The nature versus nurture debate may be tired and old, but in the right context, couldn’t it be fascinating? Take the example of Frankenstein: he’s hideous, a monster who frightens small children and adults alike. But if he was born, let’s say, innocent and uncorrupted, couldn’t the argument be made that society – the screams, fires and condemnations – molded the man into the monster he became? Would that debate describe a horror story, one ideal for dark and stormy nights? Or a tragedy, reflective of society and man’s failings?
Plot Overview: Humanism, Romanticism and Compassion
Spurred by the death of his mother and his skill in university classes, Victor Frankenstein creates a being from cobbled-together parts. The creature, however, is 8 feet tall and horrific in appearance, and Victor, so horrified, abandons him. Devastated by the rejection, Frankenstein’s monster disappears.
Over time, the creature and Victor’s paths cross, again and again, while both deal with grief and longing. At a final confrontation, the creature asks Victor to create a companion for him; Victor refuses. In response, the creature embarks on revenge, causing Victor as much pain as he himself caused.
Although he’s portrayed as a zombie-like monster in popular culture, Frankenstein is a tragic literary figure who tugs at the reader’s heartstrings – at least in the beginning. He’s a victim of circumstance; he has no control over his appearance or others’ reaction to him. To look like a monster, be treated like a monster, be feared like a monster would warp any tender-hearted, somewhat romantic figure into the horrifying figure he appears; if anything, Frankenstein is the embodiment of having his inside match his outside (and not vice versa). Shelley intended for Frankenstein to be a horror story, but Frankenstein’s devolving from sensitive being to a tortured beast hell-bent on revenge is just sad.
Victor, like his creature, is equally as pitiable. In his own way, each is a without control: Frankenstein cannot control his appearance or the responses he receives; Victor cannot rein in his creation and protect his own loved ones from becoming collateral damage. To take it to an allegorical level, Victor and his son, so to speak, are, in many ways, reflective of the Biblical God and Jesus, though while Jesus certainly suffered, he didn’t engage in a path of destruction and punishment. Still, it’s an interesting parallel, though Shelley never overtly points to the symbiotic relationship between father and son.
Aside from the fact that Frankenstein is an evocative tale (though Shelley is arguably not the strongest writer), any story lover – regardless of preferred genre – should read it, if only to see how the literary figures deviate from the movie versions.
Source:
- Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Random House (Reprint edition), 2013 ISBN 9780394848273
