The Doppelganger in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein - Essay Example

Prof The Doppelganger in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein In his 1919 essay, “The Uncanny,” psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud discusses some of the boundaries of the unconscious mind, specifically focusing on events or things which cause fear, doubt, and other negative emotions. One of the points he raises in his essay is the idea of the doppelganger, or double, which can serve not only as a literal double, but also as a metaphor for human ideas about self, death, and evil. One of the clearest examples of the idea of the doppelganger in literature can be found in Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel Frankenstein. A Freudian psychoanalytical reading of the novel shows that the best way to understand the conflict between Victor Frankenstein and his monster is that of the ego’s attempt to survive through the creation of a double, and how that double ends up being its death. The Doppelganger in Freud Before analyzing Shelley’s novel, it will be helpful to get a clear understanding of what exactly a doppelganger is in the Freudian sense. In his essay, “The Uncanny,” Freud essentially engages in a psychoanalytic study of aesthetics. Specifically, he is interested in exploring what makes things “uncanny,” that is: what it is “that arouses dread and creeping horror” (Freud, 1). In trying to figure this out, Freud first looks at definitions of “Heimlich,” the German word from which the word translated into English as “uncanny” derives. However, he argues that to really determine what makes things uncanny, we need to look not at definitions, but “those things, persons, impressions, events and situations which are able to arouse in us a feeling of the uncanny in a very forcible and definite form” (Freud, 5). What is most interesting about Freud’s essay in regards to Shelley’s Frankenstein is that Freud explicitly locates these things in the question of “whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might not be in fact animate” (Freud, 5). In short, what most causes in us a disturbing feeling of the uncanny is the idea that something which seems dead is alive, or whether something which seems alive is dead. This has clear connections to Frankenstein, which centers around a man’s creation of a “monster” cobbled together from corpses “for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Shelley, 52). Freud, beyond this, specifically mentions as causes of the uncanny things somewhat like Frankenstein’s monster, such as “the impression made by wax-work figures, artificial dolls and automatons” (5). Freud takes this further by examining the idea of the double, or doppelganger. This double, he says, is a specific form of the uncanny that was “originally an insurance against destruction to the ego” which stems from what he labels “primary narcissism,” or “the soil of unbounded self-love” (Freud, 9). This primary narcissism, which is a part of Freud’s understanding of the stages the human brain passes through as it moves from infancy and childhood into adulthood, has an effect on the idea of the double once it has passed. Far from being the denial of mortality that its creator initially intended, whether unconsciously or consciously, the double for a mature mind because little more than a “ghastly harbinger of death,” (Freud, 9) and one of the strongest examples of “uncanniness” that can be found (Freud, 10). Frankenstein’s Doppelganger The relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his Monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein follows something very similar to what Freud describes in his analysis of the Doppelganger in “The Uncanny.” Frankenstein, when he first attempts to create life from dead flesh, fits very well into Freud’s category of the narcissist. He is obsessed with his study and his work, and when he finally discovers the secret to create life it is critical that he describes the bounds of life and death as bonds that “I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world” (Shelley, 49, emphasis mine). Victor’s focus on his goal comes not from any selfless desire to help the world, in other words, but through a drive to be recognized as superior and special, as would be typical of a narcissistic child. The Monster, too, is well described by Freud’s analysis of the doppelganger: he is almost literally immortality, in the sense that he has been brought to life from death itself. Likewise, Victor imagines that once he has succeeded in his task, the nervous illness which has taken hold of him will be driven away and that he would return to his former “excellent health” (Shelley, 51-52). As the novel progresses, and Victor loses some of his innocent, if misguided, enthusiasm, the Monster loses his status as a representation of immortality and becomes an object of terror, and of the uncanny as Freud describes it. This can be seen in the description of the Monster’s first movements. Despite Victor’s attempts at beauty, as “his limbs were in proportion, and … his features … beautiful,” the creature’s first movements are terrifying: “it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (Shelley, 52). Victor’s first response to his creation further shows this. Far from being elated, as he had hoped he would be, he is taken with horror. “[T]he beauty of the dream vanished,” he says, and “breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley, 53). In fact, the horror he feels is so strong that he cannot bear to be in the same room with his own creation, and flees outside for the rest of the night. This feeling grows stronger and stronger with the Monster’s actions as the story progresses. The Monster murders Victor’s youngest brother, adding to the reader’s and Victor’s sense of horror at what has happened. When Victor finally meets the Monster again, it demands that he create it a female companion, adding to the uncanny feelings of it being a doppelganger as Victor himself is engaged to Elizabeth. Although Victor agrees to do so, he does not like it, as the figure of the double has moved from one of immortality to one of death and ill health. As he describes it, the Monster is a figure of “wickedness” and evil (Shelley, 141). But here, too, Victor plays further into the role of the narcissist. He cannot accept that he himself is evil, but transfers all his negative feelings about himself onto the Monster and the wife he has agreed to create for it. “[Y]ou shall never make me base in my own eyes,” he says (Shelley, 141). Conclusion: Harbinger of Death The final stage of the Doppelganger, as described by Freud in his essay, is that it represents a “harbinger of death” (9). The Monster represents this in a specific sense, for Victor, in that it threatens to “cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy” if he does not create it a wife (Shelley, 141). Far from being the immortal hope Victor hoped to create, it has become a harbinger of death in a very literal sense from the instant it began to kill. At the same time, though, the Monster represents at least metaphorically a death of the ego for the whole human race. This is suggested through foreshadowing early in the work, as Victor imagines himself as creator of “a new species,” (Shelley, 49) implying that they may in one sense replace humanity as the main form of life. The Monster is denied this role, of course, as he is not granted the wife he seeks. However, he re-iterates to Walton in the story’s final chapter that humanity should look to itself, and not to him, for the evils that have happened. It was Frankenstein, he says, who caused him “hours and months of misery … wasting in impotent passions,” and who caused him to kill (Shelley, 219). Seen in this light, Shelley’s Frankenstein is an exploration of the problems with human ego, and arguably even of the classical idea of hubris, or a fall from pride. Victor, although he refuses to see it, is responsible for all the negative events in the book, and implicated in creating a race which is a threat to mankind itself. In this sense, the relationship between the Monster and Victor is similar to what Freud talks about in “The Uncanny.” The Monster, as Victor’s doppelganger, represents the progression of the mind from a narcissistic self-love to an acknowledgement of death, and the horror which this acknowledgement creates when paired with the idea of a psychic double. Works Cited Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny.” Alix Strachey, trans. n.d. Web. 2 May 2013. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. James Reiger, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. Print. Read More