Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein'' and Aristotelian Premises
A Theoretical Reading
Gothic literature emerged around the 18th century which is a genre that emerged as a reaction to the Enlightenment. Gothic novels generally tell a story of a family either cursed or hiding dark secrets from the past or haunted by their destiny, with the usage of elements of supernatural and extraordinary beings. Usually set in a castle, abbey, or mansion with a dark atmosphere, arouses terror and fear in the reader. Horace Walpole wrote the pioneer gothic novel which is called ‘’The Castle of Otranto’’. It had been so popular and sensational that it influenced many authors and it is considered a precursor novel in the history of Gothic literature. The other sensational novel was Mary Shelley’s ‘’Frankenstein’’ written with a combination of typical Gothic elements as well as the ideas of Romanticism. It includes themes such as pride, isolation, ambition, parental abandonment, uncontrollable passion, and science. Gothic novels are not realistic rather than expressive since they are mostly short, and they do not imitate real-life occurrences compared to realistic novels. However, ‘’Frankenstein’’ includes various examples of mimetic tradition concerning many ideas of Aristotle that are present in the novel. Besides, it can be examined according to Aristotle’s Tragedy theory. The main point to focus on such a connection in this article will be to illustrate the immense influence of theories of Aristotle in literature and to demonstrate how perfectly the novel suits Aristotle’s ideas of Tragedy.
Aristotle, The Greek Philosopher (384 - 322BC)
Aristotle was a student at the academy where they valued geometry and scientific advances. Academy was founded by his teacher Plato in Ancient Greece after the death of his beloved teacher Socrates. Aristotle contributed to rhetoric, ethics, logic, and poetics immensely. His father was working as a doctor of medicine which aroused interest in Aristotle over science, especially biology. After leaving the academy, he had been a mentor and a teacher to Prince Alexander of Macedonia. Later he returned to Athens to open his teaching institution named ‘’Lyceum’’ where he reflected and taught his ideas to the middle-class people of ancient Greece. He wrote various works on Physics, Ethics, and Poetics. Many of which have survived. In his work ''Poetics'', he examined poetry and drama dealing with the ideas of poetry, mimesis, tragedy, and character.
‘’Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear affecting the proper purgation of these emotions.’’ (Aristotle 15)
According to this definition of Tragedy by Aristotle, it should be serious and complete along with the elements that arouse pity and fear by imitating actions. Imitation is a very important term for Aristotle. It is something natural since people tend to learn by imitating even as an infant, it is a process that helps individuals to learn and have a positive effect on their process of maturing, which works as a development. Thus, poetry and art which occurred out of imitation have a positive effect on individuals. The Greek tragedies are imitations as well. According to Aristotle, a tragedy play should be complete and should lead people to a state of a proper purge of emotions by creating Catharsis. It means a proper purging of the emotions of the audience that should masterfully be done by the playwright. To create a catharsis plot should be complex and should include elements such as ‘’Peripeteia’’, ‘’Anagnorisis’’ and ‘’Hamartia’’ as well as the scene of suffering. These three fundamental elements of Aristotle are necessary to have a powerful and complex plot in tragedies. Peripetia can be explained as a reversal of fortune when the good fortune of the characters turns suddenly and unexpectedly bad. The other element, Anagnoris, is referred to as recognition in which the protagonist learns the hidden truth that affects the plot as a whole. The final element is Hamartia which is referred to as the tragic flaw of the protagonist, often hubris and pride that leads to his unavoidable downfall. In addition, the scene of suffering, when characters suffer pain on stage, is also an important part of catharsis which also disturbs the audience while witnessing the scene of suffering.
Poetics by Aristotle
Apart from the proper usage of the elements of tragedy, a tragic hero should be very well crafted by the playwright. The hero should be an ordinary individual, and the hero’s fault must be a major fault that brings his/her downfall or affects society due to the related fault.
In order the prove how the work of Aristotle, ''Poetics'', is universal, I will attempt to analyze its premises related to mimetics and the fundamental conventions of tragedy, in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley which involves the stated ideas of Aristotle.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Penguin Classics
First of all, there are two important examples of imitation in the novel Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is an ambitious scientist who is determined to create a human life that will be more beautiful than life itself. So, he combines death matter by digging graves especially choosing the most beautiful body parts of the corpses. He creates and becomes afraid of what he has created and abandons the creation by himself. Even though he is as innocent as an infant who needs paternal affection to learn life and develop, his creator leaves him all alone. The process of development of the creature happens by the process of imitation. He takes refuge in the woods and learns through his way of imitation during nature.
“Spring advanced rapidly; the weather became fine and the skies cloudless. It surprised me that what before was desert and gloomy should now bloom with the most beautiful flowers and verdure. My senses were gratified and refreshed by a thousand scents of delight and a thousand sights of beauty. It was on one of these days when my cottagers periodically rested from labor—the old man played on his guitar, and the children listened to him—that I observed the countenance of Felix was melancholy beyond expression; he sighed frequently, and once his father paused in his music, and I conjectured by his manner that he inquired the cause of his son’s sorrow. Felix replied in a cheerful accent, and the old man was recommencing his music when someone tapped at the door.’’ (Shelley 122).
It is obvious from this passage that through the villagers, the creature finds himself in a phase where he starts to learn by observing and imitating. He learns the emotion of beauty and certain emotions that contributed to developing his sensible character compared to his creator. The second example of imitation is when the creature requests Victor to create a female companion to accompany him. Victor Frankenstein creates another creature by imitating himself. He follows the same steps used during which he was creating his first monster. However, he destroys the second monster immediately after creating it since he is overwhelmed by his act of playing the role of god and the potential of paring creatures. Thus, he not only destroys the possibility of reproduction but also a possible multiplicity of monsters as a result of mating with each other.
‘’As I looked at him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew.’’....‘’ Shutting the door, he approached me and said in a smothered voice, “You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend? Do you dare to break your promise? I have endured toil and misery; I left Switzerland with you; I crept along the shores of the Rhine, among its willow islands, and over the summits of its hills. I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England and among the deserts of Scotland. I have endured incalculable fatigue, cold, and hunger; do you dare destroy my hopes?” “Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.” (Shelley, 182).
It is clear to see from each excerpt that Victor Frankenstein destroys the second creation since he is aware of its possible consequences. His self-imitation is something that leads to the progress of the realization of his fatal fault.
A scene from the 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein.John Kobal Foundation
Finally, Frankenstein is a novel with complete action that provides the proper purge of emotions by creating Catharsis. The novel has a tragic hero as a protagonist. Victor Frankenstein is a hero who falls from grace due to his actions. ‘’Hamartia’’ occurs when Victor attempts to create a human being which is the duty of God. His Hubris is excessive pride that brings his own and his family's downfall. ‘’Anagnorisis’’ happens when Victor Frankenstein realizes that he exceeded the limits of nature by creating a human being after his creation turned up to be terrible. ‘’Peripetia’’ happens when the creation wants revenge due to his abandonment. He wants his creator to suffer as he suffered and kills both Victor’s wife Caroline and his best friend Henry. The scene of suffering occurs at the end of the novel when Victor dies due to hypothermia and when the creature, even though he was brutally abandoned, suffers pain from the death of his creator and ambiguously destroys himself in the Arctic.
To conclude, even though Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic novel from the 18th century that is not a realistic rather than expressive genre, it is clear thanks to the provided examples how perfectly it suits the ideas of Aristotle over mimesis and tragedy theory. There are a few examples of mimetic traditions in the novel shown by the actions of characters and Victor Frankenstein is a typical tragic hero whose actions bring his downfall. It can be concluded that even though Aristotle lived in Ancient Greece in 384 BC he continues to contribute to literature even in our century which proves him to be a timeless figure in the history of Western literature. In my opinion, Frankenstein is a novel that involves various themes especially isolation and human progress by perfectly blending Gothic themes with Romanticism.
A glimpse of the arctic setting in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Painting by: HMS Erebus - John Wilson Carmichael
SOURCES:
- Aristotle. ‘’Poetics’’. Karbon Kitaplar. March 2020.
- Pearson, Julia. '''Frankenstein' Overview Introduction to Mary Shelley's classic horror novel'' - Image: ''A scene from the 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein.John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images''. January 3, 2019. Accessed from https://www.thoughtco.com/frankenstein-overview-4582525 30 August 2023
- Shelley, Mary. ‘’Frankenstein’’. The Scholastic Classics. Scholastic. 2013