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The Struggle Between The Classes In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Question: A text’s relevance is not limited to the time and place in which it was written. Discuss with reference to one text, and one reading approach you have studied.

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1831) follows Victor Frankenstein on his scientific quest to create ‘life’. First written in 1818, the novel was born into a world of class conflict and rapid industrialisation. The ideological struggle that frames Shelley’s literary style facilitates a Marxist approach, which seeks to gauge the political motivations of the work, and determine the extent to which the work explores struggle between the classes. Marx's writings on alienated labor allows an analysis of Frankenstein in an economic and political subtext that might otherwise …show more content…

The creature’s composition foremost reflects his representation of the working class. He is composed of the ‘parts of many people’ and lacks the ‘unity of natural organisms’ which fulfils the Marxist assertion that the proletariat ‘is recruited from all classes of the population’. Shelley writes that Frankenstein ‘collected bones from charnel-houses… the dissecting room and the slaughterhouse furnished many of my materials.’ (pp58) Not only can the reader see the segmentation of the monster's creation, but can hear the harsh tone of contempt that Frankenstein uses when describing his workspace and creation as ‘filthy.’ Shelley’s use of fricatives depicts a ‘monster’ so mutilated and unnatural that it becomes an outcast based solely on its hideousness. The creature’s description cements that it is a symbol of all ‘others’ and ‘minorities’ that are discriminated against due to appearance. Shelley’s comment about society’s rejection of the ‘ugly’ has racial connotations concurrent with the revolutionary spirit of the era. It transcends 1818 however and relates to racial discourse today, exemplified by personas such as Donald Trump and his promised “Ban on all Muslims”. Exterior differences, on some level, will always be a cause for division amongst human beings, which is expressed by the Creature’s appearance as a symbol. Thus, Shelley’s imagery and its associations through a Marxist approach establish the themes of Frankenstein to be highly relevant 200 years since its

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This essay will be analyzing the impact of the ‘monstrous’ that Mittman refers to in his essay “The Impact of Monsters and Monster Studies”. This essay will look at the impact of the monstrous in Shelley’s Frankenstein. The monstrous in Frankenstein refers to the creature that was created and brought to life by the main character Victor. The creature had a negative impact on the characters of Frankenstein, in fact the creature made the life of Victor’s family a living hell. This will be further examined later on.

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In the book, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, complex forms of imagery, tone-developing diction, and a variety of well-organized and composed themes are utilized to further envelop her story and engage readers. These writing techniques are very prominent in the section beginning on page 43, at the start of chapter 5, and ending on page 44, with “so miserably given life.” The imagery used in this section ultimately creates a very clear image of the monster to the readers. “I saw the dull...and straight black lips” (page 43.) The description of the monster is largely painted through this use of intense and comprehensive adjectives that aptly portray an uneasing creature.

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There are so many guides and commentaries for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that it might appear to some that the field is saturated. Audrey A. Fisch’s book, however, is a welcome addition, formed as it is by the specific objectives of the Icons of Modern Culture series (edited by David Ellis). Fisch expresses these objectives very clearly in her Introduction: her aim is to “unpack the story of the Creature in the popular culture tradition, unearthing a range of complicated Creatures, not all of whom are huge and mute, and many of whom, though different from Mary Shelley’s Creature, are intriguing in their own right” (7).

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