Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein exhibits behaviors consistent with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and the God/Playing God Complex. NPD, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is categorized as “a grandiose sense of self importance, preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, and exhibitionism” (Berman 58-59). Furthermore, “excessive narcissism leads inevitably to an excessive admiration for and confidence in one’s powers, knowledge, and qualities, both physical and mental” (Berman 247). These elements greatly characterize Dr. Frankenstein’s psyche.
Dr. Frankenstein emulates the traits of having self-importance and a preoccupation with fantasies with unlimited success from the start of the novel. His self-importance is first illustrated when he determines his social class by indicating, “I am by birth a Genovese, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic” (Shelley 17). Furthermore, he displays a sense of entitlement and adoration from his parents simply because he was born. He views himself as a gift from heaven, and as an “idol” to his parents, which also describes an inflated sense of self importance. He reveals, “I was their playing and their idol, and something better- their child, the innocent helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lost it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me”( Shelley 19). His first preoccupation then began with studying the works of writers Agrippa, Magnus and Paracelsus, mathematics and learning languages such as English, German, Latin, and Greek. He expresses his immense occupation with these studies by stating, “This is the list of my accomplishments at the age of seventeen; and you may conceive that my hours were fully employed in acquiring and maintaining knowledge of this various literature” (Shelley 25).
Furthermore, Frankenstein demonstrates his excessive occupation with his knowledge and power by mentioning, “After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 34). This is also prevalent when he distanced himself from his family and as Berman points out, “he experiences the profound depression often accompanying a narcissism disorder: dejection, loss on interest in the external world, and inability to love (59). Dr. Frankenstein mentions, “And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time.” (Shelley 37) Moreover, he mentions, “My father made no reproach in his letters; and only took notice of my silence by inquiring into my occupations more particularly than before. Winter, spring, and summer, passed away during my labour; but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves-sights which before always yielded me supreme delight, so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation”(Shelley 38) and “Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Genva, but was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries which I hoped to make” (Shelley 38). It is apparent the isolation, obsessive preoccupation, and entitled self importance that Dr. Frankenstein undergoes are due to having NPD.
Dr. Frankenstein believed himself to contain extraordinary knowledge and he excessively admired himself for it. As Berman points out, “Victor pursues fantasies of unlimited power and glory with a pleasured, monomaniacal intensity” (Berman, 59). This is revealed when Dr. Frankenstein states “While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearances of things, I delighted in investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember” (Shelley 20). Moreover, Dr. Frankenstein states it himself, “There only remained a resolution to return to my ancient studies and to devote myself to a science for which I believed myself to possess a natural talent” (Shelley 31). In addition, his acquired knowledge led Dr. Frankenstein into a depression that led him to be suicidal, other elements consistent with NPD. He exposes, “No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasms of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world” (Shelley 36). Also, “I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me; I tried to dispel then, but sorrow only increased with knowledge (Shelley, 44 ). Lastly, he declares “One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself” (Shelley 36).Thus, all of these considerable elements suggest a link between Dr. Frankenstein’s severe driving forces of acquiring knowledge and his suffering of NPD.
Along with NPD, Dr. Frankenstein exhibited behaviors of the Playing God/God Complex. The God Complex is said to be developed by neurologist and psychoanalyst Ernest Jones. In his book Essays in Applied Psycho-Analysis Jones explains that the foundation of the “God Complex” is narcissism either derived from it or stands in close connection to it. In addition, “Excessive narcissism leads inevitably to an excessive admiration for and confidence in one’s powers, knowledge, and qualities, both physical and mental” ( Jones, 247) Playing God is referred to someone who idealizes themselves as God and feels themselves to take on the role of God for human purposes. The individual will possess sentiments such as who can live or die, and in the case of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this is revealed with the creation of the creature.
The preoccupations of Dr. Frankenstein reveal his God Complex. He first hints of this by stating, “From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the tern, became nearly my sole occupation. I read with ardour those works, so full of genius and discrimination, which modern inquirers have written on these subjects” (Shelley 32). Dr. Frankenstein first discloses of his God Complex when he meets Walton for the first time and details, “[…] how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than then he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Shelley 35). This acknowledges that he views himself as God, the all knowing, and could possibly be referring to “the man who believes his native town to be the world” as Adam and Eve prior to eating from the tree of knowledge. Even the creature himself states, “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel […]” (Shelley, 77).
It is most prevalent to see Dr. Frankenstein display his Playing God Complex when he decides to take his obsession of acquiring knowledge along with his preoccupation to apply such said knowledge, and his God complex to the ultimate level by creating a creature. It can be said his rooted desire to create a monster is not so much so to apply his knowledge and obsession, but to have created a life matter that will glorify him as the creator, thus revealing his God like complex. He even hints that he feels almost destined to resemble God by stating, “Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed by utter and terrible destruction” (Shelley 39). Dr. Frankenstein later affirms, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs” (Shelley 36). Even the word choice of “father” could be compared to that of God, also known as The Holy Father. Also, this personifies the creature as a human being, rather than an object created in a laboratory.
It can be conclusive that Frankenstein wanted more so to create a human being by making it beautiful. He proclaims, “and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!” (Shelley 39) Because Dr. Frankenstein created a “living” thing that was able to speak, learn, and question life, it leads more to the idea that he created a human more so than a “living dead.” When considering that the “living dead,” is just a dead person brought back to life through some supernatural force, does one exclude the factor that once dead the soul and cognitive abilities are gone? Also, that if given that they are brought back to life, so is their heart, soul, and mind, as well? Are these elements that Frankenstein wanted his creation to emulate? If so, it would give way to the notion that he did want to “play God.” His God Complex could have potentially been increased due to the success of the creature’s cognitive abilities, but because of the nature of the creature’s physical appearance, Dr. Frankenstein renounced him instead of embracing him. Just like God created Adam and Eve, God did not want them to acquire knowledge and that is why he forbade them from eating from the tree of knowledge. God wanted to be the all knowing, could the same be said about Dr. Frankenstein?
Could it be said that because, likewise to Adam and Eve, the creature acquired a knowledge potentially as powerful as Frankenstein’s that intimated and caused him to cast out the creature, just as God casted out Adam and Eve? When determined if Frankenstein had a God Like Complex, is it more so that he just instilled life just as God did, or is it because Frankenstein emulated the same attitude as God did to his own creations? Even the mentioning of how the creature would owe their being to Frankenstein can be seen as a subliminal message that humans owe everything to God. Potentially, that instance can further prove how Frankenstein did indeed develop a God Like Complex. Could it also be said that Mary Shelley choose Frankenstein to purposely have a God Like Complex so that readers could question the very nature of religion? Thus, these theories and questions, and the many more that arise from this novel require a more in depth examination; however, it is clear that Dr. Frankenstein shows prevalent behaviors that coincide with that of Narcissistic Personality Behavior, with a particular insight into the Playing God/God Complex. Just as the creature sought out absolute truth and never achieved the answer he wanted, thus readers of this literature possibly will never know the truth behind Dr. Frankenstein just the same.
Work Cited
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Marilyn Butler. Frankensteins: The 1818 Text. Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2008. Print.
Jones, Earnest. Essays in Applied Psychoanalysis : Volume I & II. 2 vols. N.p.:
The Hogarth Press, 1951. Print.
Berman, Jeffree. Narcissism and the Novel. First Edition ed. N.p.: NYU Press,
1990. Print.
Work Cited
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Marilyn Butler. Frankensteins: The 1818 Text. Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2008. Print.
Jones, Earnest. Essays in Applied Psychoanalysis : Volume I & II. 2 vols. N.p.:
The Hogarth Press, 1951. Print.
Berman, Jeffree. Narcissism and the Novel. First Edition ed. N.p.: NYU Press,
1990. Print.
