The psychological traits of Victor Frankenstein are displayed throughout the pages of Mary Shelley ‘s novel, Frankenstein, published in 1818. These traits will be discussed, labeled and analyzed throughout this essay. Though Victor Frankenstein is a fictional character, Mary Shelley brings him to life, with many psychological characteristics. These characteristics are classified under psychological terms discovered by many psychiatrists, including the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.
The psychological characteristics discussed are fixation, intellectualization and reversal, all of which derive from the id, ego and super-ego.
Victor Frankenstein was a man with obsessive behavior. Once his mind was introduced to a matter in life, he wanted to know everything he could on that matter. This stems from his id. “There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand. I am practically industrious – painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour – but besides this, there is a love for the marvelous, a belief in the marvelous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and un-visited regions I am about to explore.” . Frankenstein’s core is hungry to marvel in all possibilities whether good or evil and whether he understands it or not. His id is the foundation of this appetite for knowledge to explore the unknown.
His obsessions began as a young boy. Alchemy was his first interest but later he became obsessed in chemistry. He was driven with the thought of giving life to an inanimate matter. This spell lasted two years. Frankenstein did not stop and was determined through intellectualization. During this period of obsession, he successfully carried out an experiment and was able to bring an inanimate matter to life, known as Frankenstein’s monster. His ego was the belief and his reality that through knowledge and perseverance, he could make this happen. His id and ego were coinciding with each other and both highly determined.
During the course of his experiments, Victor was asked three questions. He managed to avoid answering all three of them. His super-ego blocked out any form of emotion and rationale on whether his actions are of a normal man. This intellectualization, is his a defense mechanism to avoid confrontation and to avoid emotional attachment. Victor Frankenstein’s emotions were managed by intellectualization. It was his “flight to reason” to defend and deny his actions as being irrational and to remain determined. Victor displayed this characteristic from a very young age and it persisted into his adulthood. “Intellectualization at Puberty, seeing the growing intellectual and philosophical approach of that period as relatively normal attempts to master adolescent drives” .
His reality was the ability to bring an inanimate object to life, that is what his id chose to fixate on and his super-ego did not get in the way of making that happen. "So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein — more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” (Shelley 1818). His super-ego was unable to rationalize any thought of emotional ties to his drive to create life. He even thought himself as a fallen angel, going against morality.
After all his hard work, experiments and determination, Victor is unpleased with his creation. He viewed his creation to be ugly. This reversal is fairly intense as it goes from one extreme to another. Victor Frankenstein is obsessed on giving an inanimate matter life, then, once that inanimate matter has been given life, Victor resents it. .
So in this short synopsis; fixation, intellectualization and reversal have been identified. It is fairly obvious that Victor Frankenstein had a fixation on whatever mattered to him most at that time. Even though the fixation was not moral, it did not stop the persistence.
With Victor Frankenstein so obsessed with obtaining an elixir to life and avoiding to answer questions. He remains devoted to the facts embedded in his chemical concoctions and avoids the emotions on whether this is moral. It is nonetheless inherent that emotions were absent during the course of the creation of Frankenstein’s monster. Maybe that is why, when the monster was given life, there were no positive emotions linked to its existence. Victor hated his creation. The monster asked for a mate so he can marry and love and Victor denied his creation of love and marriage. Victor Frankenstein had no emotions and therefore was uncompassionate. These all are negative characteristics.
Victor Frankenstein’s super-ego chose to follow a path that did not carry a lot of emotions. He could have been born this way or something may have happened to him during his childhood to carry out his choices the way he did.
I believe that Victor has many negative thought patterns and thoughts that did not function properly. His super-ego did not make choices of morality and in turn many tragic events occurred during the course of the novel.
When a human denies positive emotions, the pleasures of the universe are disconnected. Giving life to an inanimate object can be considered unorthodox but for the sake of science is marvelous. But if one is to do this, it would shed light to have some sort of positive emotion and feeling of morality in the process. For example, the fact that Victor was able to deny his creation love and affection is unpleasing and quite dark. Our human instincts could be quite narcissistic. As when an infant is suckling at the breast, nothing else matters except the source of food and feeding of hunger. This is similar to Victor’s id and ego. But as a human grows and has needs beyond instinct, a choice of morality comes into play. And that is the choice Victor Frankenstein’s super-ego denied. A healthy super-ego is a moral super-ego and makes moral choices. Fixation, intellectualization and reversal occur when a human is in a defense mode and the ability to block out emotion.
Though the novel is extremely fascinating, it contains a protagonists that portrays many dark characteristics. It seems like psychoanalysis stems from unhealthy behavior. However, even though a human mind may not function properly, that human can manage to do extraordinary things, i.e. Frankenstein’s creation.
My theory is, when you deal with a human that does not inhibit emotions very well, you deal with sociopathic behavior. The true reality is; humans feel, and are nourished through positive emotions and when emotions are absent, that is when malnourishment takes place. Victor Frankenstein exhibited fixation, intellectualization and reversal and in all of those aspects he blocked out the healthy emotions every step of the way in the creation and life of his monster. This in turn classified the novel as a horror story. Most horror stories are derived from at least one character that portrays unhealthy psychological characteristics.
References
Apter, M.J. (1997). Reversal Theory: What is it? What seemed serious before, can suddenly fell exciting
with the right change in situation or mindset. The Pyschologist. Vol. 10, no. 5.
Freud, A. (1993). Intellectualization at Puberty. The Ego and Mechanism of Defense. 172.
Shelly, M. (1818). Gaining insight into the creation of life and gives life to his own creation.
Frankenstein.
Wikipedia. (2014). Wikipedia. Retrieved from en.m.wikipedia.org/frankenstien
