The Doppelgänger in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

(e-reading) GILBERT S, GUBAR S 1996, “Mary Shelley’s Monstrous Eve.” In Paul HUNTER (Ed), Frankenstein. Norton Critical Edition. New York; London: Norton; 225-240. (NCE) Halberstam, J. 1995, "Making Monsters: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" Skin Show: gothic horror and the technology of monstors, Durham: Duke University Press, pp28-49 JOHNSON, B.

This Greek myth has an odd reflection to Victor Frankenstein struggle after his sin against God. Although in the Greek myth, Prometheus seems like a hero, Victor, on the other hand, is an example of science’s domination over civilization, and the outcome of Frankenstein is that of nature’s vengeance against his impurity. Victor Frankenstein is the Id of the novel; throughout the novel, even though Victor is thinking constantly, he does not take time to ac... ... middle of paper ... ... The Life Cycle Completed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

2014. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Frankenstein: Creation and Monstrosity. NY: Reaktion Books, 1997. Print. Gigante, Denise. “Facing the Ugly: The Case of Frankenstein.” English Literary History 67.2 (2000): 565-87.

N.p. : n.p., 1962. N. pag. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism.

4. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2006. Print. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus.

Victor says, “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (35). Victor observes as his monster is starting to come to life. He is overwhelmed by him coming to life and how foul the creature looked. Once the monster was alive Victor fled in fear because it was a hideous sight. In the essay “Frankenstein: myths of scientific and medical knowledge and stories of human reactions,” S... ... middle of paper ... ...ng to life what he thinks will be a new form of humans.

All through the novel Mary Shelley has intertwined the characters Victor Frankenstein and the monster, which is quite evident from close reading. The perseverance towards ambition, feeling of being “other”, thirst for vengeance, and method of obtaining knowledge were all similar for both the monster and Frankenstein suggesting that, in fact they are doubles. “God in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of your’s, more horrid from its very resemblance.”(Shelley, 155) It is quite clear from the above quotation that the creation of the monster by Frankenstein is similar to the creation of the man by The Creator as in The Book of Genesis. The point to be noted here is that God created man in His own image and likeliness similarly, Frankenstein created the monster in his own image and likeliness. It is known that physically, the monster was quite hideous and hence the image and likeliness referred to here cannot be in flesh and appearance but in the personality Frankenstein possessed.

2014. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York, New York: Penguin Group Inc, 1978. Print.

in Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Vol. 1.