Frankenstein and Alice in Wonderland
The notion of the monstrous, the line between what is acceptable or unacceptable in society, has been stretched thinner and thinner through time. But the concept that what is unlike ourselves challenges existing social relations. In other words, bodies that appear different or fail to perform as expected threaten not only the success of the individual, but the basic ideological assumptions upon which society itself is founded. Who is to blame? Probably society and the media. In the last couple centuries, humans have gone from living in a "natural world to living in a manufactured one" (Lasn 4). But before you curse at the television shows and magazines of today, realize how far back this cycle of rejecting the abnormal, shunning the so-called "freaks" of time, extends. Starting with modern times, where putting silicon pouches in one's chest or injecting botulism, a deadly toxin, into one's face is considered normal, if not encouraged, by today's society, to the 1930s-40s, when side shows and traveling freak exhibitions were at their peak in popularity, even as far back as the 1800s, with Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein--both fervently admired both then and now for manifesting the "outcasts" of 18th century literature, the "freak" and "freaky" of society have always been part of our culture.
In both Frankenstein and Alice in Wonderland, both written within 50 years of each other, the reader is introduced to characters considered abnormal, either an outcast or freak or both.
In Frankenstein, we have Victor and his monster, creator and creation, outcast by society and in some ways by each other. Victor, the epitome of a "mad scientist," becomes obsessive and reclusive while composing his creation, which turns out to be freakishly hideous and disproportionate to a normal man. One can also argue that Victor himself is a kind of monster, as his ambition, secrecy, and selfishness alienates him from human society. Ordinary on the outside, he may be the true "monster" inside, as he is eventually consumed by an obsessive hatred of his creation.
In addition to his appearance, the monster finds it impossible to function in a society, even after his intelligence passes that of the very people and society that shun him. The town, as well as Victor, fears what it does not understand. Even after his plea for a companion, just one being that understands him and doesn't fear him, Victor cannot comply. He imagines that his new creature might not want to seclude herself, as the monster had promised, or that the two creatures might have children, creating "a race of devils...on the earth" (Shelley 121). and in turn, the monster curses and vows revenge, then departs, swearing that he will be with Victor on his wedding night.
Both of these characters, as well as Walton, the seafaring narrator, can be seen as somewhat abandoned by society, some more than others. Frankenstein's withdrawn and feverishly passionate nature ostracizes him from society, and in a way, the reader. Yet at the same time, his madness gives him a sense of humanity and makes him more "human." The Monster, although forced into exile because of his grotesque appearance, continuously tries to conform as much as humanly (or monsterly) possible, by both educating himself and requesting a companion from his creator. Walton, in his own way, has been deemed an outcast, because of both his previous failures and his condition at sea with the possibility of failure.
All three main characters/narrators use confession as their rhetoric device as a cause for exoneration, excusing what would otherwise be horrific actions on the part of the confessor. The Monster uses confession of the murder of Victor's brother as justification for the need for accompaniment. "You are in the wrong...I am malicious because I am miserable" (Shelley 120). The reader is left to sympathize with the Monster's loneliness. Frankenstein, in turn, confesses to Walton, admits to his overwhelming feelings of guilt due to the Monster, and responsibility for the deaths his creation has caused. The choice one's own whether or not Victor is, in fact, guilty--how responsible is he for the horror his monster has caused? Walton takes his turn confessing throughout the book of the horrific tale told by Frankenstein.
Another important device used by both Victor and his Monster to gain acceptance is their relation to both Adam and Satan in John Milton's Paradise Lost. The Monster becomes intrigued with the story, believing it to be a true story. He finds himself much like Satan, "The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone" (Shelley 240). He also finds what he has in common with Adam. "Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other human being...I was wretched, helpless and alone. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition (Shelley 135-36). The scientist, himself, "owes much to Milton's Satan. Victor's vaunting ambition defies God as creator of man" (Blumberg 43). Frankenstein takes a life into his own hands; he eats from the Tree of Knowledge in a sense and is "banished" from his peaceful world, much like Adam. "And disobedience...now alienated, distance and distaste" (Milton 234).
Mary Shelley uses these confessions and the well-known parallel between the Monster and Paradise Lost as a means of classifying her characters as outcasts, the "freaks" of their time.
Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland displays what happens when our logic is the logic of the illogical, when the roles are reversed creating the irony of a normal child being the outcast in a world of freaks.
The book revolves around the experiences of a child in a world of imagination, which makes the "illogical" much more acceptable. The book begins with hurling the girl into an unknown world of realization. Alice is forced to come up with logical explanations for her current state and surroundings. In her mind, she indulges in an abstract notion of adventure where she encounters various beings with a way of living quite different from that of her own. During her encounter with the Caterpillar and the Mock Turtle, she has to juggle the reality of her existence and her present reality. She realizes that she is no longer who she was; she is the outsider.
Carroll uses rhetorical devices such as irony and chaos to highlight what makes Alice so different from the creatures around her. Every creature there can justify the most absurd behavior and their arguments for themselves are often most complex. Their strange reasoning is another of Carroll's sources of delight for the reader and challenge for Alice. She has to learn to discern between "illogical" logic and utter nonsense. But there is no doubt that nonsense can be instructive all the same. As Alice as well as the readers who follow her adventures recognize illogical events, one can acknowledge one's capacity for logic in the form of what should normally happen. "You're a serpent [says the Pigeon]; and there's no use denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an egg!" "I have tasted eggs, certainly," said Alice... "But little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know" (Carroll 35). This backwards logic is what turns her into the freak, almost giving her a social "disability" in the foreign world she is lost in.
Figuratively, most people spend their time in an "ethereal place crated from fantasy and want... "the libido of the ugly" becomes second nature" (Lasn 7). But what would happen if everyone in a society were "normal"? Will everyone in that society be happy? As paraphrased by Charles Darwin, "If every one were cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty...we would wish to see...beyond the then existing standard" (Gilman 39). Both of these books prove that society, like it or not, creates the standards of who is normal and who is to be the outcast, what is socially acceptable and what interrupts a picture-perfect society. The characters, the unfortunate and troubled outcasts of their societies, show the reader where true logic can be found, even when that logic may be "the logic of the illogical," to the reader's delight and confusion.
Works Cited
Blumberg, Jane. Mary Shelley's Early Novels. Pgs. 1-39. Iowa City: University of Iowa
Press, 1993.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (unabridged). Pgs. 39-48. 1865. New
York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993.
Gilman, Sander L. Creating Beauty to Cure the Soul. Durham: Duke University Press,
1998.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam. Pgs 4-7. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1999.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost and other poems. 1831. New York: Mentor Books, 1961.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1994.
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