Gender in the monster: Dr. Frankenstein as a mother

Abstract

When Mary Shelley created her novel, Frankenstein or Prometheus Unbound, during a ghost story competition among Byron, Percy B. Shelley and herself, she could probably not foresee that she would create one of the most influential literary texts of English literature. Her tale became a Gothic classic which has inspired, for 200 years, not only writers, literary critics and theoreticians but also film directors who have adapted the story for cinema in various degrees of loyalty to the original plot. However, one of the latest adaptations, Frankenstein (2007), directed by Jed Mercurio, presents a new Dr. Frankenstein. Deconstructing the established male creator/male monster pattern, the doctor’s name is not Victor, but Victoria. The film shows that it is not a mere alteration of two letters, but a completely new Dr. Frankenstein who, with a female identity in the 21st century, is furnished with gender roles. The female Frankenstein and her monster build a kind of relationship different from their previous counterparts. It is certain that, in this relationship, attributed gender roles are determiners not only in the type of the relationship, but also in the identity crisis of the monster. This study will, therefore, present how gender roles of Victoria deconstruct the established pattern of the tale and reconstruct it under new terms of gender, and how this influences the gender formation of the monster.