violent menace. These one-dimensional, bumbling, zombie-like versions feel a world away
from the articulate, inquisitive, though deeply flawed and scorned character that first
found life by the pen of Mary Shelley. In the strongest case yet of life imitating art, and
a prophecy fulfilled, Shelley’s character has indeed been largely maligned by man, just
as he was by those he encountered in her original tale. In the midst of the story’s climax,
the creature even asks his master directly: “Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all
human kind sinned against me?”
It’s a bold question being posed to the reader as much as it is to the character. One of
the main ideas explored throughout the novel is the cruelty of othering and a passionate
need to belong, lest it push those outcast to the fringes of society to desperate measures.
Shelley was thus asking us to consider if the doctor created his monster when he gave
him life, or when he repeatedly rejected and abhorred him for his differences. Believe the
latter, and the unsettling idea that Frankenstein himself is the true monster soon comes
in to play.
With narratives not too dissimilar to that of Frankenstein playing out in newspapers
daily (from research into the likes of genetic modification and cloning, to attention-grab-
bing headlines about ‘designer babies’ and artificial intelligence), it seems that Shelley’s
prophecy is on the cusp of being fully realised at last. Indeed, the closer we come to defy-
ing the laws of nature and mastering life over death, the more frequently a modern gaze
paints Frankenstein’s creation as the sole villain of the piece. This parallel should not go
unnoticed. Having warned us of the dangers inherent in chasing unconstrained scientific
breakthroughs, and the hunger for power that taints many a man’s heart, we are racing
ever faster towards the future she foretold long ago. Is our need to distance ourselves from
our own ethical failings mirrored in our vilification of the creature? Is he the embodiment
of everything we fear could go wrong in our lust for knowledge? Are the advances of
modern science shifting our moral compasses to align ever more with Frankenstein? Do
we continue to ‘victim shame’ his creation, and reduce him to a being as unsympathetic
as possible, because it hurts to see the parts of ourselves reflected in Frankenstein that feel
a little too familiar? She saw it coming, and though it may be an ugly truth – one we are
evidently still struggling to accept some 200 years later – it appears that we may have
been Mary Shelley’s monster all along.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818.
Shelley, Mary. Matilda. University of North Carolina Press, 1959.
Frederick L. Jones, ed. The Letters of Mary W. Shelley, 2 vols. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.
Frederick L. Jones, ed. Mary Shelley's Journal. University of Oklahoma Press, 1947.
Judge, Lita. Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein. Roaring
Brook Press, 2018.
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Cauldron Anthology