Robin DeRosa
Critical Theory
8 December 2015
The Secret Desires of Frankenstein
The first example of Victor inhabiting homosexual desires can be seen in his process and obsession of creating a living being. “[Many] argued that Frankenstein was a feminist take on the male envy of female procreation…I was fascinated by the idea of procreating a "person" of the same sex as oneself” (Sadownick). By choosing to create a male creature instead of a female, the reader can see how Victor’s desires lean more towards homosexuality. Eberle-Sinatra points out how “the language used to describe the making of the Creature by Victor in the novel suggests masturbation.” Looking at the language that Victor uses when retelling his creation to Walton, it is easy to see how his story may have underlying homosexual desires. Victor tells how he “disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. In a solitary chamber…I kept my workshop of filthy creation” (Shelley 58). Not only is Victor attempting to take on the role of female procreation, he finds an erotic joy from it as well. “These masturbatory elements also suggest homosexual fantasies” (Eberle-Sinatra). Victor shows more interest and excitement in his creation than he does with any other subject in the book, including that of his love, Elizabeth.
Having met her at a very young age and developing an immediate attachment, it was decided early on that Elizabeth would eventually become Victor’s wife. However, as the two grow older Victor avoids his promise of marrying Elizabeth and instead goes off to complete his studies and experiments with his creature. Eberle-Sinatra points out how “the novel's Victor is obsessed with the Creature, who repeatedly makes his pulse beat faster and his brow sweat,” a reaction that Victor never has towards Elizabeth. Even after leaving his creation, Victor is constantly remembering “the nervous fever with which [he] had been seized just at the time that [he] dated [his] creation” (Shelley 76). Yet Victor hardly pays any mind to Elizabeth, who is constantly sending him letters and reaching out to him. Victor’s father notices his distance, confronting Victor about it on page 133 where he states “I confess, my son, that I have always looked forward to your marriage with our dear Elizabeth…but so blind is the experience of man…you may have met with another whom you may love.” Victor’s father makes no comment on whether the other he loves is male or female, leaving the passage open to reader interpretation. Even when Victor responds, “My dear father, re-assure yourself. I love my cousin tenderly and sincerely. I never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection” (Shelley 133), he is specific in saying that he has never seen another woman who he adores. Victor does not, nor could he in this time period, address the possibility that another man has stolen his love from Elizabeth. “The possibility that Victor might have met another man clearly does not occur to his father, and to a certain extent neither does this possibility occur to Victor himself, though he is certainly much more excited physically by the thought of the Creature and its physical presence than he is by Elizabeth” (Eberle-Sinatra). However, the creature is not the only male character that seems to cause excitement in Victor.
After his creature escapes, Victor sets out to capture the beast and finds himself in the presence of Walton. Almost immediately, Walton is blatantly taken with Victor, writing to his sister how “my affection for my guest increases every day. He excites at once my admiration and my pity to an astonishing agree” (Shelley 37). Victor even goes so far as to return these feelings when Walton says “I spoke of my desire of finding a friend—of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind could boast of little happiness, who did not enjoy this blessing” (Shelley 38). Victor replies with “I agree with you…we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer that ourselves—such a friend ought to be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures,” and continues on to say “I once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures, and am entitled, therefore, to judge respecting friendship” (Shelley 38). In this section, Victor not only returns Walton’s affectionate feelings, but goes on to speak of Henry and the feelings he once had for this friend.
There are many instances throughout Victor’s story where he speaks highly of Henry, in a way that can easily be seen as affection and admiration. Henry also cared for Victor, taking time out of his studies after Victor’s incident with the creature to nurse his friend back to health. Victor admits to himself upon seeing Henry after that dreadful night that “nothing could equal my delight on seeing Clerval” (Shelley 62). The presence of his friend immediately calms Victor, even after the horrors he just witnessed over his creation. However, this love can most plainly be seen after Henry’s death. Even before telling the story to Walton, Victor shares how “little did I then expect the calamity that was in a few moments to overwhelm me…I must pause here; for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory of the frightful events which I am about to relate” (Shelley 151). Victor goes on to tell how he was taken into custody for the suspected murder of his friend. It was not until Victor entered the room where the body of Henry lay, though, that he realized who had been killed. Victor’s reaction to seeing the lifeless body of Henry is one that shows how deeply he cared for his friend. “I gasped for breath; and, throwing myself on the body, I exclaimed, ‘Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny: but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor—” (Shelley 153). Victor cuts himself off at this point in his rant, falling into a convulsion of uncontrollable sobs over the loss of his friend. This leaves the reader to wonder what Victor would have continued to say about his deceased friend, had he the strength to do so. It can easily be assumed that Victor would have gone on to call his beloved Henry “my love.”
Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reader follows Victor as he creates a living being. More importantly, though, the reader has a chance to see as Victor sees and feel as Victor feels about the events happening around him. After analyzing his thoughts of these tragic months, it can be seen that Victor had many feelings that were not brought to the surface through his story. From the homosexual reasons behind creating a male monster to his indirect rejection of Elizabeth to the strong bond he created with both Walton and Henry, it is clear that Victor’s relationships with males differed greatly for that with females. Victor continuously hid his homosexual feelings from those around him throughout the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
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