ramsha khan- final paper

8/3/2019 Ramsha Khan- Final Paper

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Ramsha Hussain Khan

Mr. Stewart Hawley

ENGL 1302

18th

August 2011

A Marxist Criticism of Frankenstein

Marxist literary criticism exemplifies what the French philosopher Paul Ricouer terms as

the Hermeneutics of Suspicion (Ricouer). This type of criticism approaches not what the text

says but what it hides. Ideological oppression of a dominant economic class over a subordinate

class is usually a prominent feature of literary pieces. This essay will marginalize social class

issues dominant in Mary Shelleys fiction novel Frankenstein, as seen through Marxist critique

essays.

Every literary work is a reflection of the historical, social and economic context that

surrounds it. Main historical events that took place during the 1790s were the French

revolutions and the Haitian Revolution. The foremost goal of the idealistic French Revolution

was to establish a social order based on reason and justice, and the Haitian Revolution started off

as a slave riot for independence. As is reflected by this historical context, one of the main themes

of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein was that of oppression and social upheaval. The characters of

this novel bring forward overriding social and political implications, with several class

distinctions.

Karl Marx, a German revolutionary socialist, who developed the socio-political theory of

Marxism, explains in his Communist Manifesto that only two true social classes exist, the

bourgeoisie, or the owners of the means of production, and the proletariat, or the working class.


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(Marx Manifesto p.220). Mary Shelly has established the complete dynamics of her novel

around two central characters: Victor Frankenstein and his created monster, which symbolizes

the two extreme class boundaries.

Dr. Frankenstein in this novel is depicted as an educated character from a wealthy

business background, so he is clearly the ruling class. Furthermore he is shown to have the power

of creating a creature just like Karl Marx believes that the bourgeoisie tend to create the

proletariat. Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of

property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is

like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has

called up by his spells. (Marx Manifesto p.225). Thus Dr. Frankenstein is a symbol of the

oppressive society.

Gain of economical and social power is another concern of this whole upper and lower

class prejudice. Victor Frankenstein can be seen as an arrogant evil man, who uses his

superiority to gather all the resources of creating life. By doing so he is messing around with

dead bodies, collecting unusual body parts and going against the nature, just because he can.

These are all traits of the higher social class of oppressive people. One more aristocratic attribute

identified in Shellys novel is Victors abandonment of the creature. Although for two years he

has tortured living animals and gathered anatomical parts from fresh graves, he flees from the

laboratory when the monster comes to life, scared of his own creation. This is one of the most

important Marxist criticisms. Another interesting quality that Mary Shelly has incorporated into

the Victor character is his defiance of taking responsibility over his actions. Not only once but

throughout the novel, he escapes being held responsible for creating the monster, and he even

lets an innocent women take the blame of killing his brother, who he knows was killed by the


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monster created through the manifestation of his imagination. That is exactly how the Marxists

criticized the rich people to be, who due to their unjust behavior first create proletariat out of the

poor, less powerful people, and then when the deprived rebel, they put up their hands not owning

up to anything.

Similarly the monster is a symbol for the oppressed class of the society. Mary Shelly has

portrayed it as the proletariat that revolts against the bourgeoisie in the class struggle. The

monster is created from various parts such as bones from charnel-houses, body parts from

dissecting rooms and pieces from the slaughter houses. This is similar to the proletariat in that it

is recruited from all classes of the population (Marx Manifesto p.228). Its lifestyle reflects

that of a working class peasant who does not need the luxury of the aristocrats but merely a small

amount of food to keep him going and a bed to sleep in. Thus its very existence in the novel is

associated to that of a physically stronger worker who is less dependent on comfort as compared

to the upper class.

Luisa Umana, in her essay Mary Shelleys Frankenstein: A Marxist Reading mentions

that the monster draws sympathy from the readers, which further demonstrates Shelleys

criticism of capitalism. The creature begins his life with good intentions but, after repeatedly

experiencing malicious treatment from humans, understandably turns to violence. (Umana 95-

97). This is in comparison to how the working class had started the French Revolution with high

hopes of ending poverty, and beneficent intentions of throwing over capitalism, but it grossly

ended up in violence, an era of terror and slaughtering of many people. Also the physical size

and prowess the monster are meant to symbolize the huge population and the strength of the

working class during the revolution.


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The monster is said to be nave in the beginning, when it starts learning stuff from

Frankensteins texts and DeLaceys family. It feeds off of their ideas and views, harboring no

opinion of its own. Throughout the novel, the creature is presented as an example of

discrimination prevalent in the society, and is ostracized for its ugly looks. This represents how

the society outrageously discriminates against the minority and pushes them to the brink of

revolting openly. The monster after denial from so many people, including its own creator, rebels

and seeks vengeance by killing innocent people. The feelings of kindness and gentleness, which

I had entertained but a few moments before, gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth.

Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind. (Shelly p.96) This in

turns make the monster more powerful than even its creator. Dr. Frankenstein becomes a slave to

the product of his own labor. This concrete example is an abstract portion of the Marxist

Doctrine.

Another perfect display of the Marxist Class theory is in Justines character. She is

considered a maid of the family and Shelly signifies her dehumanization by letting Justine take

the blame for a death she is definitely not guilty of. Justine even ends up confessing for the

murder and asking for people to forgive her. This is not only a social injustice, but even reflects

the sublime patient nature of a woman.

The reorganization of self-identity is a very crucial issue in the Marxist critism.

(Pokhrel p.76). The process of self-identification is so that a person understands his/her own

significance in the society. Self indicates a persons personality or character that makes them

different from other people. (Hornby 1376). The Monster, an antagonist does not recognizes his

own Self and that is why that even until the end of the novel he has a conflicting personality,

when he mourns over Victors death and decide to die itself also. The story of this ugly, larger


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Therefore we might conclude that this novel is not just a gothic fiction novel for an

entertaining read, but it has denial of the crippling subjugation of the society, and exploitation of

the less privileged at the hands of those who possess more power. A class barrier had existed at

that time with the poor rebelling against those in power and trying to overthrow them. But

through Frankenstein, especially its ending, where the monster regrets and mourns over

Victors death, Shelly implicates that fighting over this class division is not futile and is baseless.


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Works Cited

Ricoeur, Paul. Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005). Iep.utm.edu. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 4

Aug. 2003. Web. 18 Aug. 2011.

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. London: Penguin Classics, 2002.

Print.

Umana, Luisa. Mary Shellys Frankenstein: A Marxist Reading . 8 May 2009. Web. 18 Aug.

2011.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstei. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, A Norton Critical

Edition, 1996. Print.

Hornby, A.S. 2005. Ed. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English. 8th ed.

New York : OUP

Pokhrel, Mohan Kumar. Manifestation of The Self in Shelleys Frankenstein. Journal of The

Department of English Mahendra Multiple Campus, Dharan. Volume. III. (2011): 76-80.

Print.

Marx, Karl. The German Ideology. Literary theory: An Anthology. 2nd

ed. Ed. Julie Rivkin and

Michael Ryan, Malden: Blackwell, 2005. 643-646

Bradford, Raymond. When an End Becomes a Means: Self-Expression in Marx and Shelley.

Westministercollege.edu. Westminister College, Salt Lake City. Utah. N.d. Web. 18 Aug

2011.

Marx, Karl. Economic andPhilosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (in part) From Plato to Derrida.

Ed. Forrest E. Baird and Walter Kaufmann. 4th

ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2003.

1011-1019.

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