Mirroring in Frankenstein

 One element of Frankenstein that intrigued me throughout the book was the parallelism of thoughts, sensations, and emotions between Victor Frankenstein and the creature. It is ironic, considering that they view themselves as entirely opposed (Frankenstein, especially, seeks to differentiate himself from his creation), that they should be so similar. One could view the creature as Frankenstein’s “child”—not only his physical creation, but somehow also his patterns of thought and expression. Or perhaps both are expressions of the “natural man,” sensitive and generous; the crucial difference is that only Frankenstein has social support to nurture these sensations. The creator feels entitled to be loved, while his creation is rebuffed every time he asks for kindness. Perhaps most telling, when Frankenstein’s family connections are severed, he becomes as his creature has become. Deprived of the hope of love in the form of his mate, the creature swears to make Frankenstein miserable and robs him of his family, which in turn makes Frankenstein swear vengeance. At last, they are on the same level, equally debased from their initial aspirations.

                                                                                                                      

But it is not only their actions that are similar; they think in much the same way. Both are so tormented by introspection that they wish themselves rid of complicated thought: in the mountains Frankenstein reflects that “If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free . . . .” (Vol. II, Chapter II). When the creature reflects upon his own situation after reading the books he found, he expresses the same sentiment: “Oh, that I had for ever remained in my native wood, nor known or felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!” (Vol. II, Chapter V). Frankenstein’s description of crafting the creature rings with the same obsession with which the creature describes destroying his maker: “a resistless, and almost frantic impulse, urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit” (Vol. I, Chapter III); “a frightful selfishness hurried me on . . . The completion of my demoniacal design became an insatiable passion” (Vol. III, Walton’s last letter).

Further, both frequently bemoan their status as isolated beings whose plight no one can understand, when they could, in fact, understand each other if they would but put forth the effort. The creature seems the more conscious of this. He is more willing to make the attempt at the outset and uses his understanding to torment Frankenstein during the long chase at the end. They appear engaged in a contest of desolation: “No creature had ever been so miserable as I was” (Vol. III, Chapter VI), Frankenstein claims, but the creature counters, “Blasted as thou wert, my agony was still superior to thine” (Vol. III, Walton’s last letter). Even in despair they are alike. It is Frankenstein who asks, “Persecuted and tortured as I am and have been, can death be any evil to me?” (Vol. III, Chapter IV) and the creature who declares, “I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation” (Vol. III, Walton’s last letter), but either could have spoken either one at different points in the novel.

Frankenstein repeatedly says that he has unleashed something meant to kill him, his own nemesis or dark side: “I considered the being whom I had cast among mankind . . . nearly in the light of my own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to me” (Vol. I, Chapter VI) and “the monster whom I had created, the miserable daemon whom I had sent into the world for my destruction” (Vol. II, Chapter VI). Yet he doesn’t seem to internalize this, viewing the creature as an outside force rather than as a reflection of him. The relationship between creator and created could here be read as a dance of oblivious selfishness and self-loathing. 

(tl;dr –Frankenstein and his creature act a lot alike. It’s ironic, since they hate each other. Maybe it’s why the creature grows to hate Frankenstein so much that he does things he knows are terrible, and why Frankenstein is willing to do it right back.)