Identity Theft: The Impact of White Literature in Shelley's Frankenstein

Abstract

Mary Shelley's decision to use the extended metaphor of an
unnamed creature as the antagonist in her gothic novel,
Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, was arguably her
attempt to shed light on the greatest debate of her time---the
institution of slavery. Undoubtedly this prodigy, the daughter of
two of the most influential writers of their day, also took the
liberty of demonstrating the power of literature on the minds of
the masses. In a scene, she strategically places a portmanteau that
holds books of the literary canon inside. The monster, while in the
wilderness, finds the books. He, in his pristine, infantile state
devours the literature of the European. He determines that they,
Europeans, are superior. Upon his encounter with the De Laceys
he is beaten by Felix, the man of the house, and fails to defend
himself despite his own physical enormity. What precipitates his
inaction? Psychiatrist Frantz Fanon offers, through his theories, a
means of understanding the impact that literature has upon the
marginalized.