University of Bath

Department of European Studies and Modern Languages

2006/ 2007, Semester 1

EU 10503 19th Century British Literature

Referee: Katja Buthut

November 6th 2006

The Doppelganger motif of Victor Frankenstein and the Monster in Mary Shelley′s

Frankenstein

Walking through the streets of nowadays′ Prague, I became acquainted with an example of

the very vivid traditions and legends of the Jewish population during the medieval times. My

tourist guide took me to see the Jewish cemetery and the Jewish alley, which back then was a

part of the Ghetto in Prague. "You know, the Jews in Prague suffered from a lot of

accusations which had to do with their way of living, and which had their roots in the

traditional behavior of the Christian central European society," my guide told me. "That′s

why, one day, a rabbi created a creature to help the Jews against those incriminations, the

Golem." According to my guide, the rabbi ­ much like God ­ formed the Golem out of clay; a

creature that looked like a human but was not able to speak, only to take orders and fulfilled

them. When the Golem was not needed anymore ­ and because it caused some troubles that

seemed to scare people ­ the rabbi took away life from his creation and the Golem returned to

be the clay he had been before. My guide showed me the little lot of clay in the synagogue

that is believed to be the rests of the Golem. Later I became aware of the many adaptations

this story had in literature and film. Often the image of the Golem was rendered into a vicious

creature that cannot be controlled by his inventor anymore, causing death and illnesses where

ever he appears. In this sense the story of the Golem has many parallels with Frankenstein′s

creation: the Monster1.

Alike the story of the Golem the story of the Monster is one of a creation that gets beyond

control. Frankenstein, in an attempt to play God, creates a thing that is supposed to make him

famous and that will earn him the respect of the scientific world. In that very process of

creation he is not aware of the effects this could cause later; his only concern is to be the first

to install the breath of life into a being he created on his own. It is an attempt that shows his

great ignorance and also his arrogance towards god as the only creator. This vanity is later to

1 It will be necessary to capitalize the Monster when it is referred to Frankenstein′s Monster, as there is no

distinct name to it.

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be punished be the hands of his own creation, and he realizes it only to late and only in

retrospection: "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the

wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? [...] but now that I

had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my

heart" (Shelley, 39). Frankenstein turns away from his creation and is thus to be the first

human turning his back on the Monster. In fact, the Monster ­ very much like any child ­ is

just looking for parental love, for friendship; but society abandons him repeatedly so he

becomes a villain. This is not only his fault alone. Frankenstein by turning his back on the

creature he made is much more to blame.

Actually, reading the novel as a romantic novel, it is Victor who is solely responsible for all

the death and destruction caused by his Monster, "[a]s a romantic novel Victor is responsible,

because he abandoned his creation" (Anonymous (8)). But the text can also be read

differently. "As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god

[sic]" (Anonymous (8)). Nevertheless there is an even more interesting way of understanding

the novel: "as a Gothic novel, Victor is at fault, because, he and the creature are two different

parts of the same person" (Anonymous (8)). Bearing in mind that the creation of the Monster

is very similar to the Biblical creation of Adam, and also bearing in mind the allusions and the

intertextuality to Milton′s

Paradise Lost

, the Monster can be seen as the copy of his creator,

just as God formed Adam according to his own image. He is a kind of Doppelganger to Victor

Frankenstein. Doppelgangers are often seen as one′s reflection; sometimes their appearances

are believed to foreshadow bad luck, illnesses and even death (Anonymous (1)). These

ghostly images are often reported to look like the original person, act like them, mock them or

harm them; but still they are no physical appearances, just a mere shadow of the original

person. Many persons, among them famous people like Abraham Lincoln (Anonymous (1)),

are reported to have seen their own image. It is not a big surprise that even Percy Shelley

seemed to have had one of those visions foreshadowing his own death. Under this perspective

it can be assumed that Victor Frankenstein and the Monster is one and the same person,

although distinct ­ and even opposite ­ in some points of their personal history. They are thus

very much like dichotomies: Victor has a loving and caring family, his parents give him any

opportunity to gain knowledge; he is described to be a handsome man; he marries the woman

he loves and he is a well-respected member of society. In contrast the Monster is born without

a family and his father turns away from him in disgust; he self educates himself by reading the

books he finds ­ among them

Paradise Lost

and Victor Frankenstein′s notebook on the

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