bestowing on the state sons
As Walton's first letter opens with an expression of the opposed
perspectives of men and women (Letter
1.1 and note), so this initial paragraph
of the first chapter accentuates the concern of the patriarchy with
replicating itself. Alphonse Frankenstein's sense of public purpose is to
reproduce himself for the good of the state. By suppressing the role of
the female in this process, he paradoxically voices what will become his
son's obsession with creating a new man without the intervention of woman.
With that creation in mind, however, it does not require of the reader an
undue stretching of the sense to regard the
distinctive tone of this language, so abstracted and clinical, as being
more characteristic of Victor than of his father.
- Characters:
- Contexts:
- Themes:
