To What Extent Do You Agree That, in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley Is Exploring ‘the Dark of the Human Psyche’?

To what extent do you agree that, in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is exploring ‘the dark of the human psyche’?

In Frankenstein, it is debated whether Mary Shelley explores the dark side of the human psyche. The word psyche derives from the word psychology and means the mind. In the novel many ideas regarding the psyche and its connections among other characters are apparent, the most significant example being the psychic relationship between Victor and the monster, which stems from the obsession of science and man's desire to usurp the natural order of the world. Shelley shows how one’s subconscious desires reflect through our behaviour, paralleling to Victor’s extra-ordinary experiment, which displays the dark side of his psyche. Contrastingly, one can consider that Shelley is not exploring the dark side of the human psyche at all, as all the character are portrayed to have good intentions, however their “dark” actions are rather a result of their surrounding, something which they cannot control.

An uncommon interpretation which deploys Victor's dark side of the human psyche is his sexuality. Victor is seized with the obsession to artificially create human life. The protagonist explains, “one of the phaenomena which had peculiarly attracted [his] attention was the structure of the human frame”. This “peculiar” attraction Victor has for the human anatomy, specifically male body could possibly reflect his subconscious desire to manipulate, explore, and control same-sex corporeality and his fixation on the male body leads him to conduct secret research at night, when the “darkness had no effect upon [his] fancy; and a church-yard was…merely a receptacle of bodies deprived of life…[he] was led to examine the cause and progress of this decay, and forced to spend…nights in charnel houses”. Victor’s pervasive action on the burial plots and rotting corpses could serve as a violent and penetrative act that may convey the male sexual desire. In addition, the “restless, and almost frantic impulse [which] urged [Victor] forward” with “unrelaxed and breathless eagerness” connotes Victor’s erotic anticipation or “pre-orgasmic language” in his manipulation of male body parts. The research process could possibly evoke sexual penetration that is grotesque and culturally forbidden. Although a modern audience would not initially see how homosexuality reflects the dark side of the human psyche, in the 19th century, homosexuality was strictly forbidden and was a crime punishable by death. Therefore, the forbidden desires of Victor, which includes grave digging and unethical practices, showcases how Victor has a cynical, dark human psyche.

Victor’s immoral psychology is prevalent throughout the novel. Other than his homosexuality, the unnatural state of his mind is also