Examples Of Dissociative Identity Disorder In Frankenstein

Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by "switching" to alternate identities that may make an affected person feel as though they’re possessed by other identities. This disorder, though it would not have been diagnosed at the time, is displayed clearly in the popular gothic novel Frankenstein. The characters Victor Frankenstein and his monster in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly are, in fact, not separate characters but are the split personality of Victor himself due to his unstable mental state, not being in control of himself, and being the only one to see the monster throughout the book.

There are a multitude of reasons and a plethora of evidence that leads to the conclusion that Victor

It was indeed but a passing trance, that only made me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits.” (Shelley 45). Victor, as he is making the monster, describes a feeling of not being in control of himself as an unnatural trance where he had lost all sensation and soul. This promotes the idea that the monster may be in control at some points as Victor in a trance feels that he has no control over what he is doing which could be a split personality starting to take over. If Victor has no control then this suggests something esle such as the monster is taking over his mind. Additionally, Victor is not in a good mental state starting when he first makes the monster. While describing his time in jail he states, “I lay for two months on the point of death; my ravings, as I afterwards heard, were frightful; I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval. Sometimes I entreated my attendants to assist me in the destruction of the fiend by whom I was tormented; and at others I felt the fingers of the monster

This contributes to the point that his mental health has declined providing the possibility of him developing a split personality. His metal decline even started when he created his monster saying, “I appeared rather like one doomed by slavery to toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade than an artist occupied by his favourite employment. Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime.” (Shelly 47). In addition to such evidence, Victor describes how since taking up his undertaking he has become more unstable and he isolates himself while having splitting headaches. Victor, not being in a good mental state, can explain that he may have made up the monster in his head as he certainly acts in a way that would suggest his insanity. Victor being insane could explain why he has a separate personality being the monster making them the same person. Lastly, Victor loses the monster when so close to him. He says, “I indeed perceptibly gained on it, and when,