Mary Shelley\'s Frankenstein Specifically How the Novel

Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" specifically how the novel from a Marxist point-of-view reflects the ideology of her times

Marxist Monsters

Mary Shelly is known as one of the greatest horror writers of all time, even though it may be more accurate to refer to her writings as introspective social commentary on the human condition and the state of society. Shelly's Frankenstein has become far more than just a novel. The story of this created Monster has been retold countless times and has become a part of the modern archetypal mythology. Shelly herself was raised by parents with influential artistic, political, and social ideas that infiltrated her personal ideologies and incarnated themselves in her work. Her father wrote a book called Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, in which he taught "public realization of rational ideals of justice and benevolence." This may be one of the first influences which inspired the Marxist elements that would later appear in Mary Shelly's work; Marxism after all is rational, and the public realization of benevolence could be equated with money for everyone. Her mother, on the other hand, wrote a novel called A Vindication of the Rights of Women before Mary was born, and the equal rights message of this book also may have drawn Shelly to a Marxist perspective. Whatever the influence, Shelly's Frankenstein is a stunning example of Marxist theories incorporated into literature, as the struggles of the characters parallel those experienced by the people in her own society.

Frankenstein, the Monster, and their ordeal is a metaphor for society. The Monster struggles to become an equal in society, and be awarded all of the rights of any citizen. The tension that runs through the plot is a statement about the plight of the oppressed in society, and how the downtrodden of society have an unfair disadvantage put onto them by an outside force. This outside force, from a Marxist perspective, could be a symbol for capitalism, which creates hideous slave laborers whose existence is much like that of Frankenstein's monster. The creature is "a poor, helpless, and miserable wretch," (Shelley 84) like the poor people of society. The division of the classes, between the very wealthy and the horribly poor, was very acute in Shelly's time, and the rejection and oppression of the monster represents the oppression of the masses who are created to serve their bourgeois masters, who then react in fear when they realize the masses have the ability to overthrow them.

The oppressed masses that are enslaved and mutated by the elite are related to the story of Frankenstein is through their connection to technology. Technology is what created Frankenstein's monster, as he used advances in science to create the mechanism by which he could use electricity to resurrect the dead. Around Shelly's time in England, new technology was infiltrating the factories and industry. The technology can be seen as represented in Shelly's book in two distinct ways. The technology took a toll on the quality of life for the masses in England, and while it may have beneficial for some, it had harmful effects for many. The technology created the "monster" of the masses, which like Frankenstein's creation, "once unleashed could not be controlled." (Montag 386) The Monster can also be seen as a representation of the technology itself. This technology, for all of its good intentions that were intended to benefit society, inadvertently harmed many. The Monster attempted to help people, yet accidentally harmed them in the process. The technology was rejected by many aspects of society that wanted things to remain the same; some groups even "sacked factories and smashed the new labor saving machines" (Montag 387), while the Monster was also rejected by society for being different. Like the raids on factories, Frankenstein's creation could have been embraced by society as a new means of biotechnology, able to do the work of many men, and ready to work right at "birth" unlike children that must be allowed to grow up. Alternately, he could have been rejected by society, as happens in Shelly's book, for being a hideous monster with destructive capabilities.