Frankenstein
The doppelganger motif, a ghostly double which haunts its fleshy counterpart, plays a strikingly important role in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In the novel, both Frankenstein and the creature have tragic flaws leading them into a downward spiral to their ultimate demise. It is in this downward spiral that the reader sees how the creature's flaws mirror those of Frankenstein and how they both succumb to evil, revenge and ultimately death. Furthermore, the reader sees the doppelganger motif when analyzing Walton. Walton's pursuits seem to mimic those of Frankenstein by believing that the quest for knowledge against great odds will lead to self-immortality. It seems that Frankenstein and Walton share this same tragic flaw, however, Walton is able to see Frankenstein as a warning and avert the disaster that has become Frankenstein's life. In the novel, the doppelganger motif between Frankenstein and the creature and Frankenstein and Walton both represent different facets of Frankenstein where, in essence, Walton is the cause and the creature is the effect. Thus, it is the pride and overwheening ambition of both Walton and Frankenstein that leads to the misery and revenge between the creature and Frankenstein.
Throughout the novel, the reader sees the lives of Frankenstein and the creature come together. By the end of the novel, Frankenstein's and the creature's lives so closely mimic each other when each character's reason for living is the other's ultimate destruction. Both characters are living a life of misery and they both wish for their death but not until the other has died first. It is these feelings of loneliness and abandonment that the creature has experienced from the onset of his creation. It is this example which starts to bring the doppelganger motif into full circle. In this quote comparing himself to Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, Frankenstein is giving an explicit warning to Walton. Once again in each quote the reader sees the duplication of text within the use of the word "gnash" and the misery which once protruded the two characters is evolving itself into a blind rage. Walton describes him as, "Having conquered the violence of his feelings, he appeared to despise himself for being the slave of passion; and quelling the dark tyranny of despair, he led me again to converse concerning myself personally"(27). It is in this manner that both the creature and Victor experience solidarity with each other in their abandonment and misery. When the creature comes face to face with Frankenstein it is described that, "The monster saw my determination in my face, and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger"(163). It is the doppelganger motif between Frankenstein and Walton which portrays even more clearly the tragic nature of Frankenstein. It is by the end of the novel when the doppelganger motif comes into full effect. It is this instance which signifies the greatest example of the doppelganger motif and the solidarity between the two characters. The reader is able to see the arrogance and irrationality magnified in Frankenstein when it is reproduced in Walton. In spite of Frankenstein's urgings to go forward and Walton describing that, "I had rather die than return shamefully-my purpose unfulfilled"(208); Walton ultimately decides to go home knowing that his fate is death if he continues on any further.
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Acceptance Essays
