Essay/Term paper: Frankenstein (the creator's faults in the creation)

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Frankenstein

The Creator's Faults in the Creation



Often the actions of children are reflective of the attitudes of those



who raised them. In the novel Frankenstein : Or the Modern Prometheus by



Mary Shelly, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is the sole being that can take



responsibility for the creature that he has created, as he is the only one



that had any part in bringing it into being. While the actions of the



creation are the ones that are the illegal and deadly their roots are



traced back to the flaws of Frankenstein as a creator.



 



Many of Frankenstein's faults are evident in the appearance of his



creation. It is described as having yellow skin, dark black hair, eyes



sunk into their sockets, and black lips (Shelly 56). Frankenstein, having



chosen the parts for his creature, is the only one possible to blame for



its appearance. Martin Tropp states that the monster is "designed to be



beautiful and loving, it is loathsome and unloved" (64). Clearly it is



Frankenstein's lack of foresight in the creation process to allow for a



creature that Frankenstein "had selected his features as beautiful," (56)



to become something which the very sight of causes its creator to say



"breathless horror and disgust filled my heart"(56). He overlooks the



seemingly obvious fact that ugliness is the natural result when something



is made from parts of different corpses and put together. Were he



thinking more clearly he would have noticed monster's hideousness.



 



Another physical aspect of the monster which shows a fault in



Frankenstein is its immense size. The reason that Frankenstein gives for



creating so large a creature is his own haste. He states that ,"As the



minuteness of the parts formed a great hinderance to my speed, I resolved,



contrary to my first intention, to make a being gigantic in stature ..."



(52). Had Frankenstein not had been so rushed to complete his project he



would not have had to deal with such a physically intimidating creature.



Tropp however states that ambition may have had a role in the size of the



creation. He says that the creation is "born of Frankenstein's



megalomania" (81). This may indeed be true as the inventor states "A new



species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent



natures would owe their being to me" (52). Frankenstein seems obsessed



with being the father of this new race, so he makes the creature large in



order to assure its dominance.



 



The more important defect within Frankenstein is not so much shown in



the appearance that he gave his creation, but the manner in which he



responds to it. The first thing that Frankenstein notices upon the



activation of his creation is one of being appalled (56). Frankenstein



sees the creature's physical appearance only, taking no time to attempt to



acknowledge its mental nature. He cannot accept it simply because it looks



too far removed from his view of beautiful (Oates 77). Because of this he



drives the creature away, abandoning it. The creature is "in one sense an



infant-a comically monstrous eight foot baby- whose progenitor rejects him



immediately after creating him..." (Oates 70). It is due to this



abandonment that the monster develops the murderous tendencies displayed



later in the novel. Even when the creature is shown to be naturally good,



its physical form never allows it acceptance. Whenever the creation



attempts to be rational with Frankenstein it is rejected, with in almost



all cases Frankenstein sighting its appearance as one of the reasons.



"Frankenstein's response to the `thing' he has created is solely in



aesthetic terms..." (Oates 75).



 



Throughout the novel Frankenstein continually insists that "The



tortures of Hell are too mild a vengeance for all [the creature's] crimes"



(95). Frankenstein is incorrect, however in assuming that the creature is



inherently evil. Mary Lowe-Evans states that ,"Nothing in Frankenstein is



more unexpected than the Creature's sensitivity" (52). His benevolent



nature described in his story is meant to show that he is not the beast



that Frankenstein has made him out to be (Lowe-Evans 52). The creature is



intrigued by the lives of the people that he finds living in a small cabin,



the De Laceys. The creature loves everything about these people and



attempts to aid them by gathering for them much needed firewood. This



action is described by Tropp as, "a last attempt to enter its [Paradise's}



gates" (75). He also sympathizes with the plights of other unfortunate



people that he hears of such as the Native Americans (Lowe-Evans 53). It



is only upon being again rejected because of his appearance that the



creature becomes the monster that Frankenstein sees him as.



 



Just as the creature's love of the De Laceys show that he is not an



evil being and that Frankenstein has caused him to become this way, so does



the creature's constant longing for companionship. The creature says in



regard to originally capturing Frankenstein's brother William, "If I could,



therefore seize him ... I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth."



(136). He only murders him upon realizing that he is a relative of



Frankenstein. The creature's ultimate plea for companionship comes when he



requests that Frankenstein creates another monster to be his mate, and that



the two monsters would live in isolation. Tropp acknowledges that this is



truly meant to do no harm to the race of man, and simply to comfort the



creature. He also states, however, that it is in the creation's nature to



look for acceptance by humans, and will if given the chance, return to



human civilization (78).



 



The most major crime committed by the creature in the eyes of



Frankenstein is the murder of his wife Elizabeth. The roots of the killing



can be traced back not only to the malice displayed by the creature toward



Frankenstein, but also to Frankenstein's own self-centered attitude. The



creature pronounces his threat on Elizabeth's life, after Frankenstein has



done what Oates calls "The cruelest act of all" (78), destroying the



partially finished monster that was to be the mate of his first creation.



She also states that Frankenstein, "in `mangling' the flesh of his demon's



bride, he is murdering the pious and rather too perfect Elizabeth..." (78).



Frankenstein wishes for his own happiness through companionship in



marriage, but denies the same right to his creation. Frankenstein can also



be viewed as being responsible for the death of Elizabeth by assuming that



when the creature states "I shall be with you on your wedding night" (161)



he is going to be killed rather than Elizabeth, even when all of the



creature's prior killings point to the fact that he would attempt to make



Frankenstein's life miserable rather than actually kill him (Lowe-Evans



61). In fact if the creature actually wanted Frankenstein to die, it had



the perfect opportunity to kill him the second Frankenstein destroyed his



would be wife. Lowe-Evans points out that this can be attributed to



Frankenstein's own selfish attitude. She says he "might feel that even the



attention implied in the Creature's warning rightfully belongs to him"



(62). This fits the spoiled childhood life of Frankenstein, detailed in



the works early chapters (Lowe-Evans 62).



 



It is stated by Oates that ,"The monsters that we create ... `are'



ourselves as we cannot hope to see ourselves..." (75). This statement is



perfectly applicable to Frankenstein. The qualities that he would most



like to deny are shown through the results that they have had on the being



which he has brought into existence. The results of his flaws take on a



physical aspect, destroying those around him, until he finally dies seeking



revenge on something that he himself has brought about.



Works Cited Lowe-Evans, Mary. Frankenstein: Mary Shelly's Wedding Guest.



New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.



 



 



Oates, Joyce Carol. "Frankenstein: Creation as Catastrophe."



Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea



House Publishers, 1987.



 



Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus. New York: Penguin



Books, 1978.



 



Tropp, Martin. Mary Shelly's Monster. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.