Metamorphoses Within Frankenstein
The Critical Metamorphoses of Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein
You must excuse a trif ling d eviation,
From Mrs. Shelley’s marvellous narration — from th e musical Frankenstein; or,
The Vamp ire’s Victim (1849)
Like Coleridge’ s Ancient Mariner , who erupts into Mary Sh elley’s text as o ccasionally and inev itably as th e Monster into Victor
Frankenstein’s lif e, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometh eus passes, like night, from land to land and w ith stang ely ad aptable powers of speech addresses itself to a critical aud ien ce that is larger and mor e diverse than that of almo st any oth er work of liter atur e in Eng lish :
Mary Shelley’s Franken stein is famously reinterpretable. It can be a late v ersion of th e Faust my th, or an ear ly version of the mo dern myth of the mad scientist; the id on the ramp age, th e proletariat running amok, or what happens when a man tries to h ave a b aby without a woman. Mary Shelley invites speculation, and in the last g eneration
1
has been rew arded w ith a great d eal of it.
How far we wedd ing guests h ave attended to what Frankenstein has to say and how far simp ly and unashamedly bound it to our own purposes is a moot poin t. Still, the fact that it can be — has been — read to mean so many things in its comparatively short lif e is what makes the novel especially fascinating and challenging. And I am concerned in this ar ticle only with the extent and variety of the acad emic critical atten tion
Frankenstein has r eceiv ed; only w ith wh at w e might call its ‘critical metamorphoses’ . If we were to add to these critical metamorphoses all adaptations of the novel or myth in fiction, on stag e, in the cinema and in retail, then the numb er of metamorphoses or diff erent ver sions is quite liter ally incompreh ensib le: impossible to get around, to encircle and tak e
1
Sydney S tudies
Critica l Metamorphoses of Frankenstein
in. Mary Sh elley’s older contemporary, the literary
Frankenstein
You must excuse a trif ling d eviation,
From Mrs. Shelley’s marvellous narration — from th e musical Frankenstein; or,
The Vamp ire’s Victim (1849)
Like Coleridge’ s Ancient Mariner , who erupts into Mary Sh elley’s text as o ccasionally and inev itably as th e Monster into Victor
Frankenstein’s lif e, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometh eus passes, like night, from land to land and w ith stang ely ad aptable powers of speech addresses itself to a critical aud ien ce that is larger and mor e diverse than that of almo st any oth er work of liter atur e in Eng lish :
Mary Shelley’s Franken stein is famously reinterpretable. It can be a late v ersion of th e Faust my th, or an ear ly version of the mo dern myth of the mad scientist; the id on the ramp age, th e proletariat running amok, or what happens when a man tries to h ave a b aby without a woman. Mary Shelley invites speculation, and in the last g eneration
1
has been rew arded w ith a great d eal of it.
How far we wedd ing guests h ave attended to what Frankenstein has to say and how far simp ly and unashamedly bound it to our own purposes is a moot poin t. Still, the fact that it can be — has been — read to mean so many things in its comparatively short lif e is what makes the novel especially fascinating and challenging. And I am concerned in this ar ticle only with the extent and variety of the acad emic critical atten tion
Frankenstein has r eceiv ed; only w ith wh at w e might call its ‘critical metamorphoses’ . If we were to add to these critical metamorphoses all adaptations of the novel or myth in fiction, on stag e, in the cinema and in retail, then the numb er of metamorphoses or diff erent ver sions is quite liter ally incompreh ensib le: impossible to get around, to encircle and tak e
1
Sydney S tudies
Critica l Metamorphoses of Frankenstein
in. Mary Sh elley’s older contemporary, the literary