a group, ‘society’ if you will, he always loses (p106). This shows that although he could wreck Victor’s life and render a few miserable, he never really posed a threat against the whole human race.
• Whilst Victor was creating the second monster he “feared to wander from the sight of [his] fellow-creatures, lest when alone [the monster] should come to claim his companion” (p164). The protection that society provides here may validate the importance of the monster’s wish to be accepted by society.
• One positive side of the madness Victor sometimes suffers from is that anything strange he might say is brushed off by the listener’s readiness to accept and blame his condition. This is seen when Victor is in prison awaiting trial for Clerval’s murder and Mr. Kirwin, the magistrate, comes to inform him that he has a visitor. Victor’s thoughts immediately go to the monster and from his violent protest, Mr. Kirwin fears a confession of guilt. However, upon learning that it was in fact his father, Victor’s countenance brightened which pleases the magistrate making him assume it must have been “a momentary return of delirium” (p180). This fortunate assumption not only leaves Victor without having to explain but also helps prove his innocence.

Gothic elements

• The sublime: when Victor goes on one of his walks he says his direction was towards the valley of Chamounix which he had been to many times during his life, but six years had lapsed since he had last visited. He consequently describes his visit as “I was a wreck – but nought had changed in those savage and enduring scenes” (p94). His observation showed the fragility of the human frame and its short life span in comparison to the wonders of nature.
• Doppelganger: There is some debate about Victor and the monster being two identities within the same person. There is a whole category of citations on this, click here to read. Aside from this information, the monster and Victor both end up sharing the same name "Frankenstein", due to the monster never being given one. It would stand to reason that the creature would take on his "father's" surname, but at least nowadays, the name is used interchangeably between the two, and is an entity which unites them. The title should refer to Victor, however, the tendency is to use it for the monster, and only the author can know if this confusion was intended when naming her book.
• Mental instability: if the theory of Victor and his monster as a doppelganger is true, then it shows the destructive nature brought about by mental incapacity. It would show how it saddens those around someone to see them in that condition; how it destroys the subject's own life as they become a recluse and pull away from humanity's company; how those around them are destroyed, in the case of Frankenstein by murder or emotional devastation; and their own tragically repentant end.

Appearance

• To a certain point the novel deals with the deception of appearance. It is true that the monster with his horrific appearance did turn out to be the killer, but Elizabeth’s rant about how “falsehood can look so like the truth […] the murderer escapes; he walks about the world free, and perhaps respected” (p93) really brings home how much Victor had to play in the various deaths. It is even worse as she is talking to him when she relates her feelings and he at no point ever explains his role in the tragedy.
• The monster’s appearance was so “unearthly” (p219) that you have to wonder if he was not always destined to become bad, and if his change honestly came from the way people treated him.

Language

• Ultimately what ended William’s life was language, had he not spoken, then he would have been safe, but saying he was a Frankenstein enraged the monster into revenge (p142). This shows the importance of language throughout the novel, it is mentioned that Victor, Clerval, the monster and Walton all learn languages at some point in their lives.
• The monster was built with the capacity for human emotion, and although they are innate in him, he really only manages to distinguish and identify them as he goes on learning French (chapters XI-XIII, XV). Therefore, a lot of his development comes from learning to speak, without it, he would have been more primitive as a being which he says he sometimes would have preferred (p120).

Idealisation

• The picture the monster paints of his future with a female creation like himself is very idealistic, when he talks of her eating habits he cannot possibly know that she will chose to be a vegetarian even if she can solely exist on “acorns and berries” (p146), or that she would be willing to disappear to “vast wilds” away from human kind. As the monster himself points out, the image he presents is peaceful and human, one that you could not easily deny him, so is this part of the preparation for his plan to convince Victor rather than what he actually believes possible?
• In continuation, the monster insisted that he and likewise his female counterpart, would feed on “acorns and berries” (p146), but had he considered what he would do in seasons of desperation if food was ever scarce in the “vast wilds”? Could desperation not lead them to kill an animal, in turn leaving them with a taste for this nourishment in plentiful times too?

Work ethics

• At first glance Walton’s statement “nothing contributes so much to tranquillise the mind as a steady purpose, -a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye” (p16) seems to be untrue in this story. But setting aside the fact that having a ‘steady purpose’ seems to be what causes all the turmoil in the first place, it is true that in the short term whilst actions are being carried out, the characters are at peace with themselves. This can be seen when Victor’s aim was to create life, and although he went back and forth, he overall found peace enough to finish the experiment (chapter IV). Also when he was in pursuit of the monster, remembering why he was doing so was the only thing really keeping him at peace with his existence (chapter XXIV). It is also the case for Walton, as the story points out how all the sailors wanted to return to England once freed from the ice, but Walton had barely conceived of the idea as his mind was fixed on continuing his voyage (p214).
• It is indisputable that the type of devotion Victor demonstrated when creating the monster is unhealthy, and if he had reflected on what he was doing as he went along, he may have stopped in time to deter his own destruction. However, the marvel of his discovery would never have been made. Is it therefore not this unhealthy dedication that provides the means for great inventions?
• When Victor is preparing to create the second monster he says “during my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment […] but now I went to it in cold blood” (p164). This statement shows how such enthusiasm can bring success but once the mission is completed the once brilliant can fall into absolute dejection. Although his present state was that of a deteriorated scientist, had his findings been published, he still would have been considered one of the most phenomenal minds that had ever lived.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Oxford World Classics, 1998.