Nyomi Mosley
Cline
ENG 102
16 October, 2011
Fear in Frankenstein
In the book of Frankenstein written my Mary Shelly in 1818 fear is a prevalent emotion, which is involved in every character. It would seem that her point of making fear so prevalent in this book was perhaps to illustrate what fear does in the overall effect of people lives. As seen through Mary Shelly’s book, fear can have tremendous effects all of which can produce both excellent and harsh effects on people’s lives.
The first characters presented in this book with fear are the sailors and their captain. They both fear for the same basic things, death, and not returning home victorious from their quest. However, the captain’s fear differs from the fear of the sailors. To the captain the quest is more important than dying before seeing his beloved sister again. On the other hand, the sailors feel that returning home without a victory is more important than dying on their voyage. The captain expresses his wish to complete the quest with the following words “How all this will terminate, I know not; but I has rather die, than return shamefully, my purpose unfulfilled. Yet I fear such will be my fate; the men unsupported by ideas of glory and honour, can never willingly continue to endure their present hardships.” (Shelly, pg 150) The unwillingness of his sailors to continue on this quest shows that their fear of death was greater than their fear of not returning home victorious. (Shelly, pg 150)The fear presented with the captain and his sailors turned out to be ineffective in their ultimate goal to search for parts of the world never before visited. However the fear created by Mary Shelly in these characters seemed to be effective to a greater goal and that is life.
The next character in Shelly’s book that expressed fear was Frankenstein. Frankenstein showed fear for his family, his friends, and even his monster. To Frankenstein the monster was a very frightening creature of his creation. Frankenstein’s monster had already killed a dear member of his family and had to continue to do so if Frankenstein did not create a female companion for the monster. The monster of Frankenstein presents his request with the following words “We may not part until you have promised to comply with my requisition. I am not alone, and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companioun must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must create” (Shelly, pg 97) and in another portion he states with his revenge if Frankenstein does not grant him a female companion: “Shall I respect man when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness and instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injurious; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you curse the hour of your birth.” Throughout this book Frankenstein is portrayed as a man who is driven to create a female monster for fear of what his own creation will do to his family. This fear blinds him from seeing the overall effect that this second creation will have on his creation. He sees this towards the end with the following thought: “He has sworn to quit the neighborhood of man and hide himself in deserts; but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other…” (Shelly, pg 114) Frankenstein realized with fear that if he created another female monster she would not want to be around his previous creation. When he realized this he also saw the effect that the monsters female companion would have on the world. He states: “Even if they were to leave Europe, and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the deamon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.” (Shelly, pg 114) In Frankenstein’s fear of what his monster would do to his family he failed to realize that his second creation could have a more terrible effect on the entire world. His concern for the entire world conquered his fear for his family, and he destroyed his progress on his second creation. (Shelly, pg 115) As we can see from Frankenstein, fear can go two ways. He could have chosen to go with this smaller fear and continued to look out for the good of his family by making the female monster. Yet, he chose to look a bit further into an even bigger concern, and destroy his creation for the safety of the world. We have a chose as well, we can let fear dominate or we can overcome it with the right decision.
The next characters that shows fear in this book is Frankenstein’s family and friends. Their fear is for Frankenstein emotional state. Throughout this book Frankenstein exhibits an amount of emotion according to the events that are presented in his life time. A number of times his family and friends fear for his well being. The fear of his friends and family encourage Frankenstein to travel, and gives him happiness. This can be seen when Frankenstein request permission from his father to travel, and his father openly consents. His father hopes that this trip will bring Frankenstein happiness, and restore him to his natural self. (Shelly, pg 104-105) Elizabeth’s feelings were the same as she said goodbye she wished from him to return happier than he had left. (Shelly, pg 106) His friend Clerval was with him on the trip for a time then they separated. However, Clerval sent him off with the same hopes his family gave; that he would return with the happiness that he once had. (Shelly, pg 112) Because of their fearfulness for his well being Frankenstein’s family and friends were supportive and encouraging in his endeavors. With the support of his family Frankenstein was able to figure things out for himself. In the end this led to a maturity in Frankenstein, that we did not see in the beginning; but had a great impact on his life.
The final character that we see with fear is Frankenstein’s monster. Unlike the other characters in this book most of his fear was that of a selfish nature. He held fear for his loneliness, and for what others would think of him, a number of times. However, he was not made with this fear it was brought on through a number of experiences. These experiences were with people that feared Frankenstein’s monster due to his frightening appearance. His first experience was with an old cottager in the woods. He went into this cottager’s house expecting to be welcomed but instead he frightened the old man who immediately ran away. The old man brought back many men who tortured the monster until he was forced to leave. When reading about his next experience with the prairie family we see him hold care for the family’s well being. He chopped wood for the family, he shoveled their snow, and he helped the family produce food. (Shelly, pg 74-75) Eventually, Frankenstein’s monster grew very comfortable with this family and he believed that because they had kind hearts they would accept him. Due to this notion, he endeavored to meet this family beginning with the grandfather. He says: “I resolved at least not to despair, but in every way to fit myself for an interview with them which would decide my fate.” (Shelly, pg 88) When Frankenstein’s monster met the family the outcome was not as he expected. The family’s fear for his appearance caused them to refuse to accept him. His next experience was with a man whose daughter’s life he had just saved. This man was so fearful of his appearance that instead of being grateful for his daughter’s safety he shot Frankenstein’s monster. (Shelly, pg 95) At this point Frankenstein’s monster became angered and resolved to kill man who had caused him so much pain. He says: “I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.” His rage upon mankind turned into the fear he held before that none would accept him. He realized that the one who had made him this way was responsible for the fear he held that none would accept him because of his appearance. This selfish fear led him to resolve to bring pain to Frankenstein in any possible way for the painful fear he had given to his creation. Frankenstein’s monster ended up killing many members of Frankenstein’s family, and eventually Frankenstein himself. The lesson we learn from the fear of Frankenstein’s monster is to embrace fear and not let it overcome us. With Frankenstein’s monster he held the fear that none would accept him and he chose to find the reason why and act on that reason. His actions eventually led to the killing of people that were very dear to Frankenstein and eventually Frankenstein himself. The death of Frankenstein took away his chance of happiness and forced him to live the life of loneliness that he began with. This example is one of the many things that fear can make people do, and what effect those actions have on their lives. Perhaps our situations of fear may not be as drastic as the fear of Frankenstein’s monster yet, we do have fears. The choice is ours of if we are going to let those fears ruin our lives or if we are going to rise above those fears and come out on top.
It would seem that the book of Frankenstein is about fear and the outcomes it can have on the overall effect of people’s lives. For the captain and the sailors fear resulted in the effect of saving their lives, and this can be perceived to have made their families happier than the alternative. For Frankenstein his fear resulted in the saving of the future world, this makes for a greater outcome than simply the saving of his family. For Frankenstein’s family their fear allowed Frankenstein to experience things and grow, this allowed for a wiser Frankenstein than the one we read about at the beginning of this book. Then last but not least we read about Frankenstein’s monster, and his fear. Unfortunately his fear led to a miserable ending because of the way he chose to embrace his fear. The lesson that Mary Shelly tried to give in this book was that fear can have many outcomes some good and some bad. However, it is the way that we choose to act on our fears that determines the affect it will have on our lives.
Works Cited:
Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. London: W.W. Norton & Company, INC., 1818.
Here is the link for the picture; this link also gives some advice on the topic of fear:
