Frankenstein’s Bastard: Exploring Identity and Bastardy Through Shelley’s Creature
The concept of identity is one of the most predominant themes in Mary Shelley’s gothic horror Frankenstein. Evident through the narratives of both Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, Shelley's novel explores the search and desire for self-identity. The Creature’s own perception of his identity is particularly highlighted throughout the novel. Often, modern society debates whether or not Frankenstein’s Creature falls within the category of “person” or “thing.” Upon an examination of Sir William Blackstone’s 1765 Commentaries on the Laws of England, the Creature, not adhering to the various categories of "things" outlined in English law, is definitively a person. What is far more interesting, however, is the category of person, according to contemporary English law, in which the Creature falls under as Shelley’s Creature, in no uncertain terms, is legally a bastard.
Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England served as foundational legal text in eighteenth-century England. Blackstone's treatise is composed of four volumes: The Rights of Persons, The Rights of Things, Of Private Wrongs, and Of Public Wrongs (in their respective order). In the fourteenth chapter of Blackstone's first volume, The Rights of Persons, Blackstone introduces the "three great relations in private life" which includes “That of parent and child” (Blackstone 422). In the sixteenth chapter, he goes on to further elaborate the laws regarding the rights of “Parent and Child” in which children are separated into “two sorts; legitimate, and spurious, or bastards” (Blackstone 446). According to Blackstone's legal definition, a “bastard” is considered as “one that is not only begotten, but born, out of lawful matrimony” (Blackstone 454).
Frankenstein’s Creature lies safely within the classification of a bastard, as he is created by Victor, or “born”, outside the realm of marriage, leaving him no claim to a lawful parentage. The Creature's identity in bastardy is also highlighted by his namelessness. Often, the Creature is mistakenly called “Frankenstein”, the name of his creator, or “father”, as well as the title of Shelley's narrative. The cruel irony of this common trope lies within the rejection it emphasizes. As a legitimate child of Victor, the Creature would inherit his surname and be called “Frankenstein.” As a legitimate child, the Creature would be ensured “the duties of parents to legitimate children” of “maintenance,” “protection,” and “education” (Blackstone 446). However, the Creature's lack of a name symbolizes his lack of legal parentage and only serves to reiterate his illegitimacy. As a bastard, the Creature has no “place” in society. He is left defenseless by his creator. He receives no direct care or formal education. His lack of place reveals itself consistently throughout the Creature's narrative. The Creature searches endlessly for acceptance. Unfortunately for the Creature, his illegitimate birth only leads to otherness.
The Creature attempts to find family and place with the French DeLacey family. Instead, he is met with more rejection. The novel states, “‘These amiable people…They are kind–they are the most excellent creatures in the world; but, unfortunately, they are prejudiced against me…where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster’” (Shelley 98). Further in the novel, the Creature, himself, recognizes his othered identity as a bastard, telling Victor, “‘Have I not suffered enough that you seek to increase my misery?…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…I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend’” (Shelley 72). In these lines, the Creature is directly expressing a desire to be accepted by Victor. His plea is to be recognized—acknowledged as Victor’s creation, his son. The Creature’s life is marked by rejection and a lack of belonging. He cannot find acceptance because, as a bastard, he cannot have a place in English society.
Ultimately, it is the Creature’s identity as a bastard that lies at the center of his othered identity. Through his characterization, Mary Shelley presents the struggles of bastard children in eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century England. He is nameless—rejected by his father and creator; he is rejected by society. He is a monster. He is other. He is alone.
He is a bastard.
Works Cited
Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Vol. 1, Clarendon Press, 1765.
Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus." Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, Contexts, Criticism, Third Edition. Edited by J. Paul Hunter, W. W. Norton & Company, 2022, pp. 1-168.