Frankenstein Through a Postmodern Lens
Introduction
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a romantic-gothic novel. A college student with an obsession to play God spends years trying to create life. He succeeds, but at a cost. He is horrified and disgusted with his creation and leaves it to fend for itself. Shaped by the pain of rejection and isolation, the creature seeks revenge against his creator. Both find destruction in the end. Elements such as exotic location, dark secrets, a looming monster, the main character with a Promethean quest, and the struggle between emotion and logic all contribute to its romantic-gothic nature. Even as a romantic-gothic novel, you can find specks of postmodernism such as irony, fragmentation, and hyperrealism.
Irony
Dr.Victor Frankesnetein’s monster killed multiple innocent people throughout the book (one of them was a child). The monster feels remorseful for what he has done, but he says that it was necessary to exact revenge upon Victor. This is ironic and hypocritical. He knows that killing is wrong… unless he wants to. Then it is totally acceptable. He will cry for chapters on end about how horrible he is, and that he is damned for his evil actions, and then he will go murder another person. Irony is often used in postmodernism to point out faults in society or in one’s character.
In “SURE, THE VELOCIRAPTORS ARE STILL ON THE LOOSE, BUT THAT’S NO REASON NOT TO REOPEN JURASSIC PARK” by Carlos Greaves, the author uses irony to say that reopening schools during a pandemic is a bad idea. Irony can be a very powerful tool if used correctly. By using irony and not directly calling out the thing you want to address, you bring more attention to its problems. I enjoyed the use of irony in Frankenstein. It gave the story depth and kept it from being repetitive. Instead of a monster on a murder spree, we see a creature who is truly conflicted by his actions.
Fragmentation
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is told by three separate points of view. The first is a shipman writing letters to his sister. The second is Victor. The third is the monster. Their viewpoints alternate throughout the story. The different narrators do not tell the story from the same point in time, so we are given a version of the story that has been chopped up and tossed together like a salad. This causes the reader to have to piece together the story for herself/himself.
Like Frankenstein, “I Carry Your Heart With Me” by E. E. Cummings, uses fragmentation. In the poem, fragmentation is used to create a string of many ideas that seem to never end. It is used for the same purpose in Frankenstein. By switching points of view it keeps the story moving so there are no slow points. I think this was a very bold move considering the writing styles of the time. It is interesting to see how different people view the same situation.
Hyperrealism
The novel drips with hyperrealism. Corpses can not be brought back to life in reality, but in a hyperrealistic story, anything is possible. The monster, the arctic setting, the fits of hysteria, all of it seems plausible but not quite possible. That is where hyperrealism excels!
In “Tribute” by Tenacious D, hyperrealism is used to tell a larger-than-life story. Hyperrealistic stories are meant to seem realistic, even if they could never exist in reality. This creates a whole new type of world readers (or viewers) can only dream of. I love hyperrealistic books. They give life to a whole new universe of ideas, characters, and situations that you could never find in ordinary life.
Conclusion
Even though Frankenstein was written in the romantic-gothic era, there is a reason it is referred to as the “Modern Prometheus”. Irony, fragmentation, and hyperrealism are telltale signs of a postmodern novel. Mary Shelly blended the different era styles beautifully.
Works Cited
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DWl1SuUmHDMMOfWL--G5OuRHdv_pcZ7iApd3jE_-0xA/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BKSuibZSJUxpnuS7Y2UgGQqbXv2abq9Ml-dOoZcUhCg/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bGsOAJTtxFu0Tm3-QcU02BGD0jME4IWmTj6dC-HMxmU/edit
