how does shelley present the themes of good and evil in frankenstein (campbell)

7/21/2019 How Does Shelley Present the Themes of Good and Evil in Frankenstein (CAMPBELL)

1/5

How does Shelley present the themes of good and evil in

Frankenstein? Refer closely to the novel in your answer comparing

where useful with Jekyll and Hyde

.

When traditionally reading a novel, readers often wish to place labels of either good or evil

on characters so they can determine who the heroes and villains are and by extension know

who they should be rooting for. Using the novel Frankenstein, Shelley shows us that the

distinction between these two supposed opposites can be very difficult to distinguish as she

feels both sets of traits are present in every human being. Shelley believed good and evil are

co-existent and that we are not born with these traits inherent within us, but instead these are

formed based on our upbringing and experiences within our life. During her adolescence,

Shelley was greatly influenced by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his ethos is a

driving force within the novel. Rousseau believed that if a man is left abandoned to himself,

he would become the most disfigured of all. Lawrence Lipking writes that good and evil

encompass all, they are both part of nature and there is no escaping either of them. A similar

mind-set would clearly have been instilled in Shelley due to Rousseaus influence and this

may be the reason why Shelley writes about characters that have a duality of good and evil

within them, most clearly presented in Victor and his creation.

As well as the novel being written to display the duality of man, it is also a social

commentary on advancements being made in the scientific field. The novel can very clearly

be seen as a warning to scientists at the time as it displays the possible cataclysmic effect of

delving too deep into areas of science. The idea of animating a conglomeration of body parts

through scientific methods performed in the novel by Victor was no doubt influenced by the

famous scientific experiment conducted by Luigi Galvini whereby he animated frogs legs

using electrical impulses. By creating a character born of this method that goes on to be

rejected by society and commit murders Shelley is showing how seemingly harmless

experiments can descend into much worse. Stuart Curran discusses advancements in

electrochemistry at the time and says, It represented the cutting edge of the material

sciences, at once promising and threatening in an intense and equal measure. This fits in

with the idea of science having the ability to be good through the promising rewards to be

gained but also evil due to the threatening nature of it. Scientific ambition can be seen as

good and evil within the novel. At first Victors ambitions seem good as he says , I thought


2/5

that I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time renew life

where death had apparently devoted the body to corruptionbut over time we realise his real

(although perhaps subconscious) reason for creating the creature is for the fame that would

follow. This is shown when Victor states, I was surprised that among so many men of

genius who had directed their enquiries towards the same science, that I alone should be

reserved to discover such an astonishing secret. Although Victor may have believed he was

attempting to do good, his inability to see his own faults and his high scientific ambition led

to a creation that ultimately is an extension of all that is evil within him. His hubris-like

determination to create life from dead body parts leads to a lack of correspondence with his

family which can be seen as particularly negative considering their grieving state as his

mother had died only weeks before. The evil side of scientific ambition can also be seen in

Jekyll and Hydewhen Jekyll says "I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will;

unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific heresies.

Although Dr Jekylls ambition is to break previous scientific limitations for the greater good

of man, we can see this divides opinions and can lead to accusations of heresy.

Setting is used by both Shelley and Stevenson to convey the themes of good and evil and at

times a battle between the two. The powerful influence of surroundings for the good on

Victor is displayed when it says It was a divine spring; and the season contributed greatly to

my convalescence. The idea of being with nature seems both appealing and fulfilling and

this could be used as a stark contrast to the supposed unnatural things Victor does within the

confinement of his laboratory. The uplifting and remedial effect is again shown when Victor

states By degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me. The positive stance Shelley has

towards nature is mostly likely a reflection of her childhood which was largely spent writing

about nature but may also be indicative of the social fears at the time that industrialism was

occurring too rapidly, perhaps at the expense of previous natural beauty. Shelley also uses

setting to help the readers formulate an opinion on the supposedly heinous deed that Victor is

about to carry out. Preceding the creation, the mood is already set by Shelley as she describes

the event as taking place on a dreary night of November, a month not commonly associated

with life and joy but instead with cold weather and a lack of light. Victor states that his

candle was nearly burnt outjust before life is instilled in the body and this is reflective of

his morality being at a minimal, allowing him to carry out an unnatural process. Setting is

also very important within Jekyll and Hyde. Irving Saposnik states that choosing London as

the location for the novel is quintessential as London typified the Victorian era and was a


3/5

macrocosm of the necessary fragmentation that Victorian man found inescapable

(Saposnik). Rev. Tuckniss consolidates this view when he describes Victorian London as a

metaphor for "the great arena of [moral] conflict. Stevenson uses pathetic fallacy to

describe the internal battle within Dr Jekyll as when Utterson and the servant walk to the

Jekyll residence the weather is described as wild, coldwith a pale moon, lying on her back

as though the wind had tilted her. Stevenson uses the weather to display the difficulties that

face Victorian gentlemen when they attempt to calculate how they should behave based on

societal pressures and inner urges.

Alter-egos and doppelgangers are used both withinFrankensteinandJekyll and Hyde to help

display the duality of man and the good and evil within people. Gavrier Reisner believes the

creature is made of [Victors] unconscious energy which would allude to the creature being

a physical externalisation of Victors inner and supressed emotions. Victors very structured

upbringing did not allow him to be expressive which in turn morphed him into almost an

empty shell that is representative of both societal pressures and his familysexpectations on a

young man at that time. This is very similar to Jekyll and Hyde as the key issue within that

book is the large pessure placed upon Victorian men to be the gentlemen society wishes them

to be rather than the humans they truly are. This is very much a battle between good and evil

within them, however it is questionable what is representative of good. As Saposnik says

Henry Jekyll is a complex example of his age of anxiety: woefully weighed down by self-

deception, cruelly a slave to his own weakness, sadly a disciple of a severe discipline, his is a

cry of Victorian man from the depths of his self-imposed under-ground. Although the

creature can very much be seen as an evil mirror of Victor, Shelley makes it very clear he is

not born evil but instead is formed that way by society. As Shelleys husband Percy writes,

In this the direct moral of the book consistsTreat a person ill, and he will become

wicked. The creature himself accounts for his evilness by saying Am I not shunned and

hated by all mankind?...if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear. The creature starts his life

with benevolent actions such as collecting firewood for the DeLacey family and its only

after continual cruelty from society that he descends into an evilcharacter. Linguistically, I

feel Mary Shelley does not give the monster a name as she attempts to suppress his presence

like humans attempt to suppress their inner evil. Shelley uses a Chinese Box narrative

structure with Walton being the outermost narrative, encasing Victors narrative with the

monsters narrative right at the heart of the story. The innermost narrative enriches what we

learn and again the monster is at the very heart comparative with the part-evil within us all.


4/5

Waltons narrative is a frame narrative which like a picture frame does not detract from the

story but instead enhances it. The narrative progresses from each character to perhaps show a

decline into evil starting with Walton and ending with the monster.

To conclude I believe Shelley presents the themes of good and evil in such a way to perhaps

suggest they are not as opposed as one would expect. Lawrence Lipkin conveys this idea well

when he says nature can be the source of death as well as life. Good people do evil Shelley

teaches us that an expression of both sides of a persons character is necessary as an attempt

to repress the dark side of us is futile as one way or another in will manifest itself shown by

Victors creation. This view is further supported by Stevenson as within his novel he shows

Dr Jekyll attempting to contain his evil side but instead it overcomes him and results in his

death. Through his novel Stevenson attempts to evoke sympathy for the men in the Victorian

era by displaying how difficult it is to balance the need to feel satisfaction yet retain societal

respect. As Robert Louis Stevenson said All humans are commingled out of good and evil.

Word Count: 1646


5/5

Bibliography

Shelley, MaryFrankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus(Penguin Popular Classics, 1994)

Stevenson, Robert LouisStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde(Penguin Popular Classics, 2002)

Curran, StuartThe Scientific Grounding of Frankenstein - (Naples: Liguori Editore, 2001), pp. 283-

92

Tuckniss, William - Reverend Tuckniss introduction to the fourth volume of Mayhew's

London Labour and the London Poor (Dover reprint, New York, 1968)

Lipking, LawrenceFrankenstein, The True Story(W.W. Norton, 1996)

Reisner, GavrielThe Death-Ego and the Vitaal Self: Romances of Desire in Literature and

PsychoanalysisFarleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003

Saposnik, Irving - The Anatomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(Rice University 1971)

Shelley, Percy ByssheOn Frankenstein (1817)

how does shelley present the themes of good and evil in frankenstein (campbell)

Documents