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

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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