For the month of September, I’m going to be celebrating one of my favorite facets of storytelling, the fascinating, infuriating, sick, downright awful, and intensely powerful relationships between protagonist and antagonist.
At number five on the countdown of my favorite hero/villain pairings, we’ve got one of the big classics, Dr. Frankenstein and his monster.
First, though, I’m going to have to be a nitpicky English major and clear up a few things. I’m talking about the book, not the many film, stage, and other adaptations that have come since. In said book, Frankenstein is the name of our tragic mad scientist hero (Dr. Victor Frankenstein, to be precise), not the name of his monstrous creation, which is simply referred to as “the monster” and a number of other uncomplimentary monikers.
At number five on the countdown of my favorite hero/villain pairings, we’ve got one of the big classics, Dr. Frankenstein and his monster.
First, though, I’m going to have to be a nitpicky English major and clear up a few things. I’m talking about the book, not the many film, stage, and other adaptations that have come since. In said book, Frankenstein is the name of our tragic mad scientist hero (Dr. Victor Frankenstein, to be precise), not the name of his monstrous creation, which is simply referred to as “the monster” and a number of other uncomplimentary monikers.
The monster is also not green, just so’s ya know.
If you haven’t read it, the words “Frankenstein’s Monster” and the phrase “I’ve created a monster” (not a direct quote from the text but consistent with the spirit) are now common enough parts of the English language that you’re probably aware of the bare basics of their relationship. Man creates monster, is horrified and ultimately destroyed by it.
Here’s how it goes with a little more of the juice left in:
Victor is on the verge of giving up his childhood passion for science, disappointed by the limitations of physics, when he secretly discovers a method to create life. He obsesses over building a person from scratch, has to scale him up considerably to get all the little details right, and tests his idea.
Once the monster is alive, Victor finds him so horrifying and unnatural-looking that he runs out of the room, giving the monster time to escape and brood on his new daddy abandonment issues in peace.
Here’s how it goes with a little more of the juice left in:
Victor is on the verge of giving up his childhood passion for science, disappointed by the limitations of physics, when he secretly discovers a method to create life. He obsesses over building a person from scratch, has to scale him up considerably to get all the little details right, and tests his idea.
Once the monster is alive, Victor finds him so horrifying and unnatural-looking that he runs out of the room, giving the monster time to escape and brood on his new daddy abandonment issues in peace.
Classy, Vic.
The monster wanders around for a while, figuring out how to take care of himself, trying to make friends, but everyone runs away terrified of him. He spends months watching one family, learning language from them, secretly doing what he can to help them, only to be chased away when he finally works up the nerve to introduce himself.
Bizarro unhelpfully warns you there no am spoilers ahead! Why you run?
****Seriously, though, spoiler alert****
Finally, the monster vows revenge on humanity in general and Victor especially. Victor’s tough to get to at first, since he’s busy being a rich, paranoid, self-loathing, reclusive invalid…
Finally, the monster vows revenge on humanity in general and Victor especially. Victor’s tough to get to at first, since he’s busy being a rich, paranoid, self-loathing, reclusive invalid…
Like this.
…falling into feverish spells and generally scaring the hell out of his parents and his fiancée, Elizabeth (yeah, she’s going to come up again in a bit).
But his little brother is easy enough to find.
The monster strangles the kid and gets the beloved governess, practically another sibling, hanged for it, ripping the family apart. When he finally does get to confront Victor, he makes him an offer. If Victor creates an equally hideous mate for him, to share and understand his loneliness, he’ll leave with her, find an uninhabited bit of jungle, and leave Victor’s remaining family and the rest of humanity alone.
But his little brother is easy enough to find.
The monster strangles the kid and gets the beloved governess, practically another sibling, hanged for it, ripping the family apart. When he finally does get to confront Victor, he makes him an offer. If Victor creates an equally hideous mate for him, to share and understand his loneliness, he’ll leave with her, find an uninhabited bit of jungle, and leave Victor’s remaining family and the rest of humanity alone.
Hence the name of the apocryphal sequel.
Victor postpones his wedding, runs off to set himself up in a new lab, and tries to work on the bride monster, but then he imagines a world infested with the monsters because of him, backs out and destroys his work.
Of course, the monster finds out and goes back to terrorizing him, starting by murdering his best friend, and threatens ultimate revenge on Victor’s wedding night. Victor can’t wait any longer to end this and get on with his life, so he goes home and somehow manages to convince Elizabeth that he hasn’t been cheating on her in all this time he’s spent cryptically sneaking around. She forgives him, they get married, and he tells her to stay inside that night while he goes out to meet and fight the monster he knows is going to show up.
Because leaving Elizabeth alone sounds like a brilliant idea, if you don’t know about the monster’s romantic streak. Say, because he just tried blackmailing you into creating a bride monster.
Yeah, the monster stands Victor up and kills Elizabeth instead. Victor chases the monster to the arctic to destroy it once and for all, realizes he’s no better at subzero survival than he is at parenting, and dies in the attempt. The monster ends up sobbing over Victor’s body, realizing that revenge hasn’t made his existence any more bearable.
Of course, the monster finds out and goes back to terrorizing him, starting by murdering his best friend, and threatens ultimate revenge on Victor’s wedding night. Victor can’t wait any longer to end this and get on with his life, so he goes home and somehow manages to convince Elizabeth that he hasn’t been cheating on her in all this time he’s spent cryptically sneaking around. She forgives him, they get married, and he tells her to stay inside that night while he goes out to meet and fight the monster he knows is going to show up.
Because leaving Elizabeth alone sounds like a brilliant idea, if you don’t know about the monster’s romantic streak. Say, because he just tried blackmailing you into creating a bride monster.
Yeah, the monster stands Victor up and kills Elizabeth instead. Victor chases the monster to the arctic to destroy it once and for all, realizes he’s no better at subzero survival than he is at parenting, and dies in the attempt. The monster ends up sobbing over Victor’s body, realizing that revenge hasn’t made his existence any more bearable.
This is the winning monster and bride pair from the effects makeup show, Faceoff, that’s going to be featured in this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. No, I don’t have much of a tie-in. I’m just throwing them in here because they’re really cool.
Victor Frankenstein and his monster are one of the most iconic and perfect pairs in that very special subset of hero/villain relationships in which one of them exists because of the other. Victor is responsible for the thing that’s ruining his life and the lives of everyone around him, an embodiment of that spirit of curiosity that he loves so much but has to cut himself off from to keep it from overwhelming him.
The monster is completely alone and directionless, dumped into the world without plan or precedent, and Victor is the reason, the only connection the monster has with who and what he is. There’s no way the two of them can avoid having it out in the end.
The monster gets to tell a huge part of the story, when he first explains to Victor what he’s been up to since running away, enough that the book really belongs to both of them.
Frankenstein is effectively two tragedies woven together, two heroes acting as each other’s villains. Victor gets something like the Aristotelian model, a good person with great abilities suffering a great downfall caused by his own mistakes, while the monster gets a revenge tragedy, a good person put in a horribly unfair position becoming a monster in his own right in the pursuit of justice.
The monster is completely alone and directionless, dumped into the world without plan or precedent, and Victor is the reason, the only connection the monster has with who and what he is. There’s no way the two of them can avoid having it out in the end.
The monster gets to tell a huge part of the story, when he first explains to Victor what he’s been up to since running away, enough that the book really belongs to both of them.
Frankenstein is effectively two tragedies woven together, two heroes acting as each other’s villains. Victor gets something like the Aristotelian model, a good person with great abilities suffering a great downfall caused by his own mistakes, while the monster gets a revenge tragedy, a good person put in a horribly unfair position becoming a monster in his own right in the pursuit of justice.
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Suddenly, I really want to see these two in a fighting videogame.
There’s nothing that could make this pairing any more perfect, so I’m just going to close with a picture of the eighteen-year-old woman who thought them up on a dark, stormy night in 1815.
Respect.
