Mary Shelley was the child of Mary Wollstonecraft, a great feminist writer,
and William Godwin, a great liberal writer. It is only reasonable to suppose
that there is a political view of this novel. We could of course say that,
society per se will mar natural virtue. But some societies are worse than others
because some societies allow the submergence of the ego, devalue the
feeling of the individual. The book, is dedicated to William Godwin, according to
Mary Shelley. Author of Political Justice, Caleb Williams, etc., these volumes are
respectfully inscribed by the author. Of all of his writings we've already
discussed, Political Justice in which a liberal view is taken of the importance of
treating people as people, rather than simply accepting a hierarchical notion of
society. Caleb Williams is a sort of Gothic novel. It's about a farmhand who
overseas the death of one of his fellow farmhands, a female in the presence of the
owner of the farm. And, whether she's murdered by the owner or not, the owner is
convinced that Caleb will see it as a murder and will resist him. Will denounce
him to the authorities. And so, most of Caleb Williams is the story of the owner,
the more powerful economic figure, chasing Caleb across the countryside eventually,
into the cold and ice. Kinda like Victor chasing the monster into the arctic. Mary
Shelley obviously, is moved by these political considerations. Victor's chase
of the monster is motivated in part by the monster trying to make Victor suffer
enough that he will create a bride for the monster so that he may, the monster
ultimately live happily. But why is it Victor? Rather than the monster, whom we
have to disparage because he has the position, the power. We see this
functioning in the book in many ways. For instance, when he returns to Geneva for
the first time and discovers that William has been killed, he knows instantly,
through no mechanism that's made clear, and yet he's sure of it that it is the
monster who has killed William. But, he discovers that J ustine, a household
member, is being tried for William's death. As the son of the Berger, all
Victor would have to do is say, I have reason to believe that perhaps there is
some dread beast in the fields. We should seek before we condemn Justine. But he
doesn't. If he had and if the search had been successful, it would have been his
own doppelganger, his own fault that would have been revealed. Rather than reveal his
own fault, rather that to reveal what he has created, he's silent. Does not use his
authority to forestall the legal process and Justine is condemned. Her death is at
his hands, just as Williams is at the monster's hands. The politics here is
clear. The higher born someone is, the more likely one is. Ultimately to protect
oneself and to disparage individuals. This is true not only in the Caleb Williams'
sense of chasing and economic power, but in the feminist sense as well. That is
females are treated as if they were objects, so that prize that he was given,
that present Elizabeth Levenza, I will be with you on your wedding night. But in
fact, the monster realizes the true thing of worth is Elizabeth. And so, she is what
he takes from Victor on the wedding night. Victor is blinded by his own egotism not
to realize the worth of Elizabeth. Justine is worth no less than Elizabeth but she
does not come from as good a family, and so she is a servant rather than simply a
member of the household. Victor wants to create life. Of course, only a man and a
woman create life, they do it together. Victor is not willing to be together with
a woman. In one way, Mary Shelley is suggesting that no man is truly together
with a woman. Certainly not, if he sees her simply as the vessel for his own
procreation. There is in this novel, no true meeting of minds. The closest we have
is the adoration that Mary Shelly shows for her father and the sorrow she feels
for the namesake child. Better would be a world in which we did not come, prejudged
by sex, by class, by level of education. We should be what Rousseau called, Nobl e
Savages. Savage does not mean violent, it means untamed. Not made part of the park
but rather, the forest. The monster hears Felix instructing Saffy in the Delacy
cottage from Volney's Ruins of Empire. It talks about the fall of different
civilizations. Listening to this, the monster says, I heard of the discovery of
the American hemisphere, and wept with Saffy over the hapless fate of its
original inhabitants. The monster associates himself with the then current
view in Europe of Native Americans as noble savages. These wonderful narrations
inspired me with strange feelings, was man indeed at once so powerful, so virtuous
and magnificent, yet so vicious and base. That he could destroy whole peoples, that
he could despoil whole continents. In fact, the noble savage is what we see the
monster to be. The beginning of Chapter eleven is a remarkable lengthy passage, in
which the monster narrates his own coming to awareness. Let me quote from the
beginning of it. It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original
era of my being. All the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A
strange multiplicity of sensation seized me and I saw, felt, heard and smelled at
the same time. And it was indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish
between the operations of my various senses. By degrees, I remember a stronger
light pressed upon my nerves so that I was obliged to shut my eyes. Darkness then
came over me and troubled me. But hardly had I felt this when by opening my eyes as
I now suppose the light poured in upon me again, I walked and I believe, descended.
But I presently found a great alteration in my sensations before dark and opaque
bodies had surrounded me, impervious to my touch or sight. But I now found that I
could wander on at liberty with no obstacles which I could not either
surmount or avoid. The light became more and more oppressive to me, and the heat
wearying me as I walked. I sought a place where I could receive shade. This was the
forest near Ingolstadt and here I lay by the side of a brook resting from my
fatigue, until I felt tormented by hunger and thirst and this goes on and on as the
monster begins to understand the world. He puts it in order, he sees how things
should be. And yet, he does it near Ingolstadt. He does it where his creator
lives, and where he is about to be rejected. What was I? The monster asks at
the end of Chapter thirteen. A monster, a blot upon the Earth from which all men
fled and whom all men disowned. A rough beast, but with a gentle interior. Sorrow
only increased with knowledge of what a strange nature is knowledge. It clings to
the mind. The desire I had of becoming one among my fellows. There were no fellows.
Where were my friends and relations? What was I? The monster asks. In that sentence,
in being thrust into a world he did not create. A world that changes faster than
has ever happened before where a child does not grow up to fulfill the role it's
parent had but rather a world with knowledge it's parent had not learned, to
fill roles that did not exist, to be in places one was not at first born, with
people one had not known. This is the condition of modern humanity and this is
the condition all the way back in 1818 that the monster complains of. At base, he
is alone. The politics of this novel is a plea for community. The sufferer from
these politics gone wrong, is the image that stays with us. That romantic monster.