Giving Life to a Creation

When Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818, I imagine a number of people interpreted it to be a warning about the perils of hasty scientific advancement, but after reading her 1831 introduction, I saw Victor Frankenstein’s creation of a monster in the novel as a parallel to Mary Shelly’s creation of the novel itself. It would seem, if this train of thought were to be followed, that Shelley is implying that once written, a piece becomes its own entity, with a life of its own.

Mary Shelley, in the introduction to Frankenstein, refers to her writing as her “hideous progeny”, describing it as her own “monster” let loose upon the world. She describes the conception of the idea to write the novel, and tells of it using the same voice that she gives the character of Frankenstein. Shelley writes “My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie,” describing how the ideas controlled her mind with the same passion that Frankenstein has when he himself is controlled by the idea to give life to a creation. The first time I read this passage, I hadn’t read Shelley’s 1831 introduction, and Frankenstein appeared to be merely an archetypal mad scientist. After rereading this passage in the context of Shelley’s introduction, I’ve noted that Frankenstein’s creative fervor could represent the inspiration of a writer, which would support the idea that the creature represents a literary work.

The elaborate construction of the novel, with multiple stories contained within other stories, further elaborates this idea. In Frankenstein, there are a number of different narratives embedded in other narratives. The frame of the primary narrative is the letters of Robert Walton, where Walton describes his voyage and his chance encounter with Frankenstein. The rest of the narrative is Frankenstein’s horrified account of his experience. Within the narrative framed by Walton’s letters is another narrative, describing the experiences of Victor Frankenstein’s creation of a monster. Within the creature’s narrative, the creature tells his own story, as well as the story of a family he watches. During this time the creature explains that he began reading other works, such as Milton’s Paradise Lost. The interconnectivity of each of the narratives in Frankenstein, as well as the connection to outside works can be interpreted in the context of Mary Shelley’s metaphor of literature, where it can be inferred that Shelley is referencing the relationships between written works, and the accumulation of recurring ideas through literature.

One of the most interesting parts of Mary Shelley’s introduction is when she describes the novel as “the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words”, clearly referencing the fact that her husband, Percy Shelley, died between the writing of the novel and the addition of the introduction. She goes on to elaborate that for her, the novel keeps the memory of her husband alive. This is particularly true considering that within the text of the novel Mary Shelley used an excerpt from one of her husband’s poems, “Mutability”. Just as Frankenstein’s creation reminded him of the past and outlived his loved ones, Mary Shelley’s novel does the same to her.

The ambiguous ending of the novel, where it is unclear whether or not the monster survives, appears to be a conscious indication of Shelley’s awareness that her creation would continue to live long after her own death, thought it might fade into obscurity. On that point she was correct, as people continue reading the novel today, and just as Victor’s creation is still free to do as he pleases, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is still able to carry a message, whether it be one about scientific advancement, or the power of writing.

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~ by timcoon on February 27, 2010.