A Crippling Identity

The iconic image and the name Frankenstein has been tied to the monster in Mary Shelley’s novel in order for people to ground the nameless, and in some ways faceless, monster in reality and detract from the overall monstrosity of the entity.  As stated, the monster in Frankenstein remains nameless throughout the story, he is simply referred to as ‘the monster’ or ‘the creature’ or ‘the fiend’ and his image is relatively vague, “[h]is yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 35).  All this comes from the fact that the unknown stirs up feelings of fear much more than something that has a clear picture, a face, and an identity.  The monster in Frankenstein is instead quite vague.  He remains for the most part almost a shadow that haunts Frankenstein throughout the novel.  The characters only concretely state his appearance as grotesque, and monstrous.  Even his creator, who should have at least found some redeeming quality in his own life’s work, flees the very moment the monster comes to life.  Without much reiteration of the brief description of the monster early on, for the remainder of the story the reader will proceed to fill the empty shadow of the monster subconsciously with whatever uniquely terrifies or summons up the same reaction in the individual as the characters in the story.  In order to quell that fear the monster receives a face and a name that do not originally belong to it but still accurately works to define it in a way the majority of people seem to find acceptable.  Naming the monster Frankenstein ties it down to the creature’s only true human connection.  As Victor Frankenstein’s creation it is only right that he assumes the man’s family name.  It makes the monster more human, less otherworldly and frightening.  And it almost limits what the individual can imagine him capable of because by giving him a human title puts him within the bounds of human capability.  Furthermore, the stereotypical image of a green-skinned monster, with a square head, bolts on the sides of his neck, and relatively slow and stupid, also diminishes the monster’s capability.  He becomes more an object of ridicule, with easily recognizable and more importantly something with exploitable flaws.  He becomes a lesser version of humanity rather than a frightening, murderous, and unpredictable other.  The combination of name and face cages the monster in a solid form rather than letting remain a shape in the shadows.  And this is compounded in the fact that the contrived image is lesser in ability to the original creature Shelley created, thereby crippling the monster into something less fear-inducing.