Frankenstein - Episode #3 - The maker and the monster meet and discuss morality, philosophy, the meaning of life and daddy issues! - a podcast by Christy and Garry Shriver

Frankenstein - Episode #3 - The maker and the monster meet and discuss morality, philosophy, the meaning of life and daddy issues!

 

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver.

 

And I’m Garry shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is our third episode to discuss Mary Shelley and her masterpiece Frankenstein.  In Episode one we basically talked about her life, as well as discussed the title and the quote on the title page.  Episode 2 we discussed chapters 1-5 and introduced the setting of Geneva and Ingolstadt as well as some of the main ideas we should be thinking about as we go through the book.  WE discussed Mary Shelley’s interest in Rousseau’s perspective on the nature of man and the role of education.  We also discussed the role of science and the current events of the day as they played a role in her creation of the book.  And finally we discussed how Shelley used many of her personal experiences, including giving birth to children as well as her post partum depression to  develop roles and experiences of child birth as it plays out in chapter 5 of the book and as well see- all the way to the very end of the book. 

 

That’s right and although we got into chapter 5 a little, we didn’t get far.  We left off  where Victor makes the monster then he turns and flees.  Shall we see what this noble, omniscient ever charming man does… 

 

Before we do, I do want to ask a question?  Isn’t it strange that Shelley, a feminist, has made both her main character and the monster men?  Are we supposed to make something of all of that?

 

HA! Well, there seems to be no way to run away from the gender politics in this book.  And I will not claim to be an expert in this field.  Like everything else in this book, there are so many layers.  What I guess is the best way to do this is just lay out the layers and let everyone, just as Shelley intends, make of them what they will.  So, let’s go..first of all, the first thing to notice in this book is that Nature is female.   Nature is called by female pronouns- Victor says, “I pursued nature to HER hiding places.”  As you read further and further into the book this becomes more evident and occurs often.  Another point to make is the connection between nature, femininity and beauty- there are a LOT of descriptions of nature and they are beautiful truly truly beautiful.  It makes me want to visit Mount Blanc specifically.   But in a sense this too is a little bit of a reflection of how Shelley perceives the imbalances that exist in the world as they relate between the sexes.  Her female characters are always described by their physical attributes- both Elizabeth and Justine are portrayed as beautiful, even as Justine is about to die, Shelley mentions how pretty she is- an odd thing to say.  And I’ll get back to that when we get to that part- but if we look just at the creation of the monster- he specifically tries to make it beautiful too- very intentionally-what critics have said about this is that what Shelley is saying is that men or at least Victor- we won’t bring you into this Garry, is trying to create a world OF MEN FOR MEN where there is no need for a woman as entities but as adornments or accessories but not as full particiants in life- and I guess you can see how well Shelley thinks this kind of world goes- it’s kind of a bust from the beginning.  Nature is NOT an adornment that is meant just for our enjoyment.  Nature has a will.  Nature is powerful.  Nature is dominant.  You can say the exact same thing about women.  And here is where, at least for me, I find myself remembering that Mary is still very much an 18 year old girl in very sexually charged relationships with unhealthy balances of power.  In her own life, she’s been viewed very much like this, but where SHE is also bearing all the responsibility of the (meaning she’s the one who’s been pregnant three times) both physically, emotionally and in terms of how the world holds her entirely accountable for these children.  I don’t see that she’s been silenced the way we see the women in this book being silenced, but that may very well how she perceived herself.  She definitely didn’t have the life/career opportunities she would have had had she been a man. 

 

NO- there’s little doubt she felt this way.  Remember, she published her book as if she were a man.  She got Percy to write the intro.  Many women were doing that during this time period.  At this time period, remember, once a woman married she was legally the property of her husband.  She could not testify in court.  She could not vote.  It was commonly believed women did not have the biological capability to have rational thought.  So, just my impressions- she’s not acting angry, although she probably is, she’s making observations and perhaps laying out logical arguments at to the natural consequences to what she perceives as a perverse arrangement between the sexes. 

 

There is more to say- and there is room to think about this a very very long time- but I agree- Mary has observed this patriarchal society where men are given education, power, responsibility and women are considered playthings, adornments, plus get saddled with the tedious tasks of caring for responsibilities men don’t want- and I think she perhaps is saying- this sucks- and not just for women- it sucks for men too.  This type of societal construction is imbalanced.  There are a lot of critics that take it even farther to say that what they see is that- Shelley seems to be claiming that men are afraid of women, afraid to give power to women, and this type of relationship between the sexes is unhappy, it’s fraught with dangers and leads to unhappiness for everyone.  Frankenstein has transgressed against the feminine principle inherent in nature of creating life as well as the theological one God ordaining the women to have the power of life…and so what will be the consequences. 

 

.  Well, that was the short version?  Dang.  I’m glad I didn’t want the long one. 

 

I know- now to begin.  Frankenstein has run away, he’s out and about and he runs into this childhood friend- Henry Cleval – such a coincidence that he shows up exactly at the same time.  Now, we’ve met this character before, he is from Geneva and they grew up together.  Cleval is another foil of Victor’s.  He’s everything good- a really idealized character to be honest. In some ways, his purpose in life, as seen by Victor, is to take care of him, and he does fulfil this role.  Frankenstein immediately loses all thoughts of the monster, exept when he takes Cleval to this house and hopes the nonster isn’t there- and Cleval pretty much waits hand and foot on Frankenstein for months on end, and he has joy in doing it.  It’s like it’s his purpose in life.

 

I do want to point out that as close as they claim to be, Frankenstein is never even tempted to tell Henry what he’s been up to.  He sayis this, “I have lately been so deeply engaged in one occupation that I havenot allowed myself suffienct, rest as you see: but I hope, I sincerely hope, that all these employments are now at an end, and that I am at length free.”

 

Well, I know it’s taking us back to feminism and we need to move on- but there are a lot of comments like that, like when he jumps up and down like a crazy person when the monster isn’t in his house.  It’s like he can pretend it just never happened.  He can wish it away- neglect it and it will sort itself out- and everyone mother knows- that’s simply just not true.

 

In chapter 6 and 7, we see Shelley do something I find interesting- because for me, it’s in chapter 5, where I begin to question whether or not I trust the perspective of Victor.  He’s full of garbage.  And in chapter six, Elizabeth gets a voice, and in chapter 7 the father does.  Elizabeth is not a feminist; that’s evident.  She’s the ideal woman- she’s beautiful and see’s her role in the role solely to provide for the men in her life.  She introduces us to darling William, too.  William is their little brother, and he seems pretty much perfect as well.

 

Victor read her letter, and wanted to finally write back.  However, and, I love this the exertion of writing her a letter, and I quote, ‘greatly fatigued me…he manages however, to recover, go on vacation and life seems good for everyone…for one minute..and then letter number 2…William is dead. Elizabeth blames herself…but what is most important in my mind is that the murderer has left a mark, “the print of the murderer’s finger was on his neck.”  This seems to be enough to convince Victor to go home so after six years, he shows back up in Geneva.

 

And again, we see Shelley using those conventions of horror tterrifyterrifytterrifyterrifytterrifyterrify her readers.  It’s completely dark when he arrives, there’s a story, a “violent storm”.  /Instead of going to his house, he walks around in the dark and, I read, “I perceived in the gloom a fufigure which stole from behind a clump of trees near me; I stood fixed, gazin

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