Was Frankenstein Born With His Identity or Was His Identity Created?

Frankenstein: An Identity Born or Created?

The title character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein grew up in eighteenth-century Switzerland. In the character's own words, "No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself" (33). Young Victor Frankenstein had loving parents, and siblings he adored. These early years proved to be a stark contrast to university life, where Victor was an eager student but very lonely. He threw himself into his work, becoming obsessed with natural philosophy and science. In a bold experiment, he gathered an assortment of human parts and stitched them together, curious as to whether he could create life. Victor was astounded to see that he did, indeed, create a living creature. The initial thrill he experienced at the success of his experiment quickly turned to horror as his creature escaped and began terrorizing the countryside. The creature was not born a monster, however. His identity was shaped not only by Victor, but by the people the creature encountered as he traveled in search of love and acceptance.

The creature fashioned by Victor was a horrible sight: "yellow skin…watery eyes…shriveled complexion and straight black lips" (55). Victor made assumptions about his creature's nature based on its appearance, and assigned characteristics to the creature that were not present, at least in the beginning. The creature was essentially a blank slate. Over time he learned to meet his basic needs for food, shelter and warmth. He acquired language. He became fully human when he developed empathy and learned to love.

Mary Shelley crafted her story to offer three points-of-view. In the first, a sea captain, R. Walton, writes his sister a series of letters in which he describes the rescue of a mysterious man who ultimately has a strange tale to tell. The man is Victor Frankenstein, who relates the story of his monster's creation and the horrible events that occurred, including the murder of Victor's younger brother, a crime for which a beloved family friend was falsely accused, and the murder of his beloved bride. As Victor tells his story, he incorporates the story told to him by his monster. This is a clever device that Shelley uses, as it essentially creates an omniscient narrator while maintaining the intimacy of the first person. The device creates empathy in the reader for Victor Frankenstein, and we understand events and his role in them. The device creates a great deal of empathy for the monster and we see how his identity was forged by people's reactions to his appearance and their misinterpretation of his intentions.

The character of the monster develops as the story progresses. The monster learned to care for his basic physical needs. He quickly learned that he frightened people and took refuge in the woods, where he was able to observe a peasant family, from whom he learned language. His emotions developed: "I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature…such as I had never before experienced" (111). Watching the family, he shared in their joys and sorrows. He stopped stealing food from them when he realized they had nothing to spare. He helped them by cutting firewood during the night and stacking it near the cottage door. The monster came to love the family but, unfortunately, his encounter with them ended as had all the other human encounters. The cottagers were frightened and horrified. The profound rejection shaped the monster's identity from that point, taking him, as he explained, "from what I had been… [to] what I am" (120). The creature realized he had nothing and he knew nothing about how he came to be. He set out on a quest for answers and finally met Victor Frankenstein face-to-face.