Frankenstein and Wasp Factory
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Both Frankenstein and The Wasp Factory explore mans obsession with power over life. They explore ways in which power is gained over an individual in the form of nurture, competing with the power of nature. Religion is explored as a source of power over the unknown. The texts are both descriptive of the contemporary use of power and suggest that mans obsession with power leads to cycles of suffering and are therefore, a comment on human nature. It has seemed to overcome women and their more feminine, less aggressive characteristics, which are equally important in society. Mary Shelleys mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman in 1792. It is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society, Wollstonecraft states that they are human beings and deserve the same fundamental rights as men. She died in 1797 due to complications from giving birth to Mary. Although she eventually had a stepmother, Mary Shelley was essentially motherless and raised by an intellectual; much like Victor Frankenstein and his Monster.
Frankenstein, obsessed by the feeling of being able to give life “wished, as it were, to procrastinate all that related to my feelings of affection until the great object, which swallowed up every habit of my nature should be completed.” The allusion of swallowing captures the intensity to which Frankenstein is consumed by his work. This suggests the unhealthy nature of his obsession with power. His description of his work as “great” illustrates the importance he attached to it. The language is emotional and is full of hyperbole; a characteristic of the Romantic Movement, but here it effectively recreates the quest for power that is driving Frankenstein. Similarly, in The Wasp Factory, Frank is obsessed with power over life, yet at the end of the novel says, “Having no purpose in life or procreation, I invested all my worth in that grim opposite, and so found a negative and a negation of the fecundity only others could lay claim to.” Feeling powerless over his own life results in Franks aspiration to take life.
Furthermore, Frankensteins visions of power are crushed when he is faced with the conclusion of his obsession, “my teeth chattered and every limb became convulsed; when by the dim and yellow light of the moon, I beheld the wretch – the miserable monster whom I had created.” This scene is gothic in contrast to the romantic language that was associated with his creation. The moonlight is a typical gothic horror symbol and the colour yellow is associated with decay. The onomatopoeia and alliteration on “chattered” and “convulsed” emphasise Frankensteins fear and lead the reader, although critical of his abuse of power, to feel sorry for him and also fear the “wretch”. The alliteration