Saturday, August 15, 2009

Frankenstein IV

As stated in the first Frankenstein blog post, the novel reveals cultural anxiety about science, religion, human nature, democracy, even nascent globalization. Globalization? In 1818? Well, the narrative frame of the story is an account by Robert Walton, an Arctic explorer, who just happens to encounter Victor Frankenstein and his "monster" in the Arctic Circle. Walton is on a "voyage of discovery," a geographic adventure which parallels Frankenstein's scientific "voyage of discovery to the land of knowledge." If we read the novel as a psychological allegory, then both these "voyages" can be seen as parallels to the journey into the unconscious that the creature represents.

In any case, a "voyage of discovery" is, of course, a romantic adventure into the unknown. We have seen that Frankenstein's scientific journey leads to disaster when he creates a "monster."
Similarly, our journey into the human psyche reveals a "monstrous" human nature. What about the geographic adventure of Robert Walton and the promise of global knowledge? Walton's ship becomes immured in ice and his men are threatening mutiny. He is forced to agree to their demands to return to England when the ice melts and to abandon their "glorious" adventure. All this happens as the monster boards the ship, murders Frankenstein, who has taken shelter on board, and then disappears into the dark cold as the ice begins to break up. Thus all three voyages end in failure, a conclusion that does not bode well for the future of globalization.

Thus, the novel Frankenstein captures the anxieties of a population about an uncertain future in an age of global expansion when science and democracy are on the rise.

Here ends this blog series on Frankenstein. I shall resist the temptation to explore the theory of homosexual rage in the novel. But if you Google "Frankenstein" and "homosexuality," you might be surprised.

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