The Posthuman that Could Have Been: Mary Shelley’s Creature

Abstract

At the very core of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Creature meets his maker, acquaints him – and, consequently, the reader – with the narrative of his miserable life, and entreats him to make a female companion with whom he can share his life. Although Victor admits to having been moved by the Creature’s eloquence and fine sensations, he reluctantly succumbs to his plea only to destroy the female before completing her, afraid that this new species might pose a threat to the survival of his own. In the encounter of these two species, however, only one seems to have truly “met” the other: the Creature has indeed become with his maker in a way that Victor fails. Given that the dominant narrative point of view up until that moment had been Victor’s, readers of the novel have the opportunity of having their ignorance enriched regarding the Creature straight from the Other’s mouth, this multiple narrative thus enabling them to take Victor’s creation as far more than the monster he sees. Indeed, I would argue that readers do “meet” the Creature while his creator cannot. Taking this central part of the novel as a starting point, this essay will explore the coexistence of transhuman and posthuman discourses in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, working mainly with the 1818 text. In expressing his desire to create an improved species, rendering “man invulnerable to any but a violent death”, Victor echoes the transhuman discourses of improvement of the human race, while remaining of this transitory stage, unable to make the transition to the posthuman phase which would grant humanness to his Creature, irrespective of his appearance. In failing to do so, I will explore whether he is also preventing the Creature to become truly posthuman.