The Creature and his Creator

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus: 

The 1818 Text 

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

A Fantastic Story.

Fantastic, filled with both vivid emotions and exciting action, Mary Shelley's story of the haunted Victor Frankenstein, and his creation who does the haunting, still stirs the soul. Just as Goethe's Faust sought the secrets of arcane knowledge, Victor Frankenstein engages in the secrets of both licit and illicit science to bring a being to life. Once this is accomplished he immediately rues his action and spends the rest of the novel trying through a variety of means to atone for his mistake.

The novel is a classic tale of the uncanny which, according to the novelist and critic David Lodge, invariably use "I" narrators, imitating documentary forms of discourse like confessions, letters and depositions to make events more credible. Beginning with letters from Robert Walton, whose own search for the source of the magnetic north pole mirrors Victor Frankenstein's quest, the first book of the novel relates Victor Frankenstein's narrative of his youth and education. It surely was more than coincidental that Victor attended University at Ingolstad which was heralded as the original site of the Faust legends that Goethe adapted for his immensely influential drama.

'Monster' or 'Creature'?

The center of the novel continues Victor's story and that of his creation, the monster. At least that is what he calls his creation. While it is monstrous in the sense that it is larger than normal human size it is a creature made of human parts and, we find after some intervening events in Victor's life that the creature has some very human traits like the need for companionship -- one that is not met by his creator. Victor's emotions seem to swing from the the heights of elation to the depths of despair coloring his actions and clouding his reason. I found the monster's narration to be the most persuasive of the two. He pleads with Victor, " Remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed."(p 66) Victor is unable to satisfy him and the monster who searches for acceptance throughout attempts to exert power over his creator as he tells him, "You are my creator, but I am your master; -obey!"(p 116) His words and actions only serve to speed the descent of Victor.

I saw the monster as a classic example of "the other", a precursor to modern images much as those found in Kafka. The action builds effectively through the third book of the novel building suspense and leading to an ending that involves a triangle of relationships between Victor, the creature, and Robert Walton whose narrative in letters bookends the tale. The power of the book, however, remains in the questions it raises; questions that we are dealing with to this day.

The Narrative:

A man is found while near death by Robert Walton.  Walton, an explorer, was on a trip to the Arctic where  his ship is stuck and surrounded by ice.  As they looked out on the enormous ice field, Walton and his crew saw a gigantic man being pulled by a dogsled. The following day they discovered another, smaller man, desperately ill, adrift on a sheet of ice. Walton writes that he brought the man onto his ship, allowed him to rest, and attempted to nurse him back to health.  That man was Victor Frankenstein who goes on to relate the story of how he came to be in this place.  

While at university, Victor became obsessed with the idea of bringing the dead back to life. He built the Creature out of body parts scavenged from charnel houses and graves. Victor succeeded in bringing the Creature to life, but upon seeing the hideous Creature Victor ran from the lab, abandoning his creation.  Alone and abandoned, the Creature spent two years hiding in the forest, aware of his ugliness. He learned to read in this time, and eventually he came to understand that Victor was the cause of his misery.  The narrative thus continues with the struggle of the Creature to find his creator and to end his misery.  The catalyst for the denouement of the story is Victor's realization of the mistake he made with his original creation.  Is this realization enough to save him and others?  I will leave it to other readers to answer that question for themselves.

The 2014 Jane Eyre Read-Along: Week 10, Book Review

The following review represents the final commentary for the Jane Eyre read – along hosted by Maria at A Night's Dream of Books and Brian at Babbling Books.  I would like to thank Maria and Brian   for their questions and contributions.  The insights provided in the weekly discussion questions enriched my experience in rereading this great novel.

Jane Eyre 

by Charlotte Brontë

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”  ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

This novel continues to be one of my lifetime favorites. I have read it several times before, but this is the first time in the new century.  Many people have commented on reading this novel;  almost one hundred years ago Virginia Woolf wrote about an exhilaration she felt (a feeling which I share) of reading the opening scenes of the novel:
"There is nothing there more perishable than the moor itself, or more subject to the sway of fashion than the "long and lamentable blast."  Nor is this exhilaration short-lived.  It rushes us through the entire volume, without giving us time to think, without letting us lift our eyes from the page.  So intense is our absorption that if some one moves in the room the movement seems to take place not there but up in Yorkshire.  The writer has us by the hand, forces us along her road, makes us see what she sees, never leaves us for a moment or allows us to forget her.  At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Bronte." (Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader, p 160)

Charlotte  submitted Jane Eyre for publication in 1846. It was rejected five times, and then she sent it to Smith, Elder, and Co., her eventual publishers. She sent it with a note that said: "It is better in future to address Mr. Currer Bell, under cover to Miss Brontë, Haworth, Bradford, Yorkshire, as there is a risk of letters otherwise directed not reaching me at present."  They agreed to publish it, and it became a huge success, and, a little more than a century later it became one of my earliest favorites, a novel that I would read and reread my whole life.  I am not sure what my original fascination was although the mystery and sinister nature of the boarding school Jane attended was riveting, and later Thornfield Hall depicted a different world.
  
 The story told by Jane begins as one of her suffering, first under Mrs. Reed who treats her poorly and then at Lowood the boarding school she is sent to.  Yet,  from the beginning Jane develops a strong character and excels in her studies.  She develops friendships with her classmate Helen Burns and her teacher Miss Temple.  Throughout the opening chapters I was impressed with Jane's strength of will, her love of reading, and her attention to her readers.  For as she narrates the story she frequently pauses to share a thought with her dear readers.

This novel has all the aspects of the traditional bildungsroman and that is one of the reasons I enjoyed reading it.  Jane eventually takes position as governess and it is at this point that the novel develops into a Romance for she finds a job working for Mr. Rochester teaching a young French girl, Adele Varens,  at Thornfield Hall. As Jane teaches there a while, she falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and he falls in love with her. Needless to say there are several more changes in her life as she learns of secrets from Mr. Rochester's past and encounters aspects of her own past that impact her in unexpected ways.  The story seems to be one where Jane's fate is unfolding before her and her reader's eyes, but it never grows old as Charlotte Bronte's tale seems to inhabit my being more closely than most others.  This reading impressed upon me the important use of symbols such as colors and the weather that underlined the emotional life of Jane.  From the early example of the "red room" or the continuing motif of rain, these symbols enhance the vividness of the story.  Perhaps it is the complexity of a story that starts out to be a simple romance and expands into a Gothic mystery;  it is surely magical as Charlotte Bronte is able to combine this story of the growth of a young girl with a love story that has Gothic overtones.  Ultimately it is a triumph for the individual will of our young governess-heroine, Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre Read-along: Week 8

Welcome to the eighth week of 

the 2014 Jane Eyre Read-Along,

brought to you by

A Night's Dream of Books

and Babbling Books!!

Introduction:  "I liked to read what they liked to read:"

In this week's reading Jane is taken in by St. John Rivers and his sisters, Diana and Mary.  They nurse Jane back to health after her journey on which she comes near starvation.  These residents of Moor House, especially the sisters, seem to be a perfect match for our dear forlorn Jane:

"The more I knew of the inmates of Moor House, the better I liked them. . . . I could join with Diana and Mary in all their occupations;  converse with them as much as they wished . . . I liked to read what they liked to read:  what they enjoyed, delighted me;  what they approved I reverenced."

This Week's Discussion Questions  

for  Chapters 29 - 33

St. John Rivers makes the following very blunt statement about Jane, in Chapter 29: "Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of beauty are quite wanting in those features." What does this tell you about him, especially in light of subsequent chapters?

I believe he is being honest in his assessment of her features.  He has little reason not to be so and his knowledge of their relation has not yet developed.  One may suspect that he is predisposed to overlook the true inner beauty of Jane given his dedication to the ministry and his intention to become a missionary, especially considering his later ability to overcome his passion for Rosamund Oliver and reject her.


Do you think the fact that St. John and his sisters turn out to be Jane's cousins much too coincidental?

It certainly is coincidental, but I would not consider it too coincidental.  The nature of this novel almost requires coincidences.  I am not too concerned about this coincidence above others.
  

Why does Bronte give Jane three more cousins, and precisely two females and one male, as with her Gateshead cousins?

Well, speaking of coincidences, it makes it rather easy for sharing her inheritance between them equally while leaving each relatively generously provided for.  


Why do you think Jane tries to convince St. John to marry Rosamond, and give up his dream of becoming a missionary?

Perhaps this is the romantic side of Jane.  She has lost her own chance with the dashing Edward Rochester and this is a way for her to see someone she respects have a life like the one she lost.  I do not believe that she appreciates the sincerity of St.John's desire to become a missionary.  However, I also find this surprising because Jane seems to find some satisfaction in teaching and mentoring as a governess.


Do you think the fact that Jane is now an heiress something that seems too 'providential', and thus, not realistic and believable?

Again, more coincidences as the providential side of nature raises its benevolent hand.  A change resulting from her distant relative was hinted, if not foreshadowed, earlier in the story when she found out she had an Uncle of whom she was previously unaware.  That this connection should prove to change her life for the better is no more unbelievable than the cruelty of Mrs. Reed in the opening chapters of her story.  I do not read this novel as an example of realism, but rather as a Gothic Romance.


Bronte dedicates many pages to describing St. John's personality. Why do you think she does this? 

St. John is developed as a representative of reason providing an alternative to the irrational Bertha at Thornfield Hall.  While he is described as brooding he also demonstrates a "mental serenity" and "abstracted nature".  Jane is puzzled by his countenance, but I attribute that at least somewhat to her more romantic notions of life.  The contrast is greatest in St. John's evaluation of his feelings about Rosamund when he says, "I experience at the same time a calm, unwarped consciousness that she would not make me a good wife".   St. John's passion is devoted to helping people and in this he also provides a valuable model for Jane whose previous encounters with men (Brocklehurst and Rochester) have proven to be neither supportive nor worthwhile.

Jane Eyre Read-along: Week 7

Welcome to the seventh week of 

the 2014 Jane Eyre Read-Along,

brought to you by

A Night's Dream of Books

and Babbling Books!!

Introduction:  "I forgave him all:  yet not in words,"

In this week's reading Rochester has betrayed Jane and wounded her to the core.  But he tries to make amends, to persuade her not to leave him and Thornfield Hall.  That is not to be, but he asks, "Will you forgive me?";  Then Jane shares her thoughts with her dear readers:

"Reader, I forgave him at the moment and on the spot.  There was such deep remorse in his eye, such true pity in his tone, such manly energy in his manner:  and besides, there was such unchanged love in his whole look and mien -- I forgave him all:  yet not in words, not outwardly:  only at my heart's core."

This Week's Discussion Questions

for  Chapters 24-28

At several points both Rochester and Jane refer to each other in terms of mythical creatures and magic. Why do you think that they do this?

The questions get harder to answer, in part because our two main characters are harder to decipher.  The use of mythology on Jane's part may stem from her imagination combined with an inability to relate directly to Rochester's situation.  Perhaps that is true of Rochester as well.  They are far apart in class and station, making Mrs. Fairfax's doubts about the match seem very realistic.  Yet, here we have two lovers--at least two proclaiming love for each other--who resort to imaginary beings as referents.  One result of this is the feeling that their relationship is unreal. Perhaps that is the author's intent.


In Chapter 24 when Rochester jokingly compares Jane to a Turkish slave girl Jane becomes indignant and replies sharply to him. Does this say anything about Jane’s personality and the relationship between the two?

For this reader it confirms my belief that Jane is a very strong-willed and independent young woman; albeit a woman who is filled with doubts that manifest in some tentative reactions.  But not here, not when she feels she is demeaned by Rochester's unseemly joking manner.  His inconstant behavior suggests he may have his own doubts about their relationship.  His bravado and joking manner may be his way of hiding his true feelings.


At one point, after gazing at the damaged horse-chestnut tree, Jane gathers apples in the garden and remarks “ I employed myself in dividing the ripe from the unripe” Do you think that there is any significance to this?

Jane seems to be trying to reassure herself that there is something good (ripe) to preserve in her relationship, something on which she might focus.  In the previous paragraph she speaks to the damaged horse-chestnut tree saying,  "You did right to hold fast to each other . . . I think, scathed as you look, there must be a little sense of life in you yet, rising out of that adhesion at the faithful honest roots . . . the time of pleasure and love is over with you:  but you are not desolate: each of you have a comrade to sympathise with him in his decay." Is love and pleasure over for her and Rochester or is this a premonition, reinforced by her dreams (see next question)?


In chapter 25 Jane relates to Rochester several of her dreams. What do you make of them?

In one dream she saw a "dark and gusty night" and while wishing to continue with Rochester, "experienced a strange, regretful consciousness of some barrier dividing us."  As if this is not ominous enough she continues, "I dreamt another dream sir: that Thornfield Hall was a dreary ruin".
These dreams, following the episode in the garden seem to surely foreshadow the events of the Wedding interrupted in the following chapter.  It seems that in spite of Rochester's professions of love and offering his hand in marriage that Jane's world is coming apart, and has been ever since the ominous rending of the great tree at the end of Chapter Twenty-three.


Rochester is revealed to have perpetrated a major deception upon Jane in regards to his first marriage. What does this say about Rochester?

If there were any doubts that Rochester was not to be trusted they have been shattered by this episode.  It is difficult to fathom what he was thinking when he proposed to Jane, knowing that his previous marriage was a possible impediment even though he seems to feel this can somehow be overcome.  He said it best when he told Jane "you must regard me a plotting profligate -- a base and low rake".  Indeed!


What do you think of Jane’s decision to flee from Rochester?

I believe she feels that she has no choice.  She is fleeing from Thornfield and everything that Rochester represents.  The one person in whom she had placed her hope had deceived her and left her life in a shambles.  The question is will she be able to recover from this terrible episode.