Stephanie Fightmaster
The Romantics Final Paper
Professor Carlson
December 13, 2012
The Government of Creatures
The horrific story of an ambitious scientist and unnatural creation is appalling for not only his disregard for nature and the role of women in reproduction, but also for the unwitting effects of his aspirations. Through the manipulation of nature's elements and power, Victor
Frankenstein infuses his creation with life, and upon meeting the watery, yellow eyes of his creature, realizes the magnitude of his actions, resulting in his absolute disgust and rejection of his progeny and beginning the tragedy of a lost creature failed by his creator. Arguments such as
Anne Mellor's "Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein " postulate that this rejection is a result of nature; because the creature is made by Frankenstein’s manipulation and essential rape of nature's power, nature causes Frankenstein to abhor his creature. He is unable to construct a normal human being, therefore the unnatural “physiognomy causes Frankenstein’s instinctive withdrawal from his child” (Mellor 282). However, this theory is complicated by Frankenstein's dedication and careful selection of the creation's features. Would his regard for his creation, as a father for his newborn son's, be so completely altered because of the unattractive arrangement of skin and muscles, or are there more complex reasons to consider? Victor's passionate change may therefore be explained in respect to nature and his own inability to feel maternal or parental instincts, as well as through a deeper analysis of Victor's original motives. This new analysis may suggest his inability to parent is because Victor did not intend to father a race of re-

Fightmaster 2 assembled beings, but rather, [need new verb here] a means to an end. His ambition was to establish himself as a founding father of a new school of science, in which humans would be improved as a stronger species, able to challenge disease, the elements, and death itself.
In Victor's violation of nature, he usurps the role of the female in reproduction. It is partly due to this imbalance that he cannot feel an affection for his creation once it has been brought to life, as he is imbued with no comprehension of maternal instincts. Victor's motivations for his endeavors are also responsible for his lack of affection. His narrative reveals he desired to penetrate the mysterious realms of life and death to “pour a torrent of light into our dark world” (Shelley 55). This specific phrasing implies his dedication and focus is for the betterment of the human race. The darkness he perceives in the world, such as death, pain, and loss, refers to his earlier childhood fascination and desire to master the ancient philosophers’ quests. In so doing, he imagined untold “glory [that] would attend the discovery, if [he] could banish disease from the human frame and render any man invulnerable to any but a violent death!” (Shelley 42). Therefore, his creation is simply a means to an end, the road to glory and ambition, and his goal is not so dissimilar from the restorative power of surgeries and transplant operations. He does not perceive that by completely creating new life, he would create an independent life and will. When he meets the curious and confused gaze of the creature, however, he is struck with horror that he is no longer in control of an experiment, but the creator of unpredictable life.
The specific wording of his driving ambition also provides evidence of this interpretation.
Victor reveals pride that a “new species would bless [him] as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs” (Shelley 55). It is not clearly stated whether

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Frankenstein refers to the improved race of mankind in this statement, or his experiment, when he speaks of the “new species.” Human beings, altered and enhanced by his discoveries would also constitute members of a new, hybrid species. The gratitude Frankenstein believes he would duly deserve also implies its origin may be from an enhanced species of human, no longer in fear of the detriments of disease and age. Implied is the idea, then, that Frankenstein’s motives are to empower the race of man already created, such as Prometheus empowered man with the gift of fire, rather than begin an entire new race. Doing so would not only usurp nature, [or, in a religious framerwork, usurp God, who is not conceived as a female construction, but one of masculinity. ]
Further, this is the only passage in which Frankenstein parallels his enterprise with the metaphor of parenthood and creation. Even when the creature addresses Frankenstein after their prolonged estrangement, he refers to him as his creator and “natural lord and king,” rather than father (Shelley 102-103). His concept of his identity and reason for existence is not, therefore, as a progeny’s, but one more akin to servitude. Further evidence of this is also displayed through the creature’s common usage of the terms “Master” and “Slave” when describing the dynamics of relationship between himself and Frankenstein. A particular example is illustrated during the creature’s rage concerning the creation of a mate: “Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension… You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!” (Shelley 172).
Frankenstein’s abandonment of the creature is the pivotal moment that begins the necessity for the creature to determine his identity and existence. Had his creator not estranged himself and neglected any parental form of responsibilty, the development of the creature’s identity might have been vastly different. By doing so, however, Frankenstein shatters any

Fightmaster 4 concept of a parent/progeny relationship. Instead, the creature evolves into a figure similar to that of a foil, a contrasting character to the protagonist who, in part, is defined by their differences. This formation of identity by the creature leads to his ultimate perception of himself and his fate.
Upon creation, the creature’s formation of self is immediately interrupted by Victor’s abandonment, and therefore, lacks any intimate source of nurturing. He is left bereft, cold, and frightened, to feel his way blindly by innate instinct alone and adopt observed behaviors. In time he wonders what he is and why: “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses… I had never yet seen a being resembling me” (Shelley 124). Additionally, the creature is denied a name by his creator and recognizes he lacked a mother or father to bestow one. This lack of a name is central to his blank identity. Later, the creature refers to himself as an Adam to his creator, implying his knowledge of a purpose in the world, which he describes as formed through self-exploration, furthered by the reading of Frankenstein’s laboratory journals. Yet, without being able to fulfill his intended purpose, he struggles to determine a purpose of his own making; modeling after the
DeLacey family affords him a second semblence of identity. The creature discovers his only desire is to be loved by another, which he is denied, again negating his formation of identity.
This denial and rejection by the human race, first at the hands of his creator, followed by the village people, DeLacey family, and child William, cements the initial, but repressed, impression formed by the creature about himself. The creature relates when he first recognizes his reflection: “At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected… when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification” (Shelley 116-117). Lacan refers to this

Fightmaster 5 experience as the mirror stage. It is the moment when a child perceives their reflection as not an extension of the environment, but a reduplicated reality, and is paramount to the formation of self. Lacan explains, “We have only to understand the mirror stage as an identification , in the full sense that analysis gives to the term: namely, the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image” (Norton 1164). At this moment, therefore, the creature assumes and accepts himself as the image he beholds. Though he attempts to adopt a different identity, one that will allow him to enjoy community with man, he eventually returns to this identification, a construction defined by a long chain of signifiers denoting what he is not : human.
Frankenstein and the creature are also defined in oppositional roles by the traits particular to their characters, and in this form they resemble literary “foils” to one another. The creature, for example, has no available mate despite his endeavors, whereas Frankenstein is essentially given Elizabeth in childhood and raised with the expectation she will be his bride. Each character’s actions with the novel’s secondary figures also expresses their relationships with others. Frankenstein requires frequent nursing and care from his family and friend, Clerval, while the creature acts as a provider to the DeLacey family, shoveling snow and compiling firewood for their use. He also embodies brute, impervious strength as well as inner strength to survive against repeated adversity. Frankenstein, in comparison, is fragile, not only as a man affected by illness, limited against nature, but also mentally, as he is ravaged by fevers, hallucinations, and guilt for the murders of innocents, but unable to confess his culpability.
Finally, Frankenstein spends most of the novel fleeing any reminder of his creation and responsibillity, whereas the creature is forced to live with the ramifications of his montrosity every day.

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These contrasting and highlighted traits are noteworthy because they represent the oppositions that eventually lead to the reconciliation of the novel. Both figures, Victor and the creature, destroy the female figure of nurture and comfort by denying the existence of one another’s mates. Additionally, both figures are rejected by accepted science and culture,
Frankenstein for his philosophical inspirations and the creature for his unnatural form. They are both unable to be honest with any secondary characters, for who would believe them? They are driven by the perceptions of others; Frankenstein hides his deeds for fear of being considered a madman and the creature struggles to accept his identity and purpose as a result of his relationships with mankind. In “My Monster/My Self,” Johnson recognizes these similarities:
“The fact that in the end both characters reach an equal degree of alienation and self-torture and indeed become indistinguishable as they pursue each other across the frozen polar wastes indicates that the novel is, among other things, a study of the impossibility of finding an adequate model for what a parent should be” (3). The denial of a parent’s presence in the formation of identity, therefore, is crucial to the creature’s evolving sense of self, purpose, and nature.
In conclusion, the creature is not able to reconcile his absence of identity through the novel’s progression until the novel’s closing chapters. Once his creator has expired, the creature is able to resolve his conflicting perceptions of himself. For so long he has based his identity off horror for his differences and the perspectives of others, such as the DeLaceys and his creator.
He accepted himself as a monster, though he believed himself of purer nature, because that was the role he was assigned. The novel reaches its conclusion when the creature is finally able to mourn what he has become, the impossibility of union between himself and others, and forgive
Frankenstein and himself.

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The Creature’s Purer Nature, A Commentary
In consideration of the views of Blake concerning the appreciation for nature and the themes of innocence and experience, I believe the creature adequately represents the duality of these two states of being (innocent and fallen). The creature comes into the world fully grown, yet innocent of the ways of man and the reactions his form will receive. Each time he experiences the rejection of mankind, via his creator’s abandonment, the fear and hostility of village people, and even by children – supposedly naïve of prejudice – he feels the pain and sorrow of the fallen. He also becomes the fallen as he falls prey to baser evils and sins, gives in to his anger and temper through destruction and murder. Blake’s appreciation for nature is also a relevant topic, as Victor’s violation of nature’s power and harmony upsets the balance and peace
Blake advises we find through the imagination. In other words, Victor’s desire to manipulate and control nature is an act of seeing with the eye/organ, rather than the imagination/soul. He viewed the resources around him as tools to be manipulated instead of resources for nourishment and peace.
Several of Blake’s poems from
The Songs of Innocence and Experience are also indicative of the struggle of the creature, as he came to peace with his identity. For example,
“The Little Black Boy” is a story of an innocent child making sense of the prejudiced world around him with the assistance of a mother’s gentle nurturing. The creature, however, could not find this peace because he was bereft of a nurturing figure to give him a purpose and banish the hurtful conceptions of others: “And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face / Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove” (15-16). This theme is also expressed in “The Little Boy Lost,” which also conveys the creature’s journey, alone, afraid, and in the dark mist, to find his way.

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The poems “The Divine Image” and “Another’s Sorrow” are also relevant to the creature’s experiences because they explore the creature’s need for love and acceptance, as any member of the human race does, by a benevolent creator. Additionally, “Another’s Sorrow” describes the internal contraditions between the creature’s actions and remorse. Even as he sinned, he wished to repent: “After the murder of Clerval, I returned to Switzerland, heartbroken and overcome. I pitied Frankenstein; my pity amounted to horror: I abhorred myself” and equally desired for his sorrow and capacity to love to be acknowledged by another (222).

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Works Cited
Johnson, Barbara. "My Monster/My Self." Diacritics . 12. (1992): 2-10. Print.
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and criticism . 2nd Edition . New York: W.
W. Norton & Co Inc, 2009. 1164. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein . London: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.
Wolfson, Susan, Peter Manning. The Longman Anthology of British Literature V2A: The
Romantics and their Contemporaries . Fifth Edition . Boston: Pearson, 2012. 176-186.
Print.