《弗兰肯斯坦》中怪物的精神演化过程分析.doc

郑州航空工业管理学院

毕 业 论 文（设 计）

2013 届 英语 专业 0907062 班级

题 目《弗兰肯斯坦》中怪物的精神演化过程分析
姓 名 吴延红 学号 090706223
指导教师 范晓航 职称 教授

二О一 三 年 五 月 二十六 日

Analysis on the Process of the Monster’s Spiritual Evolution in Frankenstein

By
Wu Yanhong

Supervisor: Fan Xiaohang

Department of Foreign Languages
Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management
May, 2013

内容摘要
玛丽·雪莱是十九世纪英国浪漫主义文学史上重要的作家,她的作品《弗兰肯斯坦》是著名的哥特小说之一,被认为是世界上第一部真正意义上的科幻小说。对《弗兰肯斯坦》的解读有很多,不少评论家从科学的危险性这一角度来讨论，也有人从女权主义角度进行研究，本文则着重对怪物的精神演化过程进行分析研究。
作者在序言中提到，写这篇小说受到达尔文生物研究的启发。作者所处的浪漫主义时代就是以进化论发展为背景。《弗兰肯斯坦》这篇小说其实就讲述着人这种生物的精神演化过程。怪物无名无姓，虽具人形，但还没有进化成一个真正的“人”。怪物既是弗兰肯斯坦的创造物，又是他的自我的创造物，本文主要分析了怪物在其短暂生命中经历的精神上的进化与沉沦，由渴望融入人类社会到转而报复人类的过程。本论文文分为三部分，第一部分写怪物的精神成长过程，怪物通过对自然，人类以及社会的理解和认同，崇尚人类社会的高尚美德，渴望融入人类社会，被人类接受，成为其中的一员。第二部分分析了怪物的精神沉沦，怪物一次次遭受无情打击，极度绝望下采取疯狂报复行为，最后因内心矛盾挣扎和痛苦而自杀。第三部分分析了影响他精神变化的因素，怪物本性单纯善良，但由于自我身份的缺失，社会的不认可以及父爱，亲情的缺失，促使怪物走向了极端。
关键词
《弗兰肯斯坦》；弗洛姆；精神进化
Abstract

Mary Shelley is an important novelist in the history of British Romantic literature in the 19th century. Her work, Frankenstein, is one of the famous Gothic novels, and it was considered the first science fiction in the modern sense. There are many interpretations to Frankenstein. Many critics discuss it from the point of scientific danger, and someone from the viewpoint of feminism to research it. This thesis mainly focuses on the process of the monster’s spiritual evolution.
As the author mentions in the preface, this story is inspired by Darwin’s biological research. In fact, the romantic era that the author lives in is on the background of the development of evolution. Frankenstein, in fact, is mainly about how the mental of human this organism evolute. In fact, the monster is nameless. Though he has the appearance of human, he doesn’t evolute into a true man. The monster is Frankenstein’s creation and is also the creation of himself. This thesis mainly analyses the monster’s spiritual evolution and destruction, from desiring to integrate into human society to taking revenge on the human. This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part analyses the monster’s spiritual growth process of the monster, by understanding the nature , the human and the human society, the monster advocates the noble virtues of human and desire to integrate into the human society. In the second part analyses the monster’s spiritual destruction. The monster suffers hits without mercy again and again, taking crazy disruptive behavior under extreme despair. Finally he commits suicide because of his inner contradiction struggle and suffering. The last part also emphatically analyzes the main factors that affect his mental changes. The monster’s nature is pure and innocent, but due to the lack of self-identify, being not recognizing by the society , and the lack of father’s love or affection from others, making the monster’s psychology is imbalance and prompting the monster’s behavior to go to the extreme.

Key words: Frankenstein, Fromm, Spiritual evolution

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge and extend my heartfelt gratitude to those who help me to finish the thesis.
First of all, during the time that I wrote this thesis, I got the help from many people, I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor Fan Xiaohang, who helped me plan the thesis, gave me invaluable advice, and encouraged me the early stage of the thesis. Her patient help and timely encouragement are worthy of high acknowledgement. What’s more, she checked my thesis carefully and helped me revise the thesis and I could finish this paper . On the process of composing the paper,she also played an important role in indicating a bright road in my future writing.
In addition, And I should also express my sincere gratitude to the other teachers in the Department of Foreign Languages, including Chen Jing, Liu Ruihong and so on. From whom I’ve learned a lot about professional knowledge and research methodology as well.
Last but not least, my special thanks should go to my dear friends and classmates. They have given me sincere help and encouragement since the writing of the thesis was under way.

iii

Contents

Abstract ( in Chinese).............................................................................i
Abstract ( in English ).............................................................................ii
Acknowledgements.................................................................................iv
Introduction.............................................................................................1
1. The Monster’s Spiritual Growth........................................................3
1. 1 The Monster’s Understanding of the Nature....................................3 1. 2 The Monster’s Understanding of the Human...................................5
1. 3The Monster’s Understanding of the Society....................................6
2. The Monster’s Spiritual Destruction...................................................7
2. 1 The Change of the Monster’s Mind..................................................7
2. 2 Seeking Help from the Father...........................................................8
2. 3 Taking Crazy Disruptive Behavior...................................................9
2. 4 Desiring for Death―Setting Himself on Fire ................................10
3. The Reasons for the Changes of Monster’s Spirit..............................10
3. 1 The Lack of the Self-Identity..........................................................10
3. 2 Being Unacceptable........................................................................12
3. 3 The Lack of Father’s Love.............................................................13
Conclusion............................................................................................13
Works Cited............................................................................................16

Analysis on the Process of the Monster’s Spiritual Evolution in Frankenstein

Introduction
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly (1797-1851)，an outstanding 19th-century British novelist, is the second wife of Percy Shelley, the famous Romantic poet .She creates 17 works in total during her lifetime . However, her reputation rests on what she once called as her “hideous progeny”, Frankenstein,or The Modern Prometheus (1881), which has transcended the Gothic and horror genres.
Since the novel Frankenstein was publish in 1881, its popularity has indeed been prodigious. It is considered one of the best Gothic novel as well as the first science fiction in the modern sense. It has been read by so many people over decades and has been reprinted in so many different English-language editions. Moreover, It has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Urdu, Nalayam and most European languages. The story’s popularity is further evidenced by the fact that in the 19th and 20th centuries many melodramas and horror movies were based on the novel.
The story of Frankenstein was conceived in “a wet, ungenial summer” of 1861 at Lake Leman Switzerland where Mary and Percy Shelley had settled near Byron and his doctor John Polidori. They spent much time together, talking and reading. One evening after reading Gothic stories, Byron suggested that “[they would] each write a ghost story”. Mary waited several days in vain for an idea until she was impressed by a discussion between Byron and Shelly about galvanism and the notion of creating life via electricity and awoke from a nightmare that night. A couple of days later, based on the dream, Mary began to write the monster’s narrative, which forms the book’s central section.
Since its publication, Frankenstein has mostly been acclaimed and studied as a gothic honor novel, or as a science fiction. Recently, Critics have also begun to approach it from religious, feministic, the psychoanalytic, Freudian reading and so on. In 1979, The Endurance of Frankenstein: Essays on Mary Shell’s Novel which was written by Levin. George collected more than twelve research articles of famous scholars. This thesis will focus on the analysis on the process of the monster’s spiritual evolution in Frankenstein. The author mentions in the preface that the writing of this novel is inspired by Darwin’s biological theory research. In fact, the author lived in the romantic era ,which was on the background of the development of the theory of evolution. However, in the author’s era, the most popular theory was J.B. Lamarck’s Romantic theory of evolution, which is in advance of Darwin’ theory. Lamarck（1744-1829）considered, every creature has internal drive to perfect himself, and every organism is in continuously update and in the evolutionary process of self-improvement (Luo Jicai ,2002:131). What’s more, many Romantic ideologist even considered that the spirit of people is also in evolution. Hegel thought that, in fact, in this world the man’s self is in a process of evolution. Because the world is yourself.
Later many thinkers have also accepted the theory of the evolution. American psychoanalyst Fromm thought, the human beings can’t stand himself a separation. In order to overcome the pain caused by isolation, he may take some evolutionary way to develop their cognition, reason, and the ability of love, so as to surpass themselves and reach a new harmony and unity with the world. This is a kind of spiritual evolution. People may also take the negative and degenerated way, relying on a certain authority, for example, or by degrading to the state that the perception has yet not produced to overcome this sense of isolation.(Fromm,1960)
Actually, Frankenstein, this novel is about the spiritual evolution process of the human organism. In fact, the monster is nameless, called “ the Creature” (Shelley,1996) in this book. It suggests that the monster is human, but has not evolved into a true “ person ”. At the same time, the words “ creature ” and “ creation ” are cognate words. It shows that the monster is not only Frankenstein’s creation but also his creation of the self. This thesis mainly analyses the monster’s spiritual evolution and destruction, from desiring to integrate into human society to taking revenge on the human.
The thesis is mainly divided into three parts, the first part analyses the process of the monster’s spiritual growth from the ignorance to recognize the nature, human and human society. The process of the monster’s psychological development from perception to reason is the fast growth period of the monster’s psychological feeling. In this process, the monster begins to feel nature,love nature and wants to be a part of the nature. The monster also likes the human and advocates the noble virtues of the human,being affect by the deep friendship, affection,and love between the human beings. He is eager to be the friend of the human and gets human’s accept, respect and love. By understanding human social class relations and learning social labor, the monster hopes to blend into the human society and becomes a member of the society.
The second part analyses the mental destruction of the monster. The monster in the process of seeking self-identity and social recognition suffers too much misfortune and emotional setback. His mind begins to change and his spirit begins to sink. He seeks help from the father, but is refused. He is so depressed that he takes the crazy revenge on human. However, the monster’s good nature makes him be into self-contradiction and wants to get free from the world, he finally commits suicide .
The last part profoundly analyzes the specific cause of the mental change of the monster: the lack of self-identity, social pressure,being unaccepted by the society,and the lack of father’s love or family affection. All of these are the factors that influence the monster’s spirit from growth to destruction. This analysis has the help to the development of the human’s spirit .The detail analyses are as fellows.

1. The Monster’s Spiritual Growth
1.1 The Monster’s Understanding to the Nature
Romantic philosopher Fichte argued that recognizing nature was the first step for the self beginning to be aware of its own.(Mead, 2003 :153) . Not long time after the monster’s born, he comes to the forest.
“ Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up and beheld a radiant form rise from among the tree. I gazed with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path, and I again went out in search of berries.” (Shelley,1996:48)
In the forest the monster begins to observe the nature and feels the nature, showing his curiosity and love to the life in the nature.
“The only object that I could distinguish was the bright moon, and I fixed my eyes on that with pleasure. Several changes of day and night passed, and the ord of night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my sensation from each other. I gradually saw plainly the clear stream that supplied me with drink and the trees that shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first discovered that pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes.”(Shelley,1996: 50)
Shortly the monster learns how to distinguish all kinds of insects and plants. The monster begins to identify the nature and he thinks himself is similar with the lamb, the rabbit,or other animals. At that time the monster’s mental state is just like a child. He sees himself as a part of nature and almost has been integrated into the nature. The monster doesn’t realize he is a “man” for the first time, when he walks into the village , the villagers screams away quickly. He is also scared in turn by the villager’s response, so he concludes that he should not allow himself to be seen by the “people”. The monster is gentle and docile, just like wild animals. He lives in the woods and lives with the animals, when he is hungry he will steal the food of the villagers and lives like a mice. The monster has a natural love and kindness to the nature.At the last of the monster’s states, he says “My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature. The past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy.”(Shelley,1996:54)
Along with the development of the monster’s mind, he is in the same like many people that when understanding more and more, the dissatisfaction and confusion in the heart will be also more