Joanna Muralles English 102 Professor Batty 11 November 2017 Immoral Man-Made Monster Monsters typically cause feelings of terror and fear. There are many opinions of what makes a monster but still the feelings that are always evoked wh en people think of monsters is all the same, people are always scared. The T he novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley demonstrates two different versions of a monster. Many would say that the m onster in the novel is the creature created by the scientist because he obtains all the characteristics that make up a monster but Victor Frankenstein (the scientist) proves that he is actual monster through his eg ocentric desires and the ambition that drives him to do d o unacceptable things that has an effect on others creating fear and anguish. The Psychoanalytic lens is the tool that proves that the actual monster was in fact Victor. Vi ctor. Psychoanalytic lens focuses on the way the u nconscious mind works and how desires triggers the mind and modifies the personality by pulling it in different directions. This psychoanalytic theory was founded by a neurologist named Sigmund Freud. Freud said that the desires open up the doors to superego, ego and a nd Id that is within. The Id is made up mainly of the instinct of people and is not in touch with the reality by doing so it decreases pain and causes pleasure. The ego focuses on completing the des ires of the Id in a realistic way so that it will not feel any suffering of guilt it is usually torn between the Id and the superego. The superego attempts to
make the personality feel guilt when they do not follow their morals. Uncanny is another major factor plays a role in the psychoanalytic psychoana lytic lens. Uncanny refers to something being unnatural. In the novel Victor demonstrates to lack having a su perego but allows for his Id to shine through. Victor is a man who has a passion for science, his desires are to bec ome famously recognized for being a great scientist. The drive a nd passion that he has to fulfill his desire leads to the creation of his own monstrous character. The Id is said to be inherited at birth and does d oes not change over time. Since a child Victor was always infatuated with science it was part of his personality and it is what made him curious of the the world. His reason for creating the creature was for “the betterment of humankind” but his real reason was his instinct, his need to satisfy his wanting wanting of making a mark mar k in history. In chapter four of the novel Victor says “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their th eir being to me” (pg. 47). Victor’s impulses to obtain obtain a type of power leads him him to create the creature that causes destruction, the power that he w ishes for is part of what makes him the real monster. Victor only wants to be praised, he desires to be r ecognized and to be seen see n as a god. Victor’s Id shows that he is in fact a narcissist, narcissi st, his narcissist character drives him to become vain and only care about himself h imself causing others to fear him because he lacks compassion. The ego follows after the Id it achieves wa ys to complete the desires in a moralistic way. Victor proves that he has an ego, eg o, he is very selfish and only on ly thinks of his own desires. Upon creating the monster Victor was not in a conscious state of mind he was blinded by his drive of fame and was not able have a foresight on what consequences might come up when he does follow his experimentation, this is where his ego is pulled by the Id. His desires open up his Is, his desire is to become famous by creating life but he does not think of how his creation would affect those around him rather he is concer ned about his wanting's. In the novel by Mary Shelley
chapter 17 the creature tells Frankenstein “You “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can ca n do, and I demand it of you as a right r ight which you must not refuse re fuse to concede.” Frankenstein is threatened by his creature but he has a choice c hoice of taking the creature out of his misery and by doing so he would protect his family and all of the humans because the creature promises promises never to hurt anyone or come back to town. Victor V ictor does not do what the creature w ishes for proving that he has no sympathy for the creature also showing that he d oes not care to think about what w hat could happen to others. Victor demonstrates se lfless acts, his creation only benefitted himself but when it all begins to fall apart he tends not to take responsibility responsibility for the things that his actions have caused, instead he puts blame on other factors to avoid feeling guilty. His ego is what makes up his narcissistic character, narcissist is defined as a disorder: “A mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem self-esteem that’s vulnerable to vulnerable to the slightest criticism.” Victor does not let himself accept the fact that he has made a mistake because he knows that by doing so he will appear as weak and that will damage his image of being this successful scientist. scientist. Victor does not want to be seen as a failure because that will crush him as a whole. The fact that he does not own up to his truth and does not allow for himself to see his mistake would cause us as humans huma ns to view him as evil, less as a human and we would fear the extent that he would g o to in order to achieve his desires des ires and protect his ego. When it comes to having a super ego eg o Victor Frankenstein falls short. Victor shows no compassion or empathy towards the creature nor does he have any sort of attachment to the t he creature he created. He is very ver y hostile and cruel towards his creation. When his experimentation fails, Victor attempts to forget that it ever happened b y shunning the creature out because the
creature is a constant reminder of Victor's guilt and failure. The creature be ing a failed experimentation hurts Victors self-esteem. The creature on the other hand shows that he has emotions and yearns for some compassion because a ll he receives from Victor is mistreatment. He shows signs of not being of any danger, da nger, he makes efforts of trying tr ying to fit into the society and he begs Victor to create a wife w ife so that he will not be in solidarity so lidarity anymore. Victor refuses to complete the creatures wishes showing that he has no e mpathy for the creature. An essay titled “The Myth of the Monster in Mary Shelley’s Murder Mystery” by Andrew Keese says “Despite the connectivity of the characters, they are in many ways antithetical. One irresponsibly takes life into his own hands and abandons abando ns it; the other takes life into his hands and extinguishes it. One creates; the other destroys. One wants love; the other denies it. One gets sympathy; the other is handed hate. One is accepted by human society, the other rejected.” The things that his creature craves for are the things that Victor has at his fingertips but yet he does not appreciate apprec iate nor does he care about it because they t hey do not matter to him. Victor V ictor Frankenstein’s passion is keeping him from showing his moral side and his humanity which leads us t o see that he is very egocentric making him become a monster m onster and while he is behaving this way his creation is only trying to become more humanized. Victor treats him inhumane proving that through this behavior his morals are absent, his superego does not take ov er and instead he is driven by b y his Id and ego. Uncanny is part of the Psychological Ps ychological lens but it applies to the creature rather than to Victor. Being uncanny is being of an unnatural state. The creature when br ought to life was given scraps of other bodies because of this his physical appeara nce was one of kind and different. His appearance was unnatural just like the way that he was created, his appearance made many others ot hers feared him. People are often times are scared of the un known and the unnatural things that surround us because they are not familiar with it, leading them to run ru n
away from it and to no make any attempts to understand them. The creature is signified signified as being uncanny but he is uncanny only the townspeople because they are the ones whom categorize him this way. An article titled “The Standard Edition Standard Edition of The Complete C omplete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud’ says that “The subject of the “uncanny” “u ncanny” is a province of this kind. It is undoubtedly related to what is frightening-to frightening-to what aroused dread and horror” (pg. 219, paragraph 2) It is because of his physical form that initiates fear among the humans, being uncanny comes from your appearance. The creature gives V ictor Frankenstein an ultimatum either he makes him a bride or he would kill, the t he creature kills Victor’s brother because his wishes are not completed. not completed. Though the creature does kill and killing can be a characteristic that makes a m onster and initiates fear. The fact that the creature kills it is not justifiable but it is understandable. He has made attempts on his own to learn the language and act and be just like the humans but still society continues to outcast him causing him to feel frustrated, we as readers are able to feel sympathy for him. The creature was uncanny uncan ny but this fact does not make him monstrous nor as monstrous as Victor. Fred Botting says in Gothic “Monstrosity has left the novel open, its frames broken: All boundaries are left in question, divided between the positions positions of Frankenstein and the monster.” The novel has left it up to the readers to decide whom plays the role r ole of monster really is whether Victor or his creature. Frankenstein isolates himself from the rest of the society and he does the same to the creature, the creature could be a mirror image of Victor and the way that Victor views the creature as a monster is the sa me way that he views himself which might be the reason why he continues cont inues to throw hate towards the creature. Victor Frankenstein's behavior goes to show that humans have the ab ility to be monsters. He demonstrates that often times people's desires overcome their m orals but they don't accept the fact that this can make them monstrous. Sigmund Freud's t heory helps prove that monstrous
behavior can be developed and is within humans. Purdue owl states “Freud believed that our unconscious was influenced by childhood child hood events. Freud organized these eve nts into developmental stages involving relationships with parents and drives of desire and p leasure….” The statement made by Freud goes to prove that the need to pleasure the want can lead the unconscious mind to do unimaginable things. Nobody things. Nobody likes to think that humans can be monsters because generally they see themselves as the perfect species. They avoid accepting this fact by ignoring it and victimizing themselves and make others feel little. This is what causes fear the state of denial that humans maintain themselves in while the m onsters are within themselves. The fact that they cannot come to t o accept their mistakes which leads to a larger destruction because the truth always has its way of coming to light. light. Victor Frankenstein is a perfect example as he is egocentric and fails to really think what his actions may cause. He fails to see what the results of his actions may be, he also fails to prevent the destruction to occur he takes no action to stop these things from happening showing t hat he is selfish and only cares about himself. Webster's definition of a monster is “an extremely ugly, wicked, or crue l person. (Webster's 468)” 468)” All of the drastic events that occurred such as the fact that the creature's loneliness leads him to be viewed as a monster m onster from the human's perspective goes to show that humans don't look at the bigger b igger picture. The creature is made to seem as t he monster because he torments Victor throughout the novel but the reasons that Victor was be ing tormented was because of his subconscious mind, he was not at peace with himself because he knew that the things he did was wrong. I believe be lieve that Victor Frankenstein knew that he was evil but den ied himself the truth for his own beneficial reasons, he p ortrays characteristics of being a monster but fails to see them.
Works Cited 1. Allen Brizee, J. Case Tompkins, Libby C hernouski, Elizabeth Boyle. “Welcome to the Purdue OWL.” Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism, 3 June 2013, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/04/.
2.Botting, Fred. Gothic. 1996. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
3. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus : the 1818 Text. Oxford ; New York Y ork :Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
4.Keese, A. (2011). The Myth M yth of the Monster in Mary Shelley's Murder Mystery, Frankenstein. Journal of South Texas English Studies, Studie s, 2(2), 1
5. Webster, Noah. “ Monster.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2016th ed. 6. Freud , Anna. “The Standard Edition Edition Of The Complete Psychological Works Of Sigmund Freud.” XVII, 1917.