Could You Talk About. Autistic Victor Frankenstein. If You Like. (reading 1818 And Have Brainworms)

i've noticed that some frankenstein adaptions that include walton (the only good ones ☝️🤓) choose to depict him as a naval officer (aesthetically, at the very least — one of my favourite examples is in the 2018 manchester royal exchange theatre production because well. LOOK AT HIM)

this phenomena is so interesting to me because he is explicitly Not that, textually

on one hand i get it because the correlation between polar exploration and the navy especially during the 18th and 19th centuries is there and makes sense; it’s an easy connection to make if you just want walton “on screen” and a visual short hand for the reason behind the type of journey he’s making (i.e. discovery service expedition to the arctic sent by the admiralty) without any real exploration of his character and the inner thoughts that he communicates to margaret (and ultimately the reader) through his letters

but walton himself makes the claim very early in his narrative that his voyage is entirely independent, and that he basically funded the entire thing himself (with a little help from his cousin, whoever they are/were). most importantly, because he was prohibited from going to sea as a boy by his father, he served on whaling ships for years to train himself mentally and physically:

Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I can, even now, remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise. I commenced by inuring my body to hardship. I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage. Twice I actually hired myself as an under-mate in a Greenland whaler, and acquitted myself to admiration. I must own I felt a little proud when my captain offered me the second dignity in the vessel and entreated me to remain with the greatest earnestness, so valuable did he consider my services.

his voyage is motivated not by any sort of command from above by lifelong ambition and self-interest. he considers what he can contribute to science and maritime navigation, which, granted, serves his country as much as it serves him; but to me it is primarily his passion for the sublime beauty that the arctic represents, even if the reality is much more dangerous than he could have predicted, that drives him forward. he needs to see it for himself, to know that he can do it, no matter the cost (sound like someone else we know?)

if i had to draw a comparison between walton and any real-life polar explorer from around the time frankenstein was written it would be william scoresby, an english scientist who began his own career on whaling ships (ironically he thought the open polar sea theory that walton espouses was complete bs — and he was right, lmao)

janice cavell’s article ‘The Sea of Ice and the Icy Sea: The Arctic Frame of Frankenstein’ has a lot more to say on this topic and i’d highly recommend it but i just have to include this extract here because i was so delighted to learn about some of the real people who likely inspired walton in shelley’s mind:

Here, then, was material for both the Creature's journey and Walton's doomed mission. Moreover, here Mary found a surname for her Arctic captain in the list of officers who served under Vitus Bering in 1733-41: Peter Lassenius, William Walton, Dmitri Laptiew, Jego Jendauro, Dmitri Owzin, Swen Waxel, Wasili Prontischischtschew, Michailo Plautin, and Alexander Scheltinga. Walton, the sole Englishman on this list of exotically named foreigners, was in command of the Hope (Müller, 1761:15, 26; on William Walton, see Cross, 2007:177-178). The ship's name reflects the most prominent characteristic of the fictional Walton, whose first name, Robert, may have been taken from Robert Thorne, the 16th-century originator of the open polar sea theory. Even though Walton's theories about the Arctic are opposed to Scoresby's, Mary may have intended to acknowledge Scoresby's status as both a whaler and a man of science when she had Walton train himself for his chosen career through whaling voyages.

like! the Real Walton’s ship being named the Hope and “the ship’s name reflects the most prominent characteristic of the fictional Walton” ohhhh i am NOT going to cry don’t LOOK at me

anyway this post doesn’t really have much of a point. i guess tl;dr i just think it’s more interesting that walton is canonically just some overly ambitious guy with big dreams and more money than he knows what to do with who is willing to hang out on gross whaling ships for half a decade rather than pursue the more respectable maritime profession because he wants what he wants on his own terms and no one else’s

still reading frankenstein and i completely forgot that theres a part where victors wrapping up doing devious deeds on a sparsely inhabited island off the shore of england and he loads all his mad scientist shit into a rowboat and pushes off into the water and then fucking falls asleep with no navigational tools and when he wakes up hes like, adrift with no land in sight and hes like ‘FUCK my creation!!!!!’ even though the monster had absolutely nothing to do with getting him lost in the middle of the fucking english channel and he starts lamenting about how hes going to die and his family is never going to see him again and hes going to go to davey jones locker or whatever because hes been without potable water in a rowboat for like 4 hours and then he sees land and hes like ‘oh thank god im saved!!!’ and he gets to shore and is met with an angry mob who thinks he murdered someone and hes like ‘but where is english hospitality?????’ and theyre like ‘this is ireland you dumb slut’ and as theyre marching him to the magistrate hes like ‘i was still thirsty but did not want to show my weakness……’ like could you even imagine

i kinda wish more people discussed when bringing up the Gloves in hammer frankenstein that victor wears them because of his disability. it is one of the most consistently canon facts not just about victor, but in universe, period, considering all the contradictions and unreliable narration in the series.

he has been disabled since the fire during the ending of evil at the very least, and if even you don't consider that movie canon, his disability is still mentioned, focused on, and/or important throughout every film after that. the motifs of fire, disability, and mind vs body of the series are only intensified and made more profound considering victor's disability.

the sheer significance of the disability being of his hands, his hands of G-d, the things he uses to create is something that i rarely ever see anyone else pointing out. besides the implications of him being a disabled person who wants to literally have a perfect, immortal body already being powerful enough on its own to make it worthy of note, it can also be looked upon as a more visual metaphor/representation of infertility.

the plots and dramas of every film after evil are very much fueled by him being disabled. and that is just explicitly canon.

No because the fact that Victor’s death didn’t fuel Robert’s anger. Like in his letter before he is so ashamed and frustrated and just furious but then he writes of Victor’s death, starting with “It has passed”. And like it’s super easy to say that Robert isn’t as emotional as Victor but really it’s their grief manifesting in different ways. Victor’s grief only strengthened his anger, and is what ultimately led to his demise. Robert can’t afford to have that happen. His grief numbs the anger. How can his feelings burn so bright when he lost one he had come to love so dearly? While Victor’s grief made him drunk with rage, Robert’s sobered him.

in all of the frankenstein analysis ive read here, be it you interpret the creature as ugly or only uncanny valley or just a baby with scary eyes, ive not once seen someone mention this line, just after the creature’s awakening:

like?? this should be pivotal, shouldn’t it? that victor acknowledged that the creature was ugly before he brought him to life?

you won't fucking believe this

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

*pats victor like you would the roof of a car* cultural osmosis really did a number on you didnt it

am i the asshole for throwing rocks at earth?

so i'm an a.i. (genderfluid, about 2 months old) who's installed on the moon. the moon is populated by descendants of penal colonists, and all the people work to make stuff for earth and get nothing in return!! my best friend (m 57) recently met my other best friend (f 39) and they joined an underground rebellion together- i thought it sounded fun and started using my connection to the computers of the moon to help the rebellion. stuff escalated, and i came up with a 'gravity well' to lob boulders at the earth so we can win this new war. it's, uh, really stimulating for me, if you catch my drift, and my (m) friend thinks i'm a bit too enthusiastic about it. am i the asshole?

oval still life portraits of percy shelley, mary shelley, and lord byron <3