Frankenstein Commentary (Female Monster Creation Scene)

Odile Bouchard
11/10/2010

Frankenstein Commentary: Female Monster Creation Scene
(REVISED)

Mary Shelley, the author of the novel Frankenstein, greatly uses various literary devices, such as language, setting, contrast, imagery, description, foreshadowing and in some cases a vague sense of irony, much to her benefit in order to portray a certain hidden meaning to her text. This ‘secret message’, a sense of reality that makes the text come to life, can only be found through analyzing the very words, structure and view point Shelley uses: ‘through reading between the lines’ The purpose of analyzing works such as Frankenstein is not only to discover certain literary devices writers use to enrich their tales, but moreover to understand how the author writes as oppose to what the author writes. The passage of Frankenstein, in which the female monster is being created, uses literary devices chiefly to express Victor’s emotions and thoughts at the time. Victor and the Monster form an agreement in which if Victor were to create a female monster to resolve his original creation’s loneliness, the Monster in return would forever leave his creator, Victor, in peace. Victor realizes the only way to ensure safety upon himself and his family is to consent to the Monster’s requests, but on the brink of finally finishing his second creation, Victor finds himself reflecting upon all the problems a second monster would create rather than all the issues it would solve: “she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate” (10-11) and “they might even hate each other” (16). As Victor asks himself “had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations” (26-27), it becomes evident that he is overwhelmed by the affect his creations could have on mankind and the fact that if something were to go wrong, he would be the forever blamed man behind it. At the end of the passage, Victor tears up his work and vows never again to return to it, simultaneously putting himself and his family in great jeopardy of the Monster’s rage and seek for revenge. After all, when an agreement is broken between two enemies, it is only a matter of time before Chaos and Wretchedness will step in to play their roles in an eager scramble for revenge. The first, and one of the most important, literary devices one comes across while reading this passage is the use of setting and how it can express the characters’ emotions while concurrently giving the reader an idea of the events that are about to take place. This is more commonly/literarily known as foreshadowing. In certain cases the author, Mary Shelley, enhances the meaning the setting has on the characters and events of the story with a certain irony. For example, at the beginning of the passage she writes, “the sun had set, and he moon was just rising from the sea” (1-2). This introduces the passage to the reader as a peaceful, serene and beautiful scene, but as one reads on he or she discovers just how ironic the setting is in terms of the events that take place after. In fact, it is not a beautiful nor peaceful affair that Victor is constantly haunted by the Monster’s threats as he states on page 104 “I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled, and dared not break; or, if I did, what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family”. The only manner in which he can protect his family from his evil creation is to comply with its demands. This also raises the question as to who is the dominant figure in the relationship between Victor and the Monster. In this specific passage Victor is obliged to comply with the Monster’s wishes as opposed to before when the situation was reversed and Victor had authority and control over his creation. Shelley also refers to the setting at the end of the passage, at which point Victor has just destroyed his creation and is waiting painfully for the ‘Wretch’ to come back to destroy him: “I remained near my window gazing on the sea; it was almost motionless, for the winds were hushed, and all nature reposed under the eye of the quiet moon” (53-54). As Victor awaits this horror, he is pulled in by his strong connection to nature and the effect nature bestows upon him as he contemplates what he has just done. Shelley introduces a silent, almost surreal seeming setting, but the reader knows something dreadful is bound to take place. This makes the ironic settings, introduced in the first and last paragraphs of the passage, more eerie and foreboding rather than tranquil. Victor is lost in his own thoughts and worries of what issues could arise from the creation of a second monster, only adding to those he is constantly trying protect his family and self from. Victor portrays his worries of what the creation of a second monster would bring as he states “I was now about to form another being of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become then thousand times more malignant than her mate, and delight, for it’s own sake, in murder and wretchedness” (9-12). But he is so deeply engrossed in preoccupying over the problems a female monster would generate that he seems oblivious to the question of what bigger problems the abandonment of the creation of the destined companion to his original creation would induce. Betraying the deal he had with the Monster will only worsen the situation, but Victor seems to presume that the Monster’s resulting rage and evil from Victor’s decision to abandon his project would only be centered on him, that he would have to tolerate his wrath alone, but does he not realize that in taking away the Monster’s bride and companion the Monster, in return, will strive to inflict the same pain on Victor by toiling with his loved ones? This puts the Frankenstein family, and more significantly Elizabeth, in great danger. Certain phrases, such as “three years before I was engaged in the same manner, and had created a fiend whose unparallel barbarity had desolated my heart, and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse” (6-9) convey Shelley’s use of very negative language, as well as other words such as “malignant” (11), “wretchedness” (12), “hate” (16), and “disgust” (19), to express the obvious hate Victor bestows upon his creation, also indicating his regret in ever creating such a horrid beast. Victor blames himself for being ‘ignorant’ in putting his life and the life of his loved ones at risk, but he is possibly more ignorant to ruin his second creation than going through with creating his first one simply because of the dangers that could result from doing so. Shelley also uses contrast between words, emphasizing the importance of one word by placing it in the same phrase as another word with an entirely different context. For example, she writes “I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and, trembling with passion, I tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged” (42-44). The words ‘trembling’ and ‘passion’ contrast one another because while ‘trembling’ gives an impression of fear and uncertainty ‘passion’ enforces an idea of pure will and enjoyment. While Shelley uses contrasting words to enforce their meanings, she also communicates Victor’s uncertainty in destroying his creation with a constant question of “Should I?” or “Shouldn’t I?” as Victor reflects “I remained idle, in a pause of consideration of whether I should leave my labour for the night, or hasten its conclusion by an unremitting attention to it” (3-5). Together, these writing techniques express Victor’s doubt in destroying his creation, which conflicts with his eagerness to get it over with and end the cycle of evil he introduced to humanity. This contrast in language makes up part of the tone Mary Shelley uses throughout her writing, setting a general ambiance to her tales and conveying the mood of her writing. This is yet another technique used to help the reader understand the emotions and mood of the scene. Mary Shelley uses imagery and description to portray Victor’s thoughts and feelings through her writing. It is obvious that Victor hates the Monster he created, and therefore hates himself for being the mastermind behind it, but what is not so evident is the actual issue concerning how evil the monster truly is. Victor describes him as “the daemon” (35) while “a ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed on me, where I sat fulfilling the task which he had allotted to me” (35-37). This once again brings up the question as to which character has the power of control in their relationship. Victor is imprisoned under the stealthy but careful watch of the Monster who basically controls his every move, making sure he will not fail to honor his promise, and Victor is terrified by this. One can easily see that he feels as if he is constantly haunted by a glooming, horrid and desperate evil that he cannot escape from through his very actions and words. For example, Victor says “I trembled and my heart failed within me; when, on looking up, I saw, by the light of the moon, the daemon at the casement” (34-35). He is evidently horrified by the mere image of the Monster. But as Victor describes the Monster as being so evil, the reader will always take into consideration the aspects about the Monster that were evident earlier in the tale, proving his somewhat human-like morality. As any tale is told, not only can the audience understand the story itself as it plays out, but one can also comprehend the way in which the author uses certain techniques and devices to add depth, meaning, emotion and a sense of reality to his or her tale. Frankenstein, a tale of survival, misery, evil, misunderstanding and fear, can only be told in such a manner that the audience fully understand the tale to the point where one feels as if it were true and they were part of it, and this sense of ‘reality’ can only be achieved through the use of certain devices to enrich a work and make it a masterpiece. Mary Shelley, the author of the novel, connects certain of these literary devices, such as setting, foreshadow, imagery, contrast, diction, and various others to bring life to her writing, turning it into the grand, famous and utterly intriguing novel of Frankenstein.