The third and final volume of Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1818) is an excellent conclusion of the themes which have been building throughout the book such as sadness versus remorse, selfishness, ethics, mental illness, vengeance, and faith.
One of the themes which interests me the most is the progression of the creature’s power. He begins as a child, discovering his senses for the first time and yearning for love and approval. After his rejection by the cottagers, he travels to Geneva, whereupon killing William Frankenstein he learns that he has agency.
I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is not impregnable
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
At the end of Volume II, the creature swears “Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery,” thus beginning a motif of slave and master which alternates between Victor Frankenstein and the creature that continues until the end of the novel. At the beginning of Volume III, after the creature has made his demands, Frankenstein laments that he is the slave of his creature and he desires to “put an end to my slavery for ever.”
After Frankenstein’s destruction of the new creation, the creature confronts him and commands him to obey him. He has fully realized his power which comes not only from his superior physical abilities but also from his fearlessness to hurt Frankenstein.
Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power…You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Yet, we hear this tale primarily through the perspective of Frankenstein. Even the moments in Frankenstein’s narrative when we hear from the creature, it is only what the creature is choosing to reveal or project to Frankenstein at that moment, not necessarily his internal beliefs. All of this is also filtered through Frankenstein, who Robert Walton notes helped edit the manuscript. The only thoughts of the creature unfiltered through Frankenstein come at the end, after Frankenstein’s death, when the creature meets Walton. It is then that he says:
I knew that I was preparing myself for a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master of an impulse, which I detested, yet could not disobey.
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
In these final moments, unfiltered except through Walton, we hear from the creature, and we realize that neither Frankenstein nor his creation felt as if they had a choice in where this awful story led them. Maybe that’s the true horror of Frankenstein, that neither of them could see another way, or, perhaps, that there wasn’t one.
Lastly, though it’s not related to anything, I’m left wondering…whatever happened to Ernest?
Common Words in Frankenstein
After all our discussions of the frequency of “wretch” in Frankenstein, I decided to quantify it. Final “wretch” count: 66.
Out of curiosity, I made this word cloud for the novel showing the top 100 most frequently used words. Sure enough, wretch is up there.
Feminist Science Fictions 