The final day of the week, and the final assignment of the novel (an intimidating timed essay.....that was the most horrifying experience up to date) brings our class to a satisfying close to the Frankenstein novel. There are more themes in that story than I care to admit, and I'd be surprised if we even scratched the surface during our three-day seminar. But what really struck me as unusual occurred after finishing this book, when I was watching yet another movie that inspired this blog post...Harry Potter, of course. Being the hermit that I am, I celebrate Friday nights by watching old movies (did you know the second Harry Potter came out 11 years ago??? I feel old), and after watching the final scene with Dobby, I realized that he was placed in the exact situation as the creature that Victor created in the novel. It had nothing to do with physical appearance or anything, but it was the fact that, even taking into consideration their strengths and advantages over the human race, they remain inferior to the human being. I was astonished that we haven't talked about this in class all that much, though we did touch on it a couple of times. But it was just super ironic-and frankly, unfair- that these two creatures ended up in the state that they did because they seemed to be better than us. I mean, what does that say about our society as a whole? That we reject those that are better than us and make them feel inferior, when they should be considered equal?
You may think, "Victor's monster is gigantic. He kills people for a living. He is pure evil. How does this make him inferior?" Well, you'd be partly right...he is pretty large. But that's the only true statement you made! The rest of it is purely subjective, and is a product of years of movie reproductions that stray from the essence of the monster as depicted in the novel: an inexperienced, young, and abused character with physical deformities that render him dangerous, even though he isn't. Here's a better physical description of him, which the movie industry nailed quite well:
"His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes" (Shelley, 51).
Yeah, that doesn't sound too appealing. He looks like he can kill you with his bare hands (and he probably can). But did you know that he's a vegetarian throughout the whole book, which subtly hints at his deep respect towards living things? Did you know that he saved a little girl's life from drowning in the water, only to be shot at by her father for thinking that he was going to harm the life he had just saved? This "monster" is nothing more than an unfortunate creature that is defined by society based on his physical characteristics. By physical, he seems 100 times stronger than the normal man, twice as tall, and doubly menacing. This puts him quite above the normal human by physical standards. And yet, he is placed underneath the human; in fact, he isn't even considered human. When he was "conceived" (for lack of better term), he is treated like a dirty animal, like a rabid dog, even though he is completely coherent in language and has set morals for himself. Why didn't society accept him as one of their own?
On to Dobby...in general, the house elves are treated like vermin, and they must (MUST) abide their master at all costs. They do everything from cleaning the house, to doing the laundry, to cooking-anything the master demands, the house elves must perform or they will be punished (usually by self mutilation). And be mindful, these house elves are barely 3 feet tall, and they are barely clothed; the only way to set a house elf free is to give him clothes, which he cannot provide for himself (symbolic of not being able to feel shame or provide the basic necessities for himself). Now, how does this fit in with the creature? What makes elves better than people? It isn't mentioned in the movies (isn't that a surprise), but house elves have within them an ancient magic that supersedes the magic that a normal human wizard can conjure. For instance, the ancient wizarding school Hogwarts is completely shut off from Apparition (teleportation, for you non-magic folk) and cannot appear on school grounds unless they want to be blown up. But can a house elf do so? Certainly. They can perform all their magic without the use of a wand, and this magic is powerful and deadly (but cannot be used unless the house elf is free-that is, without a master). Does this sound familiar to you at all? The subjugation of subjects in society that are far stronger than the normal human being?
If the creature and Dobby meet in their version of literary heaven, they'd hit it off, I'm sure. Our poor treatment of these special beings, even though they may be more skilled than we are, in literary work suggests that the human society is too proud to let any other living thing be "better" than we are. And who are we to argue? Was there not a time where you hated someone because they were smarter than you, or that they performed better than you did? They earned more money than you, so they must not be good people! The neighbors got a new car, they must've gotten an under-the-table deal or something, they can't afford that! It happens all the time, and in order to make us feel better about ourselves, we put them in a level that seems beneath us, even though in actuality they aren't.
And this brings up the final connection between the inferior-superior complex and the novel. Feminism. The two themes can go hand-in-hand, since feminism aims at destroying the idea of inferiority in women in the first place. The book is practically an outlook of what were to happen if man had the power to create life instead of woman, and this, as you all know, ended with the deaths of innocent people, a backslap to God, and many a broken dreams. In real life, women are still subordinate to men in many ways-occupational equality, household responsibilities, sex, you name it. For whatever thing there is that you need to do in life (driving, cooking, cleaning, etc), there's always a joke about a woman not being able to perform it as well as men (or that it is the responsibility of the woman, not the man, to perform it). And yet, women have strength in numbers on this earth--there are, literally, more women than men currently living, and it's always been that way. Women have the ability to create life and pass our genetic code onto the next generation; all we need is just one small tiny sperm cell. Can men say the same about themselves?
It's the same pattern that happens over and over again with inferiority; it's the beings that are more than able, or are better able, than the rest of society that are subject to it. What better way to protect your status than to undermine the stronger class of beings, be it Dobby, the creature, or a woman? To make them feel like they're worth less than the human life, and to deny them equal rights, is the foolproof way to ensure your kind's continued success without being dethroned. And that was what made Frankenstein so great; it could explain all of this without even explicitly bringing it up.
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