“These monsters ask us how we perceive the world, and how we have misrepresented what we have attempted to place. They ask us to reevaluate our cultural assumptions about race, gender, and sexuality, our perception of difference, our tolerance towards its expression. They ask us why we have created them.”(Cohen 20)
The creature in Frankenstein asks Victor why he created him. What was Victor’s purpose in doing so and what message or lesson is this supposed to instill in us as the reader and society? Does the creature serve to remind us that in having these assumptions and intolerance, that it makes us into monsters ourselves?
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I love these questions. Victor's purpose for creating the monster seems to straddle a passionate, admirable drive for progress and invention and an obsessive need for power. The monster's tortured existence mirrors Victor's, and the reality seems to be that neither of them are able to adequately answer the question of why Victor created him.
ReplyDeleteGreat questions! I mentioned this in another blog response, but I do wonder what was happening culturally in England when this book was being written. I always believe that art holds a mirror up to the society at the time. I think a look at the historical and cultural happenings of the time might make for a very enlightening experience with this novel.
ReplyDeleteI wonder too if the Industrial Revolution contributed to the creation of Frankenstein. I would have thought as factories and new technologies were coming into the society that this would have created a new means to look at the human condition. Perhaps Frankenstein looks at this new emerging society in relation to progress. As Victor was in a rush to create the creature without thinking about the consequences perhaps this is similar to the creation of factories and machinery with little regard to how this would impact the working class and society.
DeleteThese are some really good questions! I think Victor created the monster because he almost felt like he had to prove something, not only to himself, but to the professor who became his mentor. It seemed to me like he was trying to push the limits of creation and develop something no one had ever seen before - why? I honestly don't know. I think he rushed into creating the creature and didn't even consider the ramifications of what he produced. The existence of monsters forces us to reflect on our own humanity, and I think the creation certainly forced Frankenstein to self-assess... I don't think he liked what he saw.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you though I do wonder what Victor thought the creature was going to be. Did he think he was going to be this beautiful creation of human genius like you said. In order to create this creature, he put his whole life on hold, it seemed to be his life's only purpose.
DeleteI also found myself questioning why Victor created the monster in the first place. To tie in another story of scientific creations getting a bit out of hand, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should." Much like in Jurassic Park, the creator really dives down a rabbit hole of his creation. He ignores the potential dangers and repercussions in his thirst for knowledge. His tunnel vision allowed him the ability to innovate, but blocked him from dealing with the consequences.
ReplyDeleteTo pick up the thread that Kate started - is the monster there to warn us about the dangers of progress? That as we move forward, we risk losing our compassion, our link to the past, our link to the values and virtues that make us human? In seeking progress - and in feeling that we have the power to bring that progress to fruition (pride is always dangerous!) - can we retain the necessary ties to what makes us human? Or, to ask this in a less reductive way, how do we achieve progress and forward momentum without casting aside the best of what the past has to teach us?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that there are a lot of politically conservative people who ask these same questions (and who happen to come up with different ideas than I do). While the results of Frankenstein's drive for progress are catastrophic (a cautionary tale if ever there was one), we can "read" this as a fundamentally conservative text - not in a "Make America Great Again" kind of way, but in a philosophical kind of way. The human drive for innovation is often fraught with difficulties (and even catastrophes).
DeleteI'm not sure that the monster's purpose is to warn us about the dangers of progress. We can't tell what the monster's original intentions were, only that he becomes malevolent once Victor abandons him. In fact, if we're to believe the monster, further progress (i.e. the creation of a companion) would put an end to the terror. We are left asking ourselves what the catalyst for the monster's rampage really was. Was it the act of his creation, or was it the fear and hate he receives from Victor? If the latter is true, then perhaps this is a tale warning us of the dangers of abandoning progress, rather than of progress itself.
DeleteI agree with both Kate and Caleb. In response to Caleb's question, I saw the catalyst for the monster's rampage as a result of Victor's fear and hate. I think Frankenstein serves to warn us of what happens when we abandon what we create or at least do not consider the consequences. I think it also shows like Kate said the problems with progress. In response to Professor MB's question, I do think as we move forward that we tend to lose our humanity. In looking at the Industrial Revolution that was occurring in England at the time that the novel was published, there was little regard for the effects of factories and a more industrialized society on the working class.
DeleteI think the answer to this question is both simple and complicated. My initial instinct is to say that Victor created the creature out of selfish purposes...a desire for power and recognition; to be the greatest scientist the world has seen. However, it would over simplify the issue to only point to those conclusions. Early on in the text, Victor describes how his father rejected his reading of the one philosopher but never explained to him why, and in that same section there is clearly a tone of longing for more recognition/attention from his father. Additionally, Victor is young and grieving the loss of his mother. So I believe--shocker-- there is a combination of factors that ultimately lead Victor to create the creature. Perhaps, he never even believed he could in the first place, and the outcome shocked him most of all.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that his creation is a consequence of Victor's strong desire to become scientifically renowned and capable, but also is a consequence of Victor's inability to take responsibility and share compassion.
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