Notes 2/23 Frankstein up to Vol. II, Ch. III

*The closer you are to someone, the more that that person can hurt you. For example, Victor so intensely loves his mother that he is deeply wounded by her death.

The poems/stories alluded to in Frankenstein:
The story of Prometheus: He gave fire to humankind. In punishment for bestowing such a powerful tool upon humans, Prometheus is chained to a mountaintop. Victor is the "modern Prometheus" because he is trying to give immortality to humans, and he will be punished accordingly.

"Rime of the Ancient Mariner": An old man tells a young wedding guest his story. His story is about this ship where an albatross flies everyday and the mariners feed it and love it. The ancient Mariner shoots this albatross, however, and calamities befall the men. They are so mad at him that they hang the albatross around his neck. The mariner realizes that he has "slimy things" inside himself and around him. In the moonlight, however, he sees the beauty in the "slimy things" and the albatross falls from his neck. The bird is a Christ-like image, who loved the mariner unconditionally. This intense love is what drives the mariner to kill the albatross. Why the crucifixion? Deep, unconditional love is really quite scary, and killing that potential love prevents the terrible fear and anxiety caused by the suffering of losing them. If you push it away first, you save yourself the heartbreak. (at least, this is the idea).

...similar message in "Alastor": In lines 129-139, the narrator (a poet) tells of a young Arab maiden he meets and later dreams about. In his dream, she is is soulmate and is about to throw herself into his arms when he wakes up. He is thus haunted and searches the world for his lost vision of love. The poet has spurned her choicest gifts; he did not want to get involved with someone who could hurt him and disappoint him. Instead, he choices the image of ideal love instead of resigning himself to real love.

Do either of these characters resemble Victor?
Well, Victor spurns nature's choicest gifts when he is in the process of creation. Simply pursuing that goal pits him against nature. Additionally, he goes through a period in which he can no longer find joy in the simple aspects of nature. He doesn't pursue relationships while in the workshop of creation. He stops writing to his father and cuts off contact with Elizabeth. Why? He is attempting to prevent Elizabeth from hurting him; he is making sure that he will not be living in a world without her.

"It was on a dreary night of November..." Victor has successfully brought his creation to life, and is overcome with horror at what he has done. He falls into the bed, and dreams a terrifying dream in which he sees Elizabeth dying and transformed into his own dead mother. He wakens with a start and sees the monster, who is trying to contact him. Victor leaps out of bed, locks up the apartment and stays outside because he never wants to see his monster again. Clerval becomes his nurse and attends to his psychotic hallucinations. Thanks to Clerval's care, Victor recovers: "In a short time I became as cheerful as before I was attacked by the fatal passion" (41). Here, Victor is once again blaming fate and its uncontrollable role within his life. Victor passively attests to being under the attack of fate. Victor is not owning up to the fact that he indulged in passion and does not take the blame for his actions. This inability to confess to his mistakes is seen again when he does not stand up to defend Justine. At this point, he has just given up and is completely controlled by his acceptance of fate.

Victor compares himself to Satan by quoting Milton's Paradise Lost: "I bore a hell within me" (64). Victor believes himself to suffer more than anyone else, and takes no notice of the fact that Elizabeth is in so much pain that she wishes to die along with Justine. This reflects Victor's ever-present desire to be the greatest--at this point, at least, he believes himself to be the greatest sufferer.