Ayşegül Ağaoğlu

405022

GEORGE V. GRIFFITH’S CRITICISM ON FRANKENSTEIN

In his work, Griffith discusses how Frankenstein both represents and goes beyond the
ideas of the Romantic era. Frankenstein was written and published in 1816-1818 so it’s a
Romantic era novel that typifies solitude, power of nature, dangers of intellect etc. “The
monster's unnatural birth is the product of what the Romantic poet Wordsworth called
humankind's ‘meddling intellect’” Griffith says. Innocent child only wants to be loved, but he
didn’t get it from anyone. Shelley subtitles her book “A Modern Prometheus” connecting Victor
Frankenstein to a Greek myth who conflicted with gods and was punished by Zeus.
This novel is a framed narrative with a story within a story within a story. At the outer
layer the novel is about Walton’s letters and his isolation while he’s voyaging. Next layer is
Frankenstein’s story. Finally, although the novel’s name is Frankenstein it’s not about him, it’s
about the monster. In the world ‘Victor’ is not recognized but ‘Monster Frankenstein’ is. But
he’s not an evil, he is transformed into evil. Griffith says that “The monster sees in the DeLaceys
the loving family he has never known and their simple cottage life is a model of the happily
primitive which the Romantics idealized.” Like being the book of its age, Frankenstein is also
looks ahead of its time in human psyche. Coming to the end of the 19 th century, we saw works
made the idea that people are capable of good and evil inside them and the ‘monster’ inside us is
not always under control. “Freudian readings of Frankenstein see the monster as the outward
expression of Victor's id or his demoniacal passions.” Explains Griffith. It means that Victor and
the monster are the same person so, Victor should keep the monster inside him. Monster is the
mirror image of his evil spirit. So we can say that Frankenstein is about self discovery of soul,
knowing the monster inside us. Also, the sexual relationships of the characters seem well served
by a Freudian reading. For example, Victor’s marriage to Elizabeth; she is somehow his sister
and wife too. Later Elizabeth was killed in the honeymoon by monster. Like Freudian readings
of the book, numerous psychological readings of the novel have focused on Mary Shelley’s life.
“…books and children and birth and death are so mixed in both Shelley's life and in the novel
that one cannot be understood without the other.” explains Griffith.
To sum up, with stage adaptation, different editions, film versions and translations
Frankenstein lives beyond its modest intentions to write Gothic tale to pass time. It was written
in Romantic era, but it stands for way more than that.