frankingsteinery

Latest Posts by frankingsteinery

Androgyny and individuation in Demian (Hesse, 1919)

Hesse's novel Demian explores the theme of androgyny and gender ambiguity in depth, using it as a symbol of overcoming the dichotomies that define the ordinary world. Androgyny in the characters is not just a physical or aesthetic characteristic, but represents the fusion of opposites, a condition in which male and female, good and evil, spirit and body coexist without conflict, and it is linked to Jung's theories on the psyche and individuation, the process of integration of the shadow, the dark part of the personality, and of the anima, the feminine principle in men. Emil must fight and create a new world beyond binary for himself.

(long post)

Individuation is a process by which one achieves individual wholeness, in the words of Jung “one who was supposed to be”. In this process, interpretation of dreams plays a dominant role, expressing the content of the unconscious, both personal and collective (this is explained by Jung in his Psychology and Alchemy). The individuation is not a linear process, but one with deviations and extremes , which place the individual in contradictory positions and often cause unbearable moral sufferings. Before birth, when the ego has not yet truly formed, the unconscious is one with the mother and its situation is associated by Jung with that of the Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. From birth, the ego begins its development and separates from the mother to look for another woman, a sexual partner that Jung makes correspond to the archetype of the anima. Hesse showed perfectly in Demian that the essential complication of this relationship is the fact that the archetype of the anima in male psychology, is always initially mixed with the image of the mother (1). Dreams are very important in Demian, more than physical events, they shape Emil's growth and desires. It’s in a “love dream” that emerges the figure of what Emil calls his destiny, which evolves from a portrait of a girl, Beatrice, yet it resembles a boy, Demian, angel and demon, human and beast, and it is described as Sinclair's truest soul. Still cis tho.

Steps of the individuation, which can be connected to specific episodes in the novel, includes: 

the assimilation of the shadow (“defeating” Kromer) 

the confrontation with the anima (portrait of Beatrice)

the encounter with the archetype of the Wise Old Man (friendship with Pistorius)

For young Sinclair, society presents itself with rigid boundaries, separating the male from the female, good from evil. His childhood is marked by a sharp division between the world of light and the world of darkness, his family corresponds to the bright world, where there is good, righteousness, prayer, etc. In the same way, men and women are two poles that intertwine only to do “mysterious grown-up” things. The father represents authority and rigidity, Sinclair’s relationship with him is not very peaceful and he  disregards his father as he grows up and has open conflict with authority such as teachers in school. Meanwhile, the mother is loving but passive, and his sisters, who embody the world of light and are seen as angels, distance themselves as they grow up, finding Emil both amusing and awkward in his teenager body. 

In the opening chapter, Sinclair expresses a longing to be part of the world of light, yet he feels unable to fully belong to it. He loses the light when he chooses the darkness. The education that Sinclair receives from his family does not provide him with the tools necessary to face the challenges of adolescence, and this pushes him to look for answers elsewhere. Sinclair’s conviction on the dichotomy of the world is challenged by the mere existence of Demian, who contradicts duality and embraces both light and dark, male and female, young and old. When Emil hears of Abraxas, the novel makes a stronger turn towards the idea of ​​a conjunction of opposites. This idea is very similar to the process of individuation described by Jung. 

“What about masculinity? Do you know how much femininity man lacks for completeness? Do you know how much masculinity a woman lacks for completeness? You seek the feminine in women and the masculine in men. And thus there are always only men and women. But where are people? You, man, should not seek the feminine in women, but seek and recognize it in yourself, as you possess it from the beginning.” (2)

Many spiritual traditions consider the androgynous as an expression of the divine. Throughout the Middle Ages, the myth of the androgynous being, seen as a model of human perfection, was present in the secret traditions of mysticism and theosophy in both the East and the West. In Islamic mysticism, divine presence often appears as an "angel-man" with an androgynous form. In Hafiz’s poetry, the beloved is not assigned a specific grammatical gender. Many translations struggle due to Hafiz’s distinctive figurative language and deliberate ambiguity (3). Hafiz’s lyrics on divine love can be reflected in the being of love dreams of Sinclair. 

The alchemical operation for the preparation of the philosopher's stone was the union between the masculine and feminine principles.Gnosticism places great importance on the myth of the androgynous being, viewing androgyny as an essential condition for human perfection—a return to a primordial, pre-formal state, free from attributes or polarizations. In particular, the Naassenes, a Gnostic sect, held that the celestial archetype, known as Adamas, was androgynous. Adam, the earthly man, was only a reflection of this divine archetype and was therefore also androgynous. Since all humans originate from Adam, the androgynous is believed to exist within each individual (4).

Most of the characters in Demian are portrayed with an androgynous or ambiguous quality, often blending traits of both youth and old age. 

Demian 

“I saw Demian’s face, I saw not only that he had not the face of a boy, but that of a man; I saw still more, I thought I saw, or felt, that it was not the face of a man either but something else besides. There seemed to be also something of the woman in his features, and particularly it seemed to me for a moment, not manly or boyish, nor old or young, but somehow or other a thousand years old, not to be measured by time, bearing the stamp of other epochs. Animals could look like that, or trees, or stones” (Demian, chapter 3 , english translation by N. H. Priday, 1923)

Since his first appearance, Sinclair himself is not sure how to describe with precision Demian, this boy surrounded by mystery and rumors, a being who seems to have already overcome the categories imposed by the ordinary world. Recalling animal and mythological images, Demian seems to come from an ancient era.

“Perhaps he was beautiful, perhaps he pleased me, perhaps even he was repugnant— I could not then determine.” (Demian, chapter 3)

These feelings of repulsion and reverence at same time happen again in the dream in chapter 2, where Sinclair suffers by the hand of Kromer and then because of Demian, this time welcoming the torture. However, beyond being merely a mentor or an object of desire, Demian also functions as a projection of Sinclair’s unconscious self, his true self. Then again in this dream in chapter 5: 

“Rapture and horror were mixed, the embrace was a sort of divine worship, and yet a crime as well. Too much of the memory of my mother, too much of the memory of Max Demian was contained in the form which embraced me. The embrace seemed repulsive to my sentiment of reverence, yet I felt happy. I often awoke out of this dream with a deep feeling of contentment, often with the fear of death and a tormenting conscience as if I were guilty of a terrible sin.”

Emil experiences deeply ambivalent feelings toward Demian, this time present in the Abraxas incarnation of his dreams, torn between an undeniable attraction and the weight of his upbringing, which has ingrained in him the notion of sin and guilt, very aware of what the terrible sin and crime is (gay gay gay homosexual), to the point of fearing for his life and giving him a reason to feel guilty about himself once more. His perception of his feelings as something forbidden, even criminal, is something present since chapter 1. His longing for Demian is expressed repeatedly throughout the novel, making the queer subtext not very subtle. 

Beatrice 

Sinclair is immediately attracted and devoted to her. He isn’t really interested in the real girl, he values only her image and what it represents to him. Also worth noting that he likes her in virtue of her boyish features and ephebic beauty. 

“She was tall and slender, elegantly dressed, and had a wise, boyish face. She pleased me at once, she belonged to the type that I loved, and she began to work upon my imagination. She was scarcely older than I, but she was more mature; she was elegant and possessed a good figure, already almost a woman, but with a touch of youthful exuberance in her features, which pleased me exceedingly.” (Demian, chapter 4)

Pistorius   

Pistorius is a character who also embodies a dual nature: he is both a mature man and a child, a mystic and an unfulfilled dreamer. Hesse uses the word "effeminate” to describe Pistorius' soft features, in contrast to the strength of the upper half of his face:

“....his face was just as I had expected it to be. It was ugly and somewhat uncouth, with the look of a seeker and of an eccentric, obstinate and strong-willed, with a soft and childish mouth. The expression of what was strong and manly lay in the eyes and forehead; on the lower half of the face sat a look of gentleness and immaturity, rather effeminate and showing a lack of self-mastery. The chin indicated a boyish indecision, as if in contradiction with the eyes and forehead. I liked the dark brown eyes, full of pride and hostility.” (Demian, chapter 5)

This description ties in with how Pistorius has an unfulfilled destiny and dream of being a leader of a new religion and how he is the prodigal son, both an adult and a child, still tied to his family and even more, the past and institutionalized religion.

Eva

The culmination of the concept of union of opposites is represented by the character of Eva, Demian's mother. She, almost worshipped as a goddess, is the leader of the circle of the elite, the individuals bearing Cain's mark, which Sinclair joins toward the end.

“There it was, the tall, almost masculine woman’s figure, resembling her son, with traits of motherliness, traits which denoted severity, and deep passion, beautiful and alluring, beautiful and unapproachable, demon and mother, destiny and mistress. [...] Her voice and her words were like those of her son, and yet quite different. Everything was more mature, warmer, more assured.” (Demian, chapter 7)

Demian is a feminine boy, and Eva is a masculine woman: mirrors of each other. In Eva, all opposites come together, not in conflict but in harmony. She represents the final stage of Sinclair’s journey, the embodiment of Abraxas. At the same time, she reflects both his idealized mother figure and his hidden desires. Sinclair’s love for Eva is not just about maternal affection. It is a continuation of his feelings for Demian, but now expressed in a new way that fits societal norms. Unlike his hesitant attraction to Demian, his feelings for Eva are open and intense, showing that she represents both acceptance and fulfillment of something he struggled with before. Her appearance and demeanor is very similar to her son, except she is a version of Demian that Emil is allowed to love, because she is a woman and not a man. In this sense, she serves as an outlet for the emotions he has repressed for years. It is difficult to separate the characters of Demian and Eva, because they, as I said, are a mirror of each other. Emil's feelings towards both of them are intertwined, nonetheless valid on their own. I think Emil loves both of them, but the fact that they are likely projections of Emil's mind complicates everything. 

Eva is the end of Sinclair's journey, when he first meets her he feels at home, she is what he was looking for. Demian's home— Eva’s home is a garden, a new Eden in which Sinclair can love and be loved for who he really is, in opposition to his family home. Her name, Eva, also carries symbolic weight, as it is the name of the first woman, who sinned against God and the mother of Cain and Abel, this all circles back to the first encounter with Demian and the mark of Cain. Her eternally youthful appearance reminds me of another very important mother figure, the Pietà Vaticana by Michelangelo. In the Pietà, Mary appears much younger than one might expect for a woman who has lost a 33-year-old son. 

“But just as Max in years past had made on no one the impression of being a mere boy, so his mother did not look like the mother of a grown-up son, so young and sweet was the breath of her face and hair, so smooth her golden skin, so blossoming her mouth.” (Demian, chapter 7)

Michelangelo’s focus was symbolic: he depicted Mary as young, as she was when she conceived Jesus, suggesting that "chastity, holiness, and incorruption preserve youth" (5). This iconography of the Pietà, or Vesperbild, became popular in Central Europe during the 14th century, with small sculptures showing the Virgin seated, holding the body of Christ after his death on Good Friday. During the Middle Ages, Mary was considered not only as the mother of Christ but also as his bride and as a symbol of the Church. In a similar way, Eva is not just Demian’s mother, (according to students rumors in chapter 3, her lover, too) but the mother of mankind, an idea and a spiritual figure. Eva, a woman that Sinclair calls mother, lover, whore and Abraxas. Demian also has some connotations of a Christ-like figure, he embodies the Self, the archetype of psychic totality, according to Jung. 

She’s tender, loving, but also scary and confusing: the hallucination/vision of the gigantic Eva on the battlefield causes destruction, the mother who brings birth also brings death, like the hindu goddess Kali, worshipped as the mother of the universe, associated with death and destruction. 

"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.” (6)

 This hermetic principle of polarity, expressed in “The Kybalion”, perfectly encapsulates the gender of characters in Demian. 

(1) C. G. Jung. The archetypes and the collective unconscious. 1968. (2) C.G. Jung. The Red Book. 2009 (3) D. Ingenito. Tradurre Ḥāfeẓ: Quattro Divān Attuali. Oriente Moderno.2009. (4) https://www.rigenerazionevola.it/larchetipo-androgino/ (5) Giorgio Vasari. Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori. 1550-1567. (6) The Kybalion. 1908 by "Three Initiates" (William Walker Atkinson)

i want to preface this with this is all courtesy of @dykensteinery's genius and not my own, i am merely putting his ideas into words for her!!!

so charlie brought to my attention that this quote from frankenstein, where victor refers to clerval as essentially his "other half":

“I agree with you,” replied the stranger; “we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves—such a friend ought to be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures. I once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures, and am entitled, therefore, to judge respecting friendship."

was an allusion to plato's symposium. in the symposium, aristophanes presents a mythological account of human origins: that humans were once spherical beings—complete wholes—until they were split in two by zeus. ever since, each human being has wandered the world searching for their missing "other half." this myth explains not only the drive for romantic love but the deeper longing for union, for completion, for the return to an original state of wholeness. specifically, it was an allusion to this line (any quotes pulled from the symposium are from percy shelley's translation):

"From this period, mutual Love has naturally existed in human beings; that reconciler and bond of union of their original nature, which seeks to make two, one, and to heal the divided nature of man. Every one of us is thus the half of what may be properly termed a man…the imperfect portion of an entire whole, perpetually necessitated to seek the half belonging to him.”

considering this line is present in the 1831 edition but not the 1818 edition, after percy's death, during a time where his works were being edited and published by mary posthumously in 1826 and forward, it feels like a much more deliberate allusion. furthermore, i don’t think it’s reaching to say this revision, this framing of love as something that completes a person, was colored by that loss.

it's crucial, also, that aristophanes’ speech does not limit this yearning for your "other half" to heterosexual couples but rather includes and legitimizes same-sex love, particularly between men, as a natural expression of a desire for one’s “own kind":

“Those who are a section of what in the beginning was entirely male seek the society of males…When they arrive at manhood they still only associate with those of their own sex; and they never engage in marriage and the propagation of the species from sensual desire but only in obedience to the laws…Such as I have described is ever an affectionate lover and a faithful friend, delighting in that which is in conformity with his own nature…Whenever, therefore, any such as I have described are impetuously struck, through the sentiment of their former union, with love and desire and the want of community, they are ever unwilling to be divided even for a moment.”

looking at this within the context of frankenstein, to me, this invites further reflection on a queer reading of the novel. the language of this passage—and others like it—have homoromantic subtext, especially when looking at it through this context. aristophanes describes those descended from the original male-male whole who pursue other men as “affectionate lover[s] and faithful friend[s]," which finds obvious parallels in the language mary uses to describe victor's idealization of clerval: victor constantly refers to him as noble, pure, good, better than himself. the language of friendship in the 18th and 19th century was often emotionally demonstrative in ways we don't see now, yes—but here, in light of the aristophanic frame, it rings a little different.

so basically? clervalstein real

(in response to @mrbrainrot’s post here)

it feels incorrect, to me, to claim that victor views elizabeth as an accessory: while it’s tempting, i think, to view his portrayal of elizabeth as reductive (casting her as a saint, an ideal of feminine domesticity, the “angel in the house”), we must acknowledge that victor’s narration also recounts her standing in front of the corrupt court system to defend justine, speaking against the injustice of the system and attempting to fight against its verdict, critiquing the state of female social status that prevented her from visiting victor at ingolstadt, subverting traditional gender roles by offering victor an out to their arranged marriage as opposed to the other way around, taking part in determining ernest’s career and education in direct opposition to alphonse, etc. she is, within his own account, thoughtful, courageous, and politically aware. 

while i’m open to being proved wrong, to me, most of the “victor views elizabeth as a possession” viewpoints hinge primarily on one specific line, where victor says the following: 

“'I have a pretty present for my Victor—tomorrow he shall have it.' And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish. All praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own... till death she was to be mine only."

i am hesitant to call his relationship with elizabeth straightforwardly objectifying, at least not in the flat, dehumanizing way that this quote and this interpretation often implies. the keyword here, to me, is that victor explicitly names this mindset as “childish.” he is not presenting this possessiveness as justified. it is clearly marked by the text (and victor himself) as something immature, shaped by how caroline frames elizabeth’s role rather than how victor sees her. in that sense, this passage become less a declaration of elizabeth’s status as an object to victor and more an origin for victor’s warped understanding of intimacy with elizabeth. victor also seems to outgrow this view, as the rest of the novel doesn’t support the idea that he views elizabeth merely as an object.

beyond that, my stance on whether or not there was genuine romantic sentiment between victor and elizabeth becomes a lot more muddied. i've already analyzed the way that they were groomed and the psuedo-incestuous implications of their relationship in depth (here), but this in itself does not denote a lack of romance between them. the conclusion that there could have been some sort of romantic love there even despite them seeing each other as siblings is a disturbing one, but it's one i'd argue is to an extent supported by the text, even if it is inseparable from the preordained nature of their relationship. but at the same time, i'd also argue that victor is aware of this on a subconscious level and is simultaneously repulsed by it: the only kiss in the entire book is in victor's infamous dream where elizabeth decays into caroline in his arms, which feels like a very deliberate piece of subtext.

in regard to clerval i may have to articulate my thoughts on him in a separate post as this is already long enough as it is lol.

finished (⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

I felt like I needed to slightly redesign some of my Frankenstein designs, soooo :3

close ups! ↑ ^_^

it's been a long time since I posted full drawings here goddamn

♡₊˚ 🧪・₊✧

i love you enderverse

to suggest that victor’s fainting spells (which contrary to popular belief only occurred twice, but i digress) and by extension his emotional demonstrativeness are the result of mary’s gender is not only lazy criticism, it’s grossly sexist. you’re reducing a groundbreaking literary figure to a stereotype, as though shelley just couldn’t help but feminize her male characters because of her “womanly emotions.” that line of thinking doesn’t just erase her intellect—it erases the entire literary culture that she was a part of. 

mary was a romantic! she was working within and expanding a movement that was already deeply invested in emotional vulnerability and internal conflict and tragedy and the sublime. victor doesn’t “faint” because he was written by a woman, he does so because he’s a romantic protagonist, written into a tradition where pain was profound and poetic and central to the narrative. he’s a product of a literary movement that valued this emotional extremity, especially in men. it framed their suffering as noble, even divine. 

not that it really matters, but many prominent romantic figures who are similar to victor or even mentioned within the text were male-authored, from byronic tortured heroes to coleridge’s mariner to goethe’s werther and so on. but no, shelley didn’t “make victor a sissy.” she wrote him exactly as the literary tradition demanded.

Reading classical literature, especially from the 1800s, has made me very aware of the fact how toxically masculine the world is now compared to that.

For example in Dracula, the men involved are so affected by the tragedy that they all write several heartbreaking passages in their respective diaries and openly cry at Lucy's funeral. Of course, this tragedy is Pretty Woman Dead, but still, the emotions these characters are capable of expressing! Incredible! I feel like these days men are only allowed to scream and cry in horror, not in grief.

Another example is Moby Dick and oh boy, Moby Dick is a whole other caliber. I read the first few chapters and thought I was seeing things, but no. Nowadays you could not publish that book without an uproar from the manosphere. You have Ishmael, an experienced sailor, wandering through the streets alone looking for lodgings, and the first thing he does is share a blanket with a shirtless, tattooed New Zealander because there is only one bed. It's literally the There Is Only One Bed fanfic trope. Later, Queequeg calls him his "wife" repeatedly and there's a chapter where Ishmael is dissolving lumps of oil in a vat with a few other sailors and every time he accidentally grabs one of their hands instead of an oil lump, he looks deep into their eyes and fantasizes about hugging everyone because he feels so spiritually connected to them. While talking about squeezing all the sperm lumps. You couldn't. You just couldn't.

happy mother’s day to victor frankenstein

d ivorce means two christmases <3

important data

FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | FRANKENSTEIN, Frank Darabont | FRANKENSTEIN, Joellen Bland | FRANKENSTEIN: A NEW MUSICAL, Gary P. Cohen and Jeffrey Jackson | FRANKENSTEIN, Steph Lady & James V. Hart | FRANKENSTEIN, Frank Darabont | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley.

frankenstein & fatherhood

He felt like he might create new life. "I-i think i'm gonna create new life.."

frankenstein art? in a year of our lord 2025? on my blog?? more likely than you think

1. robert walton and his sister margaret

2. captain walton himself

3. louis manoir (a guy that was mentioned in the book once (1) and yet we love him)

4. clerval and walton smooching victor

5. morenza. need i say more

6.-7. victor again

decided to draw some of art requests from a frankensteinery server (exact request wording and server link under the cut 🙏)

@frankendykez @robertwaltons

Discord

Join the (⚡)　CHAROBIN'S F͟R͟A͟N͟K͟E͟N͟S͟T͟E͟I͟N͟E͟R͟Y͟. Discord Server!

Check out the (⚡)　CHAROBIN'S F͟R͟A͟N͟K͟E͟N͟S͟T͟E͟I͟N͟E͟R͟Y͟. community on Discord - hang out with 142 other members and enjoy free voice and

(keep in mind that the server is 15+!)

*jesse pinkman voice* not my house man not my house

Girl the egg ☹☹ girl the bird ☹☹☹☹☹ girl it flies to god ☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹ girl that gods name is abraxas ☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹

HE JUST ACCIDENTALLY SAILED TO IRELAND?

i miss my first true love peter wiggin

i don’t think victors misinterpretation of the creatures threat “i will be with you on your wedding night” as a warning of his own impending death was to show victor’s hubris or self-centeredness, but instead shelley employing a deliberate display of dramatic irony, which is common within gothic literature. the gothic genre thrives on tension, dread, and suspense, and gothic narratives often involve secrets and psychological turmoil, all of which dramatic irony enhances. it also further cements frankenstein as a tragedy and, because of the disconnect between what characters perceive and what the reader anticipates, it reinforces the theme of fate throughout the novel (which is particularly pervasive in the 1831 version). but hey whatever this might be the rampant victor defender in me speaking 

“match my freak” how about you match my poetic misery instead

whaetever

Read a bit of the letters from the book so now I have this

yes i just made a post about nonbinary victor and yes i will make analysis on a transfem reading of victor in the next breath

long, rambling analysis under the cut

• victor does not merely seek to create life but to do so in a way that bypasses the female body entirely. a transmasculine reading might focus on his desire to "usurp" childbirth, but in a transfeminine reading, his method reflects an unwillingness to claim masculinity through the traditional path of fatherhood. instead, he externalizes the process, removing himself from it as much as possible

• his tendency toward secrecy and repression also reinforces his role as a feminine character. unlike a traditional male protagonist who would confront his guilt head-on, victor internalizes his fears, choosing to suffer silently rather than assert control over his narrative; his silence and self-inflicted isolation recall the way women in gothic fiction are often dismissed, disbelieved, or forced into silence by societal constraints

• as victor grows more and more ill during the creation process (one big metaphor for childbirth), he, despite being aware of his sickness, describes being unable to stop himself due to "supernatural" forces outside of himself: "the energy of my purpose alone sustained me: my labours would soon end," much like how pregnancy is an uncontrollable, continuous process. moreover, his "languor and extreme weakness" parallels the physical toll of pregnancy and labor, what he literally describes as quote "time spent in painful labour"

• victor describes himself as "timid as a love-sick girl" (!) during his illness in the 1823 text

• he experiences postpartum depression and psychosis

• in general, he is expected to take on the more traditionally masculine role of being this pillar of emotional support for the family. victor is reprimanded and reminded time and time again by alphonse to conform and uphold these traditional masculine values of "sucking up" his grief, but continues to experience a stereotypically "feminine" range of emotion despite, what alphonse incorrectly recognizes as false pride. additionally, upon his return to geneva he is in such a state of emotional turmoil he is the one who has to be comforted by elizabeth, not the other way around

• in the same vein, as the heir to the frankenstein family his father assumes he will carry on the family legacy and pursue a respectable, intellectual career as a syndic, yet victor's interest veer into obsession, secrecy, and isolation--behaviors that mirror the gothic trope of the confined, melancholic woman rather than the bold and authoritative man of science. he id the only frankenstein to go into further education upon the whim of his parents, and he returns from ingolstadt in a worse state than before

• alongside elizabeth, he takes on the traditionally feminine role of caretaker of young william and ernest

• his destruction of the bride can be read as a metaphor for abortion, particularly alongside his profound guilt, grief and psychological decline afterwards. his reasoning for tearing apart the female creature mirrors anxieties surrounding reproduction and parenthood: he fears she will bear offspring, that she will be uncontrollable, that she will exert influence over the creature

• victor experiences gendered oppression for his  "feminine" emotional demonstrativeness of anxiety, weakness, fear, etc. (within the historical context)--one that, while not explicit, places him in the position of a disbelieved, silenced, and emotionally unstable figure. from the moment after the creatures animation, victor anticipates that no one will believe his story, a fear that parallels the societal treatment of women who speak out about trauma, abuse, or other experiences that challenge dominant narratives. he repeatedly laments that if he were to reveal the truth, he would be labeled mad, irrational, or delusional--labels historically used to dismiss women’s testimony

• even when victor does attempt to speak out, his fears about being seen as mad are realized. when he tells the magistrate that the creature is responsible for the murder of elizabeth, he is met with skepticism and his words are treated as the ravings of a madman. this moment in particular envokes the historical treatment of women who were seen as having "excessive emotions". his story is too outrageous, his grief too unhinged, his emotions too raw--he does not embody the calm, rational, masculine authority that commands belief

• this all adds another layer to his dynamic with walton and clerval, both of whom serve as more socially acceptable and physically capable (i say physically capable because victor had to rely on them for care) male counterparts. walton, in particular, acts as a recorder of victors tale, much like how male voices have historically been needed to validate women’s experiences. victor must rely on walton, a man, to preserve his narrative, just as women have often needed male advocates to be taken seriously

• clerval actively assumes responsiblity for victor’s well-being in times of illness as he not only nurses him back to health but also controls how his condition is reported to others, particularly elizabeth and alphonse. he mediates victor’s communication with his family, much like how a husband would manage a wife’s affairs, especially regarding health and medical decisions. this positions victor in a traditionally passive, dependent role assigned to women and further shows his lack of autonomy--he is not just physically weakened but also deprived of agency over his own care, reliant on clerval’s judgment and control

• furthermore, when he requests to travel alone to create the bride, they send clerval with him without consulting him, reinforcing the idea that victor cannot (or should not) function independently. simultaneously this also creates a dynamic resembling husband and wife between clerval and victor, (as the lovely @victorfreakenste1n, who first pointed this out to me, phrased it) “women can’t do anything on their own, they need their husband to make proper decisions”

• victor is rarely in control of his own life, despite his obsession with controlling life itself. his parents orchestrate his future by choosing his wife and his career path. even when he attempts to assert independence--pursuing science against their expectations--his actions are driven by compulsion (as his studies spiral into an uncontrollable obsession) rather than genuine autonomy. his “escape” to ingolstadt isn’t a rebellion but a deferral of obligation, and his eventual return home is forced by tragedy

• victor’s treatment also mirrors elizabeth’s: just as she is expected to wait patiently for victor, he is expected to defer to his family’s guidance. both are essentially passive participants in their own fates, shaped by expectations they cannot fully escape

takes a bow. the end

i am thinking about how victor exists in a liminal space where he is expected to embody masculinity yet is repeatedly treated as something other than a man: he is caught between expectations and identity, unable to fully claim the masculinity he reaches for (or at the very least, is expected to reach for) yet not quite conforming to traditional femininity either. his existence is marked by contradiction: he outwardly pursues male-coded ambition and authority, yet is consistently denied the recognition, respect, and autonomy afforded to men. at the same time, he is subjected to treatment that mirrors the historical oppression of women, but without ever being fully aligned with femininity.

yet ultimately he does not belong to either category and instead oscillates between them, unable to find stability in one or the other, because he is both mother and father and simultaneously neither, a juxtaposition reinforced by his own method of creation. his horror at the creature’s birth mirrors a crisis of self--he has created something neither fully human nor entirely monstrous but an awkward inbetween, just as he himself does not fit neatly into the rigid constructs of gender that society demands

victor’s narrative, then, can be read as an exploration of dysphoria--not necessarily in the modern sense, but in the broader, existential discomfort of being forced into roles that do not align with one’s internal reality. his attempts to assert control, whether over life, death, or his own identity, continually fail because the world refuses to see him as he sees himself.

all this to say. victor nonbinary

some headshots I did for a Frankenstein assignment

The hyperfixation train is a-chuggin, so have some more Frankenstein sketches

as i was reading the 1818 annotated text of mary shelley’s frankenstein, i noticed that one of my favorite lines, “Clerval was a being formed in the very poetry of nature”, had an annotation by Shelley connecting it to The Story Of Rimini by Leigh Hunt.

i obviously checked it out, and found out that that line was describing PAOLO from dante’s inferno… as in paolo and francesca… THE star-crossed lovers… francesca was in an arranged marriage (familiar?) and sinned by falling in love with paolo… and theyre together in hell and regret nothing…

i’m actually weeping over this being a canon parallel. go stream francesca by hozier one billion times

FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | WISHBONE CLASSICS FRANKENSTEIN, Micheal Burgan | THE ROOM WHERE THE CORPSE LAY, Bernie Wrightson | FRANKENSTEIN, Alexander Utz | FRANKENSTEIN, Director Kevin Connor | THE MODERN PROMETHEUS, Nicole Mello | FRANKENSTEIN, Deborah Tempest | | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley.

victor's grief for henry

saw this at the bookstore today and it tickled me. I Can Make Him…

FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | FRANKENSTEIN: A NEW MUSICAL, Mark Baron | MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN, Steph Lady | WISHBONE CLASSICS FRANKENSTEIN, Micheal Burgan | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | A CATHEDRAL OF ALMOST LOVERS, cornflakesortoast | MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN, Steph Lady | FRANKENSTEIN, Joellen Bland | FRANKENSTEIN, Frank Darabont | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley

waltonstein, throughout several adaptations

FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | THE MODERN PROMETHEUS, Nicole Mello | FRANKENSTEIN, Alexander Utz | MONSTER, Neal Bell | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | HENRY CLERVAL SCOLDING VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN: AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC POEM ABOUT GRADUATE STUDENTS AND THEIR DAEMONS, Adam D. Henze | FRANKENSTEIN, Alexander Utz | FRANKENSTEIN: A NEW MUSICAL, Mark Baron | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley.

clervalstein, over several adaptations

hey do you have any plans for november? no? good because i was thinking that maybe we can meet up some (preferably dreary) night. yeah the 16th sounds good. oh of course you could lie lifeless at my feet if you want! besides i was already thinking that i should collect the instruments of life around me. maybe i could infuse a spark of life in you later you know. just a thought. ok so november 16th, at 1 AM? 1:15? okay sounds good awesome ty