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Arely Alvarez
Professor Holly Batty
English 102
12 December 2019
The Real creature in Frankenstein Is Closer Than You Think
It is quite easy to point out a creature versus a person. In fact, we even start learning the
difference between us and “monsters” from a very young age, beginning with holidays like
Halloween, scary movies, and even urban legends. Children are often told to be have or else a
scary monster will come after them. Instilling in children that humans can not be these monsters
because they would only encounter if they are misbehaving. In the monster novel Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley, we see the disconnect in which humans often have with the unknown or also
known as monsters. Often monsters are associated with being frightening creatures that lurk in
the dark. While in Frankenstein, we learn that the true creature is not the creature but the psyche
of those who create the creatures and interact with them in a negative way. In reality, the true
monster is the human psyche; it's the deepest and most stubbornly denied desires that humans
have. These desires include the desire to have godlike powers, such as the power to create life,
the desire for immortality, and impulsiveness behavior.
In the creature novel Frankenstein, Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein are two
young men that are in search of new scientific discoveries. Victor, who is the main character, is
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from Geneva and has the desire to test human knowledge. Victor's mom died after giving birth to
William, his younger brother, which motivates Victor to go beyond science and bring back the
dead. Victor creates an eight foot tall creature with human parts taken from graves. After being
brought to life, the creature frightened Victor away. He leaves it behind, and the creature begins
to feel lonely because villagers are scared of it as well. The creature then spies on Delay See’s
family and learns how to read, talk and do human activities, so the creature gets attached to the
family. Agatha and Felix, the heads of the Delay See family, kick him out which leaves him
lonely again and makes him want to look for Victor to plan revenge against him. After finding
Victor the creature kills William and blames it on Justine, another member of the Frankenstein
family, and she is sentenced to death. The creature makes Victor promise him to make him a
wife so he is no longer lonely. While making the creature’s wife, Victor realizes that the
creatures could destroy humanity so he tears the new creation into pieces. The creature finds out
of Victor's doings, so it decides to strangle Elizabeth, Victor’s bride, to death on her wedding
night and his father also dies due to grief. Victor goes on the search for the creature to kill him.
However, Victor is also dying because of all the trauma, and when the creature finds out, it goes
back to check on him and to apologize for the deaths he caused. Victor dies and that allows the
creature to also pass away.
In the novel, we quickly see the desire for creating a life from Victor. Victor talks about
how he has “entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the
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elixir of life” (Chapter 2, Shelley), and he seems to be obsessed with this desire. There is a lot of
power that goes along with creating life. This shows the beginning of Victor’s interest in
controlling life and death. It is a god-given gift to create it, Victor could be having “womb envy”
since he does not possess the organs needed to create a life with his own body. Diana
Semmelhack talks about womb envy in the essay “Womb Envy and Western Society: On the
Devaluation of Nurturing in Psychotherapy and Society,” “males are jealous of females for being
able to create life,” which is demonstrated by Victor, as he has to be one that creates the life
instead of creating a life with his wife Elizabeth. Semmelhack follows the studies of the
psychologist Sigmund Freud’s study on “penis envy,” womb envy is the male version of women
being envious of males have a penis. Victor’s desire to create life has him digging his own grave.
Immortality is also a concept is touched upon in the novel that is seen as having god-like
powers. Victor talks about how “[i]t was very different when the masters of the science sought
immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand” (Chapter 2, Shelley), and
oftentimes being immoral is also a sign of having power. Which goes with the theme of fighting
death. Immortality is beyond man’s control, so if they were to find how to become immortal
then the whole world would go insane with wanting to know the secret. Victor’s eagerness for
his ambition attributed to superficial attention brought suffering to the creature because of
rejection by humanity, such as he was hit by villagers. Aldonaka talks in her literary analysis
“The Uncanny in ‘Frankenstein’” how “[m]uch like most humans, the creature has a fear of
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death,” and the suffering was augmented by fatigue, hunger and an oppressive sense of injustice.
This caused the creature to grow so much malice that he "declared everlasting war" (Aldonaka)
against humanity leading only to more destruction caused by the concept of being immortal.
Immortality is not meant to happen because it only leads to sadness, and Victor cheating death is
not a sign of power but of destruction.
Some may argue that humans are very logical creatures and that they think things
through. Victor Frankenstein must have had some kind of mental illness to have not been able to
think logically, leading to his creation. Victor Frankenstein shows symptoms of Narcissistic
personality disorder. Those individuals that have this personality disorder have “a grandiose
sense of self-importance, a sense of entitlement, take advantage of others or lack empathy”
(American Psychiatric Association). Victor has no remorse for what he is doing. He does not
believe that he was doing anything wrong when creating this creature. He is so consumed with
being the person that discovers how to become immortal that he does not care for the
consequences for his actions, and as soon as he gets the slightest form of criticism he breaks
down and hides in his room for months. In reality what he is doing by creating the creature is not
sane and immoral. Victor Frankenstein is not a representative for humans in the novel because
he is not mentally sane.
In reality, humans are very impulsive creatures. Humans often do things out of a desire
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for ourselves, they often occur impulses. Victor acknowledges this fault in himself, he says “I
knew that I was preparing myself for a deadly torture; but I was the slave, not the master of an
impulse, which I detested, yet could not disobey.” (Ch. 24, Shelley), there are times we can not
deny our impulses. Victor is thinking logically and acknowledges the negativity that is occurring
but still falls for the impulse. That, however, does not mean we can not get punished for them.
Often people use it as an argument for nature versus nurture. Are we naturally like this or is it
learned? Frankenstein talks about those impulses that lead toward destruction but are nonetheless
less irresistible. Driven by his desire to honor the dead, loneliness and sadness was resulted. In
Victor’s case, the dead are his family and friends, those murdered by the creature he created.
There is nothing freeing about Victor Frankenstein's obedience to the impulse for revenge. This
impulse turns him into a slave, not as a master. Similarly to the mobs that form against the
creature (Who is the creature in…, Halmstad), the act in a sense of impulse against the
unknown, the unknown being the creature. Humans are not as logical as we believe that they are.
Humans are selfish and are driven by impulses.
In summary, in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, the novel has argued that Victor
Frankenstein has a darker side, which represents the human psyche of desires. His desire to
create life has created more harm than good. Immortality should not be discovered as it lead to
destruction. Humans are impulsive creates that lead to more ill fate for others. All of these
desires that humans hold close leading to nothing that is for the greater good of humanity. As
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humans, we have to be aware of these desires and not let them destroy us.
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Works Cited
Aldonaka. “The Uncanny in ‘Frankenstein’." (Katrina Krulikas).” Literary Analysis, 30 Aug.
2017, http://exegeses.web.unc.edu/2017/08/the-uncanny-Frankenstein/
“Frankenstein;” The Project Gutenberg EText of Frankenstein.” by Mary Wollstonecraft
(Godwin) Shelley, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm.
Halmstad, Högskolan. "Who is the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?."
http://hh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:537563/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Semmelhack, Diana, et al. “Womb Envy and Western Society: On the Devaluation of Nurturing
in Psychotherapy and Society.” Europe’s Journal of Psychology, Feb. 2011, pp. 164–186.
EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=60039649&site=eds-live.
“What Are Personality Disorders?” What Are Personality Disorders?,
www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/personality-disorders/what-are-personality-disorde
rs.
