Archetypes in Frankenstein

Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus is a very archetypal book in all of its aspects.  In almost all writing one can identify common archetypes.  There are many different archetypes that exist, ranging from the basic “hero” to more specific characteristic sets like “femme fatal”.[1]  A majority of the common archetypes can be found within most good stories.  In these stories the characters fit general character molds also used in past stories, with some of the original character molds probably going back as far as the origination of language.  It is easily stated that people enjoy stories that use the same basic hero’s journey story mold and have commonly known archetypes than those that do not.  In some stories recognizing archetypes may be harder than in others, but nonetheless they are present.  Archetypes do not only fit to characters though, there are settings, symbols, events, and themes that are very archetypal as well.

            Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus is a tragedy about the harms of having too much knowledge and the need for human companionship.  In this story there are many different archetypes, from character archetypes to thematic ones.  It is possible to fit each character in Frankenstein to many different common archetypal characters, and many of the themes to eternally lasting archetypal themes.

An archetypal setting has some universal aspect that is associated with certain human experiences or feelings.  A good example of an archetypal setting would be “the garden” possibly symbolizing the Garden of Eden, and a safe controlled environment.  In theory an archetypal setting could be considered the place that you would expect a certain story to take place.  When a character in a story is too materialistic and needs to change their ways, the desert might be a good archetypal setting.  This is because the desert is a place where a person can find almost nothing material, and would have to learn to survive as a minimalist.[2]

            Throughout all literature there are symbols, many of them with universal meaning.  Archetypal symbols are seen in many different stories, and portray almost the same meanings to all audiences.  Some symbols have very complex meanings, like water symbolizing birth, death, and resurrection, as well as purification and fertility.  Others are more clear cut, like sun rise and sun down symbolizing birth and death.[3]

            There are also many universal themes in stories today.  These archetypal themes are extreme representations of a certain problems or concerns.  Some of the more common archetypal themes are themes like companionship, man/womanhood, or the hero’s journey.  Many believe that certain themes, like the hero’s journey, can be seen in all stories.  Joseph Campbell is a leading supporter of this theory, known for originally introducing the concept of the hero’s journey in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

            The first and most predominant character archetype is “the hero”.  The hero is generally the main character in a story, and usually goes through some sort of major change or realization by the end of the story.  Christopher Vogler wrote “. . . the word ‘hero’ is Greek, from the root that means ‘to protect and to serve.’ A hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others. . . At the root the idea of Hero is connected with self-sacrifice.”[4]

            In Frankenstein it is possible to look at both of the main characters as the hero.  Starting with the Victor Frankenstein, the hero is the most obvious archetype fit to him.  It is easy to say that Victor made a horrible mistake, went through a difficult journey, and was a changed character by the end of the book.  Life for Victor started out very normal, then got pretty crazy after he brought his creature to life, and ended with his death at the end of the book.[5]  The scene when Victor finally comes to the realization that he has to die for the better of himself, the creature, and all humanity, is a very heroic in an archetype sense.  Victor in theory makes the ultimate sacrifice of his own life to save everyone else around him.  In my opinion Victor fits the archetype of the hero the best.

            The creature may also have been looked at as the hero of the book though.  After going through everything the creature did, some of its actions may have been considered justified, and it is clear in the closing scene of the story when the creature is upset that it’s creator is dead that the creature itself had changed dramatically.  Though when looking at the book and plot line, for some it may be much harder to imagine the creature as the hero rather than Victor.

            Two other archetypes that could easily be associated with Victor would be that of the scientist or visionary.  In the story, Victor is a scientist who stumbles on to the power of nature and reanimates life.  Thus Victor can easily be associated with the typically good scientist in stories.  At the same he could be considered a visionary for making this discovery, but perhaps not a good visionary because he creates life for his own benefit not that of human race.  A shadow visionary is a possible way of describing Victor, because he uses his vision to help accomplish himself and ultimately causes harm to others.[6]  In a way a combination of these two archetypes could possibly be summed up as a mad or evil scientist archetype, but this is not as fitting as it normally would be because most readers don’t view Victor as mad or evil.  I believe Victor was a visionary and scientist who had good intentions all along, and did not realize what the outcome of his actions would be.

            When it comes to the relationship between Victor and his creature, Victor should have taken on the archetypal roles of mentor, father, and companion.[7]  In the story Victor has little success taking on any of these roles.  When he first brings the monster to life he abandons it and doesn’t take on the role of the creature’s father like he should.  The creature is basically a baby in a grown up deformed body that needs guidance in the human world.  Victor as the creature’s creator should have been its first and only companion, its mentor who showed it how to survive in our world, and last but not least its father figure and he failed miserably in all three fields.

            Looking at the same relationship inversely, the creature would have ideally taken on the roles of student, companion, and child.[8]  Being brought into such a confusing complex world without knowledge of anything or a parental figure was very devastating to the creature.  The creature takes on the archetypal character of the orphan child, who has to mature on its own and learn to be independent quickly.  The monster adapted and taught itself the essentials of life on its own by observing others, which shouldn’t be how a child is raised.  A person’s parents are typically their closest companions, and that wasn’t a role that Victor played.  The creature lacked any companionship its whole life, but yearned for it the entire time.  In my opinion if Victor would have taken on the roles he needed to, the creature might have not have had such a rough uprising.

            The experiences both characters went through lead them to portray a more negative archetype, that of avengers.[9]  It started with the creature, trying to get revenge on Victor for everything that had happened to it, ruining Victor’s life and pushing him to his limits.  Then the role reversed after the killing of Elizabeth, Victor was the one out to get the monster for ruining his happiness and companionship.  In both scenarios the characters were wrong, and their quests for revenge did neither of them any good in the end.  I believe both characters almost perfectly fit the archetype of avenger at different times.

            The themes of Mary Shelley’s book are also very archetypal.  The themes of Frankenstein when looked at in their most basic form are common stories that have been used and reworked throughout history to entertain people.  One of the main themes of Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus is that of companionship.  Both of the main characters struggle with this issue in different ways throughout the story.  The typical companionship archetype contains someone who has never been able to gain companionship struggling to do so, or someone who lost all of their companions and is trying to cope with the situation. This story contains both of those archetypal stories within it, each one fitting one of the characters almost perfectly.  If both characters would have had companionship when they needed it most, I think the story might have been a comedy rather than a tragedy.

            The danger of knowledge is also a very archetypal theme in Frankenstein.  There have been many stories written over time containing this same theme, including the story referred to in the book subtitle, the Modern Prometheus.  The archetype of this theme usually contains a major character flirting with the logic of the world, and learning more than they should know.  This generally leads to some sort of struggle for the knowledge seeking character, and finally a major recognition before the story ends.  It is very easy to find all of these key points in the story, when Victor goes against human nature and brings the creature to life, when the creature goes on a killing spree and seeks revenge on Victor, and finally at the end of the story when Victor lets the monster kill him realizing it is the only thing that will stop it.[10]

            Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus is archetypal in all aspects of the term.  The characters Shelley creates, the situations they go through, and the symbols found throughout the story all can be related to similar characters, situations, and symbols found in most good stories known to man.  At the end of the book Victor sacrifices his own life because he thinks it is for the best of mankind as a whole.[11]  I honestly think Victor Frankenstein was a hero.  Supporting this thought, using the words of Joseph Campbell “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”[12]  That is exactly what Victor did when he stopped and awaited his death from the creature.

[1] Caroline Myss, “A Gallery of Archetypes” http://www.myss.com/library/contracts/three_archs.asp (accessed May 10, 2009).

[2] Myss, “A Gallery of Archetypes”, 2009

[3] Ibid, 2009

[4] Christopher Volger, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers 2nd edition (Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 1998), 35.

[5] Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981)

[6] Myss, “A Gallery of Archetypes”, 2009

[7] Ibid, 2009

[8] Myss, “A Gallery of Archetypes”, 2009

[9] Ibid, 2009

[10] Shelley, Frankenstein, 1981

[11] Ibid, 1981

[12] Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces 3rd edition (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008), 23.