THEORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE: T AKE H OME EXAM PSYCHOANALYSIS
ON
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
OF
FRANKENSTEIN
VEMA N. R IADY 120810020
Introduction
F RANKENSTEIN is probably one of the most popular scary creatures in literature history. There are more than a hundred movies and books have been made that include the attachment of Frankenstein in the plot. It is very interesting for me to understand how and why Frankenstein why Frankenstein becomes very popular; marginalizing his horrible appearance, I think it’s more essential to analyze deeper into the reason why Victor Frankenstein decides to create the creature. The decision can be viewed as a form of rejecting God’s authority and however, I personally think that none of us ever had an idea of collecting parts of corpses and put them together like a puzzle game. The reference of “corpse” itself has created an odd and frightening notion, so how does a human could ever think to make them into a complete human like Victor Frankenstein does? Begins Begins from the idea, I think think it’s it’s very very intere interesti sting ng to analyz analyzee the nature nature of Victor Victor Frankenstein’s psychological condition, in order to find out how this horrific idea come to his mind. Hypothetically, the idea will not come without any great motivation, so our next duty is examining what is the motivation and how does it motivate him? Does it have something to do with Victor’s experience before the making of the monster?
The research questions of this paper are: 1. Why Victor Frankenstein creates the monster? What is the motivation? 2. How does the psychoanalytic approach explain the problem? This This paper paper employ employss psycho psychoana analyt lytic ic theory theory as its its main main theore theoretic tical al framew framework ork.. The theories of psychoanalysis can be applied to works of literature as a way of exploring textual meani meaning ng and and usin using g the the psyc psycho hoan anal alyt ytic ic theo theori ries es of Freu Freud d to analy analyze ze cert certai ain n aspec aspects ts of Frankenstein to help reveal the reason between the makings of the monster.
Discussion
To analyze the problem, I’d use the psychoanalytic tool in order to give explanation. Psychoanalysis is the theory developed by Sigmund Freud. One of the most essential messages in his theory is, as stated by Tharney “The “The psyc psychoa hoana naly lyti ticc appr approa oach ch to pers persona onali lity ty assu assume mess that that one’ one’ss personality is the end product of its own history; that past acquisitions continue to effect further psychological development; that study of the development of each aspect of the personality can provide information about man that cannot be obtained in any other way; and that personality develops in distinct “stages”. [2] From the quotes we can imply that human’s behavior is a product of his past experiences. The way he acts or decides something is determined by his experience, since it is generally known that experience gives us lessons to learn. In Victor’s case, probably the decision to create the monster is because he experienced a depressing experience in the past.
His experience, Based on Freud’s, can be related to the concept of how nuclear family gives a remarkable remarkable effects on a child’s child’s personality personality development; development; fear of loneliness loneliness as the cause of death and the meaning of death itself in the eyes of Victor Frankenstein. By understanding the concepts and how it is related to the story, it will be easy for us to find the thread as the answer of my research questions. To make it brief, I’d divide my explanation into the concepts and elaborate it the plot and emphasize it with supporting facts, theories or evidences, and to sum up, the conclusion.
The role of nuclear family and the formation of unconscious
Nuclear family is a family a father, a mother, and their children (Althen 85). The nuclear family of Frankenstein consists of Alphonse, Caroline, Victor, Elizabeth and William. Nuclear family is our first channel to transfer the social and moral values. From the nuclear family we can can lear learn n many many thin things gs and the the way way we defi define ne and and perc percei eive ve the the worl world d arou around nd us usua usuall lly y infl influe uence nced d by the the fami family ly life life.. Probl Problem emss in fami family ly life life can can be a cruc crucia iall caus causee for for the the life life afterwards. In Victor’s case, basically Victor has no threatening experience in his family life. He always always lives happily, happily, but then then Victor Victor feels a great great loss loss after after his mother mother dies. dies. His His father father,, Alphonse, always tells him that love and happiness are so much more important than books and science, however, Victor has other things to concern. He’s obsessed in the secret of life and his mother’s death might be motivated him to crate the monster. He thinks that the death of his mother has torn his happiness apart and there must be something he can do to avoid or let’s say; fight against the death so there’ll be no lonelier person in this life. Specifically for Victor.
We may say that his family has imprinted a great happiness to his mind and when his mother dies and he learns about philosophy, he believes that he can re-enact the happiness once again. He’s eager to feel the happiness again with the complete member of the family. If he successfully creates his first human, he probably will try for some other creatures. His motivation can be explained using the concept of unconscious; he unconsciously wants his mother back, but he is not sure he can create something that really resembles his mother. So he keeps going on with his experiment, but then he realizes that there are some things that better for leaving. For instance, his mother.
The way Victor views the meaning of death
Deat Death h is alwa always ys a myst myster ery. y. Nobo Nobody dy coul could d give give an exact exact and and unive univers rsal al acce accept pted ed explanation about experiencing death, because it’s the final of our journey. Once you come on the end of the tunnel, it’s impossible to go back to the other side. Generally, the only thing we all know about death is when we die, we’ll be separated to our surroundings. To begin my explanation, let’s see the matter from the living’s point of view because it is the only possible line to go. When someone leaves for death, we will feel a great loss because we will never have any contact with him anymore. It is different from breaking up or divorce or any other physical separation, because death leaves no room for further updated information about the person who leaves us. We will have no opportunity to greet him or even physically see him, because the person has gone to a place that we don’t even know where it is.
This feeling creates three effects; 1) fear of loneliness, 2) fear of abandonment, 3) fear of intimacy (Tyson 24). Victor mostly experiences the point 1) because I think fear of abandonment and fear of intimacy is not the main reason why Victor postpones his wedding with Elizabeth. Fear Fear of loneli lonelines nesss is someth something ing that that moves moves Victor Victor.. After After Caroli Caroline’ ne’ss death, death, he feels feels emptinesss syndrome syndrome;; a combi combinat nation ion of boredo boredom, m, loneli lonelines ness, s, somewha somewhatt almost almost simila similarr to the emptines depression, and a feeling of purposelessness that afflicts children who no longer have their parents around them on a daily basis (Althen 97). Entering university should be a prideful moment for Victor Victor;; unfort unfortuna unatel tely y he lost lost his his mothe motherr by the time time he enters enters univer universit sity. y. He feels feels someth somethin ing g important has taken away from him. He’s lonely and depressed because the joy is no longer complete without his mother attendance. He believes that there must be something he can do to end his loneliness, unconsciously; he has a motivation to bring his mother back to life. He believes that he can employ philosophy and science to break the mystery of death. The more he studies, the more he sees the fate of death as something’s defeat able and he finally decides to make the human. Loneliness is a great power. The symptom is close to the feeling of “not having something we need” and human, basically, always has desire to fulfill his needs of something. From the explanation above, we can see that Victor is moved by his unconscious of the existence of happiness in a family. He loses it when his mother died and as a result, he feels very lonely and then his unconscious somehow forms the motivation to break the mystery of death and finally, creates the monster.
Conclusion
There is an orderly cause in the decision of making Frankenstein. Firstly, the initiate factor comes from Victor’s joyful childhood. He has nothing to lack of especially for love and attention though his father adopted Elizabeth, there’s nothing really wrong about his family. The second is mother’s death. This is the turning point of Victor’s life. We may imply that if Victor never feels miserable for his mother’s death, he probably will never create Frankenstein or at least have an inten intentio tion n to do it. The third third is his his encou encounte nterr with with scienc sciencee and and philo philosop sophy hy in the univer universit sity. y. Knowledge encourages Victor to find out the mystery behind death and defeat it. Victor gets his confidence from knowledge, or in other words, he intends to create Frankenstein because he knows he may be able to do it . The last is the making itself. It’s the final and also the beginning of catastrophic events during the story. The article concludes that Victor is moved by his unconscious of the existence of happiness in a family. He loses it when his mother died and as a result, he feels very lonely and then his unconscious somehow forms the motivation to break the mystery of death and finally, creates the monster.
Works Cited
Althen, Gary. American Ways. Maine: Intercultural Press, Inc. 1988 Goldberg , M. A. Moral and myth in Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein. Keats-Sheuey Journal vol. 8 (1959): 27-38. Hale, Jessica. Constructing connectedness: Gender, Sexuality and Race In MaryShelley’s Frankenstein. Frankenstein. The UCI Undergraduate Research Journal (2001): 11-14. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Penguin. 1963. Tharne Tharney, y, Thadde Thaddeus us R. Overvi Overview ew of psychoa psychoanal nalyti yticc theory theory.. Union Union County County Colleg College. e. Psy101 handout 4 (2008): 2. Tyson, Lois. Critical Critical Theory Today. New York: Routledge. Routledge. 1999.
