A Critical Analysis of Frankenstein through the Lens of Marxist Criticism

Marxist Criticism and its Applications to Frankenstein

Marxist Criticism

In essence it attempts to reveal how our socioeconomic system is the source of our experiences and the conflicts which we portray in literature and how literature in turn serves to perpetuate dominant ideologies.

Questions that Pinpoint Marxist Criticism

The Development of Marxist Criticism

From the Theories of Karl Marx, Marxist Criticism has been influenced by other critics including:

Author is blind to how they are shaped by dominant ideologies of the age

Cycle of Ideology shaping literature- Literature shaping/reproducing Ideology

Terry Eagleton-Criticism and Idealogy

Leon Trotsky- Literature and Revolution - writer should be engineers of human souls

Lucien Goldman- showed how economics determine mental structures of social groups- literary works are collectve products of trans-individual mental structures

• What role does class play in the work and how do members of different classes interact?
• How do characters overcome calamity and how is the conflict related to the author's present day realities?
• Does the work say anything about oppression or are social conflicts ignored or blamed elsewhere?
• Whom does the work benefit if the work is successful- audience?
• Which societal values/dominant ideologies does it reinforce/subvert?

Georg Lukacs

Karl Marx

Theorist/Historian influenced by Enlightenment ideas to examine society scientifically

Developed theory that "historical materialism" and economic forces were the driving force of human endeavor

He perceived history as a series of class struggles where the alienation of the worker in industrial capitalist societies resulted in class warfare which was then reflected in the arts

The Proletariat revolution would eventually create a new social an economic order capable of creating great art

Marxist Criticism

Marx's social theory forms the basis of Marxist criticism and has developed over time.

Base vs. Superstructure Model-

Economics forms the base of society including class interaction and power hierarchies- society always want to regenerate base

Superstructure consists of law, politics, philosophy, religion and art which grow out of society's base

Literature is a product of work in itself and it does identifiable work of its own- Marxist Criticism "shows the text as it cannot know itself as a product of the conditions of its making of which it is necessarily silent"(Eagleton)

He Influenced 'western Marxism' as a 'humanist' alternative to Stalinist theories- most liberal Marxist. His theory of reification views the nature of all relationships through the relationships between traded objects. Class is the result of an economic oppression.

Works Cited

Marxist Criticism-

Allison, Matthew. "The Frankenstein Project." The Frankenstein Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. <http://www.public.asu.edu/~hiroshi/eng400/frankenstein/project/student/allisonessay.html>.

Brizee, Allen, and Case Tompkins. "Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism. Purdue University, 21 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/05/>.

Delahoyde, Micheal. "Marxist Criticism." Marxist Criticism. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. <http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/marxist.crit.html>.

"Marxist Criticism." Marxist Criticism. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. <http://dsteinbe.intrasun.tcnj.edu/Courses/Approaches/theory/marxism.htm>.

Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Frankenstein-

Montag, Warren. “The “Workshop of Filthy Creation”: A Marxist Reading of Frankenstein.” Frankenstein. 2nd ed. Ed. Johanna M. Smith. Boston: Bedford, 2000. 384-395.

Lecourt, Dominique. Promethee, Faust, Frankenstein. Paris: Institut Synthelabo, 1996.

The Industrial Revolution

The Monster: The Plebeian Workforce

The Significance of a Lack of presence

Europe, in creating a working class, created a monster.

In Frankenstein, Shelly compares the Monster to the Proletariat and Victor Frankenstein to the Bourgeoisie/Ruling Class

"It bears witness to the birth of a monster, simultaneously the object of pity and fear, the industrial working class."

Science and Technology are "alienating and dehumanizing" that "turns humans into a lower form of life."

"Technology and science, so centered to novel, are..." "Utterly absent from the work"

-There are frequent mentions of beautiful scenery and gorgeous landscapes but none of the industrial world or workforce.

The monster is the "sole embodiment" of industry in a completely rural world, which makes him seem even more monstrous and foreign

The monster is more of a "product rather than a creation" who was assembled more by science and technology, than by a man. (Lecourt)

- Pity the monster: The workforce is poor, struggling for survival and rights, and attempting to find a place in society

- Fear the monster: possesses great power, "a monster that, once unleashed, could not be controlled"Initially, rational, but irrationality later presents itself

The Monster was made up of "parts of many people" and lacks "unity of a natural organisms"

......Sounds like a Revolution

Warren Montag

Understanding the History: Frankenstein

The "Workshop of Filthy Creation": A Marxist Reading of Frankenstien

• Initially published at the conclusion of the French Revolution.
• Narrative itself takes place in the 1790s.
• The English and French revolutions were "social and political experiments" that "mobilized plebeian masses" such as the peasants, workers and the poor.

-These social experiments were initially successful, but ended up as failures.

Literary works are not "autonomous artifacts" they are

"Incontestably interwoven in this history"

Marxist criticism serves to restore the literary dependency of a work.

"When we say that literary works are historical by their very nature we mean that we do not leave the work in search of its historical meaning but seek the meaning of its historical existence."

• This is also the same time period as the Industrial Revolution, where new technology "sprang into sudden existence"

-This technology resulted in increased unemployment, a decrease in wages, and an increase in consumer goods and food

Hegemony- power of dominant ideology to perpetuate itself through literature