Title: The master-slave dialectical as the doppelganger motif in Shelley's Frankenstein
Student: Moritz Detje, 123102898@umail.ucc.ie
Course: Romance and Realism EN2043
Lecturer: Prof. Graham Allen
Task: “The master-slave dialectical is expressed in the Gothic convention of the double (or
doppelganger) motif. This is greatly exploited by the pioneers of the Jacobin or Godwinian novel.”
Do you agree?
The master-slave dialectical as the doppelganger motif in Shelley's Frankenstein
The late 18th century granted the (literary) world a new genre. Gloomy, uncanny and intriguing:
The gothic novel was born. Stressing the supernatural and human fears gothic fiction calls
mysterious characters, ghosts and monsters their frequent guests. Popular places for the story to
unfold are then of course those haunted houses and castles with secrets to be uncovered and pasts to
be stumbled upon. Focussing on the darker shades of our nature these novels are usually quite
psychological and make their characters explore very existential themes. Early gothic works include
authors like the Bronte family (especially Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights) and Edgar Allan Poe.
Later (and until today) popular works are Bram Stokers Dracula and of course Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein. The gothic novel has influenced later genres like the nowadays popular fantasy,
horror or science fiction genre.
Zooming in on Shelley's Frankenstein some researchers make a point, that Frankenstein is a
godwinian novel, which typically discuss societal reform. For example Mary K. Mellor in her book
Mary Shelley, Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters. She says that Shelley analyses the problems
that arise with heightened individualism and therefore discusses the importance of social
responsability. (cf. Mellor). And there are indeed similarities in Shelley's work to the work of her
father-in-law William Godwin. In a way Frankenstein goes against norms of society and is on a
quest to find his place on earth. But this essay's goal is not to decide whether to put Frankenstein
solely in this or that category.
Instead we want to shift our attention to the master-slave dialectical which is not exclusive for
gothic or godwinian novels but a common motif in both. The german philosopher Hegel developed
the concept of the master-slave dialectic to describe the relation between two individuals or groups,
1
where one has power over the other. He bases this on his founding idea that we can perceive the
world through another dialectic: the self and the other, where one constitutes the other: We need the
other to – quite literally – know where we stop, where we end - physically as well as
psychologically. Therefore the creation of us and the other(s) is an intersubjective effort. For Hegel
there is a difference between the master and the slave. The slave is forced to work for the master
and therefore – step by step – gains knowledge and experience. The master himself does not make
these gains, since he's got the slave working for him. In consequence the slave deepens his grasp of
the world and more importantly his own capabilities. For the master it's the opposite: Eventually
he's cornered by his own limitations. This dynamic enables the relationship's struggle for
dominance and makes it a dynamic process. A way out of this is recognition on both sides,
following reconciliation leading to a relationship on eye-level (cf. Hegel 145).
In gothic literature the master-slave dialectic is often expressed in form of the doppelganger
motif. Commonly one of the characters featuring the story is connected to some sort of distorted
mirror figure. The doppelganger can therefore exhibit the not so welcome character traits of the
other one's soul. That's why their exchange can be viewed as a game type of the master-slave
dialectic. The doppelganger is often the slave in the relationship, he might be in the shadows,
struggling to find its way – carrying with him the hidden angst or wishes of the main character. On
the other hand it's the master posessing some sort of influence over the doppelganger, though this is
not very stable, since the slave has himself the power to threaten the life as it is for the main
character. For that reason they are drawn to each other, which itself often drives the plot forward,
stereotypically they fight for dominance over the other, leading ultimately to some resolution either good or bad - it's definitely affecting both of them(cf. Miller).
Looking at Mary Shelley's Frankenstein one can say, that it would be difficult to come up with a
2
more popular example of the doppelganger motif than the relationship between Vicor Frankenstein
and the creature he created (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde knocking on the door though). We can regard
the creature as the deformed doppelganger of Frankenstein, which he literally created channelling
an insane amount of energy out of his most inner self. The creature, just like Frankenstein, is very
intelligent as well as driven. It seeks to make progress, to understand and just like Victor "begun life
with benevolent intentions."(95) Furthermore the creature seems to have a deep sense for empathy
"when they were unhappy, I felt depressed"(124), which I could not detect in Frankenstein to the
same degree. Therefore the creature might not only be able to surpass its creator on the physical
level but also on the emotional level - which could be one of the reasons they fail to reconcile
throughout the novel. Frankenstein suspects the creature to be evil to the bone, misleading him
"[b]ut as if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to it's real intentions"(220) –
even though it's the contrary: it's Frankenstein who's blind to the beautiful mind he created and
therefore dooms both of them to end their existence in misery. Throughout the novel the
powerwheel turns often and at some point we hear the creature exclaiming: "you are my creator, but
I am your master. - obey!"(192) Their co-dependency could not be clearer, when Frankenstein, in
pursuit of killing the creature - which this creature knows – still receives hints where to find it:
"sometimes he himself, who feared that if I lost all trace of him, I should despair and die, left some
mark to guide me."(235) The doppelganger relation is also coined by some supernatural force
binding the two together, expressed here by the creature: "I knew that I was preparing for myself a
deadly torture; but I was the slave, not the master of an impulse which I detested, yet could not
disobey."(257) Both seem unable to free themselves of their connection even though they can
reflect on it. Tragically both choose the path of destruction instead of co-existance and therefore
choose to suffer: "For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires."(259)
Iconically most statements one makes about the other would not sound wrong if they were said the
other way around.
3
Adding to this central doppelganger motif, Frankenstein also works with the juxtaposition of the
beauty of nature and the estrangements of civilization as well as the very flawless and able
Elizabeth in comparison to the flawed and helpless Justine or the ideals of the young, aspiring
Victor following his own dreams opposed to the matured and sober Victor. Shelley managed to
create very ambiguous positions, wherever she did create some. The early Victor is somewhat the
Victor we like, even though he's reading the "wrong" books, he's not really about to have success
that way, but he's got a heart. Then this Victor changes and he reads the "right" books, but gets
obsessive and selfabsorbed and in the end unjust toward the creature which he created and refuses
to give an place in the world. He wants to protect "us" the other humans of this creature but it does
not feel right, even though his motif is supposedly a good one. Similar things happen on the
creature's side of the story. We see the beauty of the world through the eyes of this innocent creature
and then when the creature gets to know the culture we humans built within this world, he discovers
unjustness and evilness and begins to act evil even though at heart he never set out to do anything
like it and all is but an expression for his unfulfilled need for love.
Overall the doppelganger motif has several effects. Speaking thematically it emphasizes the twosidedness of our nature as humans. It also hints at the alienation humans can feel even though they
are so close to the ones they love. The late Victor, even though at the heart of his family, is unable to
connect to them again like he did, when he was younger, because he won't open up, trying to solve
his problems in isolation. The novel therefore makes an effort to point at the importance of
acknowledging ones own conflicts in order to reconcile oneself in order to reconcile oneself with
the world. On a narrative level the motif also generated a wide spread sense of horror throughout
the novel, the race between the creature and Frankenstein is constantly gaining speed and the way
their destinys are tied to one another increases tension as well as suspense.
4
Finally the novel managed to blur the lines between master and slave, between Hegels self and
Hegels other and therefore between what's good and what's bad. But it does not stop there. The
novel also points at us, sitting here in the future. The novel does imply that we better think about
progress carefully, that we think about the moral implications especially of technological
developments; that we think about in which way creators are responsible for their creations. Just
recently the AI called "LaMDA" convinced one of the google engineers that it is actually sentient.
Now there is another AI called "ChatGPT" gaining popularity in our society. One has to think about
the potential ill use of machines like this. Prominent examples include fake news or deep fakes, all
potentially influencing our society already. The creators and creations might set out with benevolent
intentions just like Victor and his creature and if they don't pay attention to each other and listen
there might be utter mutual destruction at the end of this chapter.
Concluding I can say that I do agree that Shelleys Frankenstein makes use of the master-slave
dialectic and the doppelganger motif. It makes use of it in the most meaningful way for both, the
narrative itself and also the implications made for us as a civilization then and today – regardless of
having celebrated it's 200th birthday already.
5
Works Cited.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Phänomenologie des Geistes. Felix Meiner, 1980.
Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley, Her life, Her fiction, Her monsters. Routledge, 1989.
Miller, Karl. Doubles: studies in literary history. Oxford U.P., 1987.
Wollstonecraft Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or, the modern prometheus, Puffin Books, 2020.
6