For our Villains Bracket week, a few Lit Hub staffers wrote an ode to their favorite villain from our initial group of 64. Here’s Dan on Frankenstein’s Monster, from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.
“Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.”
Frankenstein’s Monster now, Frankenstein’s Monster in 1818, Frankenstein’s Monster forever.
Mary Shelly’s gothic opus is, for me, the greatest of all horror stories. Nothing can touch it. So enamored am I of the novel, that I’ll watch every terrible adaptation so that you don’t have to. My modest height has thus far precluded me from dressing up as the misunderstood abomination for Halloween, but as soon as my Cuban heels arrive, you better believe I’ll be breaking out the green-grey makeup.
But Daaaaaaaan, he’s not even really the villain of the story. The true villain is Doctor Frankenstein and his hubris, his monomaniacal focus on cheating death, his inherently suspect Italian-Swiss dual identity. Well, sure, but to be fair, Frank Jr. does brutally murder his dad’s brother and wife, so he’s not exactly a slouch in the villainy department.
Far more importantly, however, it’s the inherently tragic nature of the creature’s descent into darkness that makes him such a compelling villain. Grotesque of visage but (at least initially) pure of heart, Frankenstein’s monster is made monstrous by the cruel and callous treatment of both his family (such as it is) and society at large. His soul is curdled by repeated ill treatment.
Abandoned by his maudlin shitheel of a father, he endeavors to make his own way in the world, only to be violently rejected by all who cross his path (a contemptible attitude displayed, I see, by most of you when you booted him out at the Round of 32. Bullies.) From the misery of his hovel, Frankenstein’s “monster” (such an ugly word) learns to speak (with an eloquence most of us would kill for, I might add) and saves a girl from drowning, only for her father to shoot him. He then puts in a perfectly reasonable request for a companion, only for Frank Sr. to let him down again.
And now, after all these decades, you small-minded voters have, once again, drivest him from joy for no misdeed. I hope you’re all pleased with yourselves.
And here’s Dan’s full bracket:
