Monday, August 27, 2012
The Monster's Bride
Overall, I was generally frustrated by Frankenstein's behavior towards the Monster, and the somewhat illogical treatment of the situation. The scene that most evidently displays this behavior takes place when Dr. Frankenstein visits Ireland to create a partner for the monster. First of all, he only thinks of the consequences of his actions after he has already built her from flesh and bone, and is ready to reanimate her. Dr. Frankenstein has already made the mistake of not thinking through the sequence of events once, and now is about to do it a second time. Secondly, once he does start to think about it, he gives ludicrous reasons for deciding not to reanimate the female monster. He reasons that if he were to let the two monster leave together, they would spawn a thousand monsters and terrorize the world. But he is a scientist! There are obvious ways to prevent such a situation: he can simply make the female sterile. He then starts to distrust the monster's word, even though the Monster has never lied or tried to deceive him. In fact, the Monster decides to trust him with many of his innermost thoughts. And how does Frankenstein repay this trust? With disgust and hatred.
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I like what you say, although I'm not sure the understanding of sterility was advanced enough at the time for Mary Shelley to have used it in the novel. Perhaps it was, but I don't know. She seems to assume that a female creature would be like all other female beings, capable of giving birth simply by virtue of being female. I do, however, share your reservations about Victor's thought process, although I give him credit for at least thinking about the consequences of his actions in advance this time.
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