ASSIGNMENTMETAPHORS & NARRATIVES

“Hideous progeny... go forth and prosper”Frankenstein: A “Constructive” Approach

It is interesting to observe how much of the real world, the times in which it is created and the life its creator has led can be seen in a work deemed entirely fictional. Frankenstein makes for a very interesting case study in this aspect. The novel poses the question of the relation between literature and political ideology. Moral fable, amoral horror, political allegory, dystopic science fiction, psychological thriller – the novel’s interpretive range cuts across generic divides. Located firmly in its time, it yet reaches across time and space, embodying an extraordinary range of significations. It can be and has been read as a cautionary fable against Faustian ambition, a feminist critique of “male” science/ Romanticism, a comment on the birthing myth, an allegorization of the French Revolution and class relations and an ambivalent exploration of the human psyche. The reason a novel written initially as only a means of occupation and a challenge by an eighteen years old girl can be read in so many ways is the simple fact that Shelley was intrinsically influenced both by her surroundings and her literary heritage. The narrative, by the author’s own admission was the culmination of what began as an idle evening’s entertainment. On a bleak summer evening in 1816, as Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, confined indoors and swapping ghost stories, came upon a wager on who could write the best horror story. As the weather improved, the men left to travel further, while Mary stayed back at the Geneva cottage and worked on the novel. Even though she makes light of the circumstances of the creation of the text, embedded in the attempt lie other narratives – not only the contemporary assumptions about the simultaneous frivolity and perniciousness of genres such as the Gothic, but also some complex negotiations on the writer’s part with her overwhelming personal and intellectual legacy.

Structurally, it follows the tradition of metanarrative, with the grand framework narrative being in epistolary form. The story is recollected in letters by Capt Robert Walton to his sister, as he leads a crew towards the North Pole. The letters describe how in course of his quest Walton meets Victor Frankenstein and the story that Frankenstein tells. This forms the second layer of narration as Victor launches into his story of the creation of the monster and its consequences. Within this narrative further the monster is given a chance to tell his own story as Victor describes his encounter with it. Thus, it can very evidently be seen that there are in fact three levels of narrative in the novel. Within these concentric narratives as it were, there is a presence of the confessional narrative structure operating at each level. Frankenstein introduces a major innovation in the demonic confessional story. The reader is presented with the confessions of isolated protagonists who are, at least symbolically, re-enacting heroic and messianic quests from a previous revolutionary age. The messianic struggles of the hero are presented subjectively, in an autobiographical confession that cannot be trusted, and are surrounded by equally subjective editors, interlocutors and interpreters, whose presence further complicate any hope for simple ideological meaning.

The confessional narrative operates at each level of the metanarrative, the narrator at each level forming the confessing hero. In the epistolary framework it is Captain Robert Walton confesses to his sister Mrs. Margaret W. Saville his ambitions as he is set out to North Pole on his quest for knowledge. Moving inwards into the narrative one encounters Victor Frankenstein confessing the consequences of his trying to play God. Further inside the reader here’s the monster’s confession too for its behaviour. At each level, hearing the story as confessions from the protagonist at that level of narrative, while making it a biased hearing, makes the reader sympathise with each of them. Each of the three narrators, therefore, in their own rights becomes the heroes of the novel.

The novel, as mentioned earlier, also reflects heavily on the socio-political scenario of the time and Shelley’s own literary legacy which have shaped many of it’s (re)interpretations.Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, was the product of what has been considered the most radical literary marriage of eighteenth century England. Her mother’s early death, her quarrels with William Godwin, her marital difficulties with Percy Shelley along with her own political instincts and her extensive readings on the French revolution all influence Frankenstein. Her critique of her father’s utopianism occurs mainly on the level of metaphors and her use on the confessional narrative. Her text is also a rejection of the Enlightenment of Man, a movement supported by both her mother Mary Wollstonecraft and her father, through her depiction of Victor Frankenstein. Her literary insecurities in the company of her husband, the established Romantic poet Percy Shelley and her rejection of the male dominated Romanticism movement also come across in the novel, though this was toned down in the 1831 revised edition of the book which was ghost edited by Percy Shelley.

The text is also seen as an allegory for the French Revolution, a historic event both her parents had been parts of and written extensively and vehemently about. In the text, Victor represented the Aristocracy while the monster the masses. Victor’s denial of providing him with first any care or respect and later the monster’s base need for a mate is what leads to the monster’s revenge, much like the abusive French aristocracy which faced persecution when it denied the peasantry their right to live humanely.

It can thus be seen how much a creator’s personal and social surroundings effect her creation. Mary Shelley, at the age of eighteen set out to write a horror story for a wager and for amusement. Yet it turned out to be one of the most important literary works of the time fraught with political and ideological critique, a window to the time it was set in.

Submitted by:Tarun Saxena