Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
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In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is a man suffering from pathological narcissism. This narcissism is manifested specifically in Frankenstein's case in his grandiosity and the gratification he derives from his admiration for his own mental attributes. As with Narcissus, Frankenstein's self-obsession ends in disaster and death as the object he creates outside of himself as representation of his self-love ultimately brings about his own demise. Frankenstein is completely obsessed with the quest for power and knowledge, specifically power over nature, and, by extension, over death. His creation of the monster, in this context, is an expression of his desire to live beyond death, if indirectly in the monster. Ironically, that is what does occur--the monster outlives his narcissistic creator, although perhaps not for long, as the monster exits vowing to destroy himself. Frankenstein is driven by his belief that there is nothing greater in life than the mind and will of men, especially great men, a category in which he certainly includes himself. If the doctor were in a Greek tragedy, one would speak of his hubris, his putting himself above the gods, or God. He believes that there are no limits to what he can do in his desire to conquer nature, even life and death: I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. . . What glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, an
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pparently put the lie to that refinement. It is also no coincidence that the crucifix is the symbol which stops Dracula in his tracks and kills the indirect sexual passion he is feeling at the thought and sight of blood:
. . . At that instant I saw that the cut had bled a little, and the blood was trickling over my chin. . . . When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there (Stoker 33-34).
Here is the encapsulation of the repression of the sexuality of Dracula by forces both in his mind and in society working together. The Count is the victim of both his superego and of Catholicism, working as one to convince him that his sexuality is dirty, beneath him, uncivilized, evil, sinful, and so on. However, because sexuality is a force whose power cannot be denied, it finds an outlet in ways which on the surface appear to be other than sexual.
Specifically, in Dracula's case, this repression of sexuality, this pressing of what is on the surface down into the sub-surface, t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Narcissus Frankenstein's, Blood Count, Monstresor Monstresor, Cask Amontillado, God God, Stoker's Dracula, Specifically Dracula's, Fortunato Monstresor, God Monstresor, Earlier Monstresor, repression guilt, sense guilt, garden city, guilt monstresor, repression sexuality, god monstresor, fear legal, punishment fortunato, completely repressed, revenge fortunato,
Approximate Word count = 1664
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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