A marxist critique of Frankenstein

The Embodiment of Production as seen in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

            Human civilization has long suffered from the tyranny of evil men through greed and manipulation. Wealth creates a schism between groups of people that forms a social hierarchy, a system of exploitation that continues to this day. It is said that money is the root of all evil and the allure of wealth is tempting enough to entice most men to succumb to corruption. Social revolutions coincide with an era of suffering by the masses. Repression and oppression only work to unite the victims together through a hatred for a common enemy. The most effective way to suppress a revolution is to keep the people from uniting but this proves to be difficult because in order to keep the masses ignorant to the reality of their situations, they must be made to be complacent with their lives. The exploitation of a people exists through the evil in mankind’s heart. Human nature is corrupt because knowledge is the secret to power which creates an inequality in the balance of life because of knowledge’s coexistence with science. Nature is pure and beneficial for all, but technology corrupts and destroys the purity of nature and creates a rift between the people with wealth and without wealth because science is a form of power. The only ailment the two social classes have in common is death. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows the corruption of nature by science through the monster’s production rather than creation, signifying the scientific mastery of nature’s design creating a social and economic schism.
            The monster is a complex symbol of capitalism and the working class because the economic system of capitalism is wholly dependent on production through the exploitation of the proletariat and the monster is a production of man. Frankenstein produces the monster in an attempt to create the perfect human being but instead creates an abomination, “God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance” (Shelley 116). The seeds of capitalism were sewn from the economic system of imperialism which involved the raping of weaker countries to be stripped of all their wealth. By exploiting and preying upon developing nations two beneficial effects happen for the imperialist country: the nation grows richer, and a possible threat is suppressed. The monster is a creation of man just like capitalism but was born from corruption and is therefore uncontrollable. The uncontrollable monster in capitalism is the banks which are instilled in the system as regulators of commerce, controlling the flow of money and therefore controlling the lives of the people just like when Steinbeck writes, “The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it"(Steinbeck, Chapter 5). Capitalism is meant to be a system that any person can use to gain an economic foothold in society but that means that another person must lose their foothold. Capitalism brings to mind the barbaric system of an eye for an eye, because the evil in men’s heart creates this monstrosity that prevents peaceful coexistence, Steinbeck states,” There ain't room enough for you an' me, for your kind an' my kind, for rich and poor together all in one country, for thieves and honest men. For hunger and fat."(Chapter 12). The coexistence cannot exist between the natural and the scientific because the scientific exploits the natural resources of the world to further the advancement of oppression through knowledge. The monster is intended to be an improvement on nature’s design, a scientific marvel, where nature symbolizes god and science is the greed in mankind.

            Science and economic prosperity are sought out by every government in Western civilization. Regardless of a country’s economic or scientific standing, the majority of the people suffer because scientific pursuits are sought after by the educated that possess the intellectual capacity to accomplish such feats. This is proven in great part by William Blake’s poem London which gives a portrayal of the poor living conditions of the economic capital of the world, England. The overall idea of London, is that capitalism is a corrupt system and will infect every part of an organism until the organism eventually dies. The city of London is the organism, and the top officials have all been infected by imperialistic greed, the parliament, the clergy, and even nature seem to have all been “chartered” by the English government. The English industrial era brought forth technology “whose origins seemed inexplicable to contemporaries, appearing to herald a world utterly unlike what had gone before”, according to Montag (386). The monster much like the city of London is an industrial marvel that seems out of place in the natural world not just by the creation but through appearance. The monster is regarded as an abomination of the industrial era whose technological appearance drives away all forms of companionship, “the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union”. The refusal to accept the monster into society is a symbol for the less than peaceful integration of industry into the lives of the proletariat. Although the monster is a living organism in the world Montag writes, “He is the sole embodiment of the industrial in an otherwise rural world” (394), and this view of the monster’s world conflicts with the “chartered river” of Blake’s London. The industrial revolution is embodied through the monster only and serves as much more of a contrast with the rest of the world which seems to come from nature emphasizing the loneliness of the monster. Capitalism creates competition for wealth and for a standard of living that is acceptable, which for most is just survival. Steinbeck writes, “How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him--he has known a fear beyond every other" (Steinbeck, Chapter 19), and this emphasizes the point that the reason that the masses are angered by the actions of the elite is because the working class’ wages create a less than survivable income for a family.  A time of great technological prosperity does not mean a time of social prosperity because according to Montag, “Frankenstein thus rejects one of the most fundamental myths of the Enlightenment, the notion that scientific and economic progress will continually improve the condition of humankind”. Humanity suffers all across the world by capitalism which is a modern form of imperialism, except that now the oppression is done economically rather than through war. Capitalism comes from the Enlightenment ideals and this creates a sense that the economic prosperity will be shared but in the end it is the proletariat that suffers.

            The proletariat is the ultimate symbol of a victim of capitalism, merely a cog in the capitalistic machine. The monster represents the ideal that the proletariat although composed of many, is still left alone and just like the monster at birth without voice. Knowledge is power and in order to keep the masses satisfied with their meager existence they must be made to believe that this is the natural order of life, but oppression can unite the people. According to Steinbeck,” "And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed."(Steinbeck Chapter 19) portraying how the down trodden can only be taken advantage until the misery must come to an end. The monster’s misery, much like the proletariat, comes from knowledge.  Vidal states, “Not raw nature but his very humanity and his self-acquired education which bring about his destruction. He learns about society, about emotions, respect, and above all about love, by observation and by reading” (Vidal 40) illustrating that the blissful existence of ignorance is the only method of keeping the masses in place. The problem with controlling the masses is that when a revolution must be called upon to instill a new regime, the masses become an uncontrollable monster which will be the downfall of capitalism as seen when Montag writes,” The very logic of capitalism has produced the means of its own destruction: the industrial working class, that fabricated collectivity whose interests are irreconcilable with those of capital and which is thus rendered monstrous in the eyes of its creators” (Montag 388). The capitalistic system can only function as long as workers can continue to be exploited and the monster is a representation of the proletariat lashing back at the system. The monster destroys the life of Frankenstein because although Frankenstein created him, the monster was neglected from the point of creation and is thought of as a monster rather than a cherished creation such as the way a parent would celebrate their child and Shelley writes,” My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed”(Shelley, 45). The monster was denied any sort of human interaction which is hypocritical of Frankenstein whom understood the benefits of a loving parental relationship. The creation of the monster is the equivalent of the owners creating jobs where the workers’ well-being will be cast aside in the name of profit expansion. In the interest of profitable business the owner must decide between a lavish lifestyle and a fair living for the work force, more often than not the decision is to enrich the lives of the rich. The wants of the many outweigh the needs of the few, capitalism in its truest form.

Frankenstein is called “slave” by the monster because Frankenstein is a slave to science. The advancement of science is the reason he creates the monster and in that sense Frankenstein is doomed to a subservient existence, just like the wealthy in the capitalistic system. Capitalism cannot survive without competition therefore the wealthy use their vast resources to oppress the majority of the people as a necessity to maintain a wealthy lifestyle. A lavish existence is spent in uncertainty because one possesses what most desire and desire breeds temptation, and eventually the possession is taken. In a sense, in order for Frankenstein to create life, one must end, because energy can neither be created nor destroyed (Law of conservation of Energy), therefore the monster’s birth is Frankenstein’s death. Frankenstein’s greed for glory creates a monster which is tarnished from birth by the evil in the mind of the creator as seen when Shelley writes,” It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world” (45). Frankenstein succumbs to the allure of science and therefore is an “instrument of science” (Montag 390). Science needs to sacrifice the purity of nature in the name of technological advancement just like capitalism and its exploitation of the proletariat. Shelley foreshadows the fall of capitalism to the proletariat, rather science by nature, when she writes,” As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed” (48). The monster is uncontrollable because it is the embodiment of the proletariat’s unrest and a symbol of the power of nature which instantly destroys the tree which would be regarded as a symbol of strength and longevity. The tree represents the security of the wealthy which can be instantly destroyed by nature and the uprising of the proletariat. Frankenstein is a “slave” to science and therefore a slave to the capitalistic system that cherishes capital over the general well being of human kind. A prime example of the human suffering brought forth by capitalism is the great depression and the migration of the Midwest to California and Steinbeck writes, "Is a tractor bad? Is the power that turns the long furrows wrong? If this tractor were ours, it would be good - not mine, but ours. We could love that tractor then as we have loved this land when it was ours. But this tractor does two things - it turns the land and turns us off the land. There is little difference between this tractor and a tank. The people were driven, intimidated, hurt by both. We must think about this." (Steinbeck, Chapter 14). Technology has a direct correlation with the economic wealth of a country and in order to increase profits, corporations remove the human worker from the cycle because of the inefficiency of human labor. The monster represents science as the master of nature and the false sense of security that the wealthy possess in thinking that their lives will last forever, but happiness is a state of mind that no manner of wealth can buy. In death everyone is equal, Shakespeare writes, “Your/ worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all/ creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for/ maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but/ variable service, two dishes, but to one table: / that's the end” (Hamlet). Capitalism creates the eternal chain of suffering where the only solace of equality is death.

Competition encompasses the lives of all in modern society. Though the context has changed the idea remains the idea is to survive. Social Darwinism teaches that mankind is in a perpetual competition for the best lifestyle but the elite corrupt the good nature of the many. A monster just like Frankenstein’s is unleashed upon the elite because of the neglect, just like how Frankenstein neglected the monster. The monster is the embodiment of what greed can create and the suffering it causes. The lonely existence fits perfectly with the social warfare that capitalism promotes. The monster is a voice for the voiceless, because the passages where the monster talks with Frankenstein illuminate the complexity and eloquence with which the monster speaks. The proletariat is not just an ignorant fool content with their existence, they are complex individuals that like Frankenstein are shaped by the different experiences that they are exposed to, in other words they are human. The wealthy see the majority as a monster that must be contained, but in reality, had the majority chosen it to be so the elite would not exist, this is why Frankenstein’s monster is the ideal symbol for the working class because the monster could have easily ended Frankenstein’s life but chose not to because peaceful coexistence still remains a plausible solution, but society rejects this socialist ideal and chooses capitalism. Survival of the fittest is the essence of capitalism. 

Works Cited

Blake, William. "London." Literature: a Portable Anthology. By Janet E. . Gardner. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. Print.

Montag, Warren. "The "Workshop of Filthy Creation": A Marxist Reading of Frankenstein." Frankenstein. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 384-95. Print.

Shakespeare, William. "The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark." Literature a Portable Anthology And Macbeth. Bedford/st Martins, 2004. Print.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Johanna M. Smith. Frankenstein. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin's, 2000. Print.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.

            Vidal, Ricardo. "Man's Creation of Man: From the Cruel Nature of De Sade and Mary Shelley to F. T. Marinetti's Mechanical Son." Prism(s) Essays in Romanticism 13 (2005): 26-46. MLA International Bibliography. Web.