The Picture of Dorian Gray / Frankenstein

DiscussieBooks Compared

Sluit je aan bij LibraryThing om te posten.

The Picture of Dorian Gray / Frankenstein

Dit onderwerp is gemarkeerd als "slapend"—het laatste bericht is van meer dan 90 dagen geleden. Je kan het activeren door een een bericht toe te voegen.

1WilfGehlen
Bewerkt: mrt 22, 2009, 9:00 pm

Victor Frankenstein, studying alone, rediscovered the ancient alchemists who had embraced the search for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. In contrast, the modern philosopher knew little more than the untaught peasants. He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery.

Rather than give up the grand goals of the ancients for the practicalities of the moderns, Victor gives up natural philosophy in its entirety for the surety of mathematics. But he is captivated anew at university:
The ancient teachers of this science promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little . . . but have indeed performed miracles. . . . So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.

And so, Victor Frankenstein goes on to create his creature.

Lord Henry had been always enthralled by the methods of natural science, but the ordinary subject-matter of that science had seemed to him trivial and of no import. And so he had begun by vivisecting himself, as he had ended by vivisecting others. Human life--that appeared to him the one thing worth investigating. Compared to it there was nothing else of any value.

And so, Lord Henry goes on to create his creature, Dorian Gray emerging from his chrysalis, not in body, but in soul.

Reading the passage by Oscar Wilde, I was struck by the similarity of purpose of Lord Henry and Victor Frankenstein. Both eschewed the practical results of science for the ambitious study of the secret of life. Each created a particular life and those lives surpassed that of the creator. Frankenstein's creature was superhuman in strength, intelligence and viability. Dorian went far beyond Harry in pursuit of hedonism, his frequenting the opium dens of the wharf contrasting with Harry's smoking opium-laced cigarettes amidst society.

Touchstones:
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Frankenstein

Edited to remove spurious touchstones.

2margad
mrt 25, 2009, 5:38 pm

What a fascinating comparison! It compels me to add Goethe's Faust, who also strove to discover the deepest mysteries of the universe. It's very likely that both Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde had read Faust, as Goethe was considered one of the greats in the pantheon of great authors until German studies fell out of favor during World War I. As with Frankenstein and Lord Henry, the search to uncover the ultimate mysteries of life got Faust in a good bit of trouble, though Goethe redeems him in the end through the grace and power of love.

Do you see any redemptive themes in Frankenstein or The Picture of Dorian Gray? I haven't read Frankenstein and it's been quite a while since I read PDG. My impression is that Shelley's novel is a good bit deeper and more thoughtful than the many film adaptations of it.

3WilfGehlen
mrt 26, 2009, 11:56 am

Adding Faust certainly makes comparisons richer and more interesting. Others have made the point that Dorian has made a Faustian pact (with whom?) to infuse his portrait with his Doppelganger/conscience. Lord Henry is then Mephistopheles to Dorian's Faust. But is Lord Henry really the devil?

I see Lord Henry as more of a Victor Frankenstein, a man without supernatural powers, but with finely honed skills that can create a monster out of human parts. Re redemption, who is to be redeemed?

More, later.

4geneg
mrt 26, 2009, 11:59 am

The message I got out of Frankenstein was that humans make pretty piss poor gods.

5WilfGehlen
mrt 26, 2009, 2:18 pm

> 4 Which generation of gods, though?

Gathering a few thoughts . . .

The Kenneth Branaugh Frankenstein of 1994 was much truer to the book than previous versions. I haven't seen it since, well, 1994, so my recollection is kinda hazy.

Victor Frankenstein is the "modern Prometheus." The ancient Titan was punished for his temerity by the new generation of gods, the Olympians. Victor's creation was a wonderful creature, just not human. But close enough to engender revulsion in those who saw it. So it grew in its rejection to become the bane that we remember.

Was Victor punished? His life fell apart as the creature tried and failed to engage Victor, killing those close to him at each failure. Perhaps Victor could have ended the spree by engaging the creature himself. Would it have turned out quite differently if he had engaged the creature when it first opened its eyes, rather than fleeing in terror? It wasn't possible.

The obsessed Victor may have been a very good Titan, but when his obsession faded at the creature's first light, he became less a Titan, more human. Victor as human, the rest of humanity, and the Olympians, all would reject such a gift from the old gods.

Was that Prometheus' true transgression? To create, or make independent with the gift of fire, a new generation that could supplant the current gods, just as the Olympians supplanted the Titans? Just as a generation of the creature's ilk could supplant the human species? Humanity as a whole might make very good Olympians, it's just that Olympians themselves are not that good.

(Reminded of the joke about the tailor, late delivering a suit--customer: God made the world in seven days and it takes you three months to make my suit!? tailor: But look at the world, and look at my trousers!)

6margad
mrt 27, 2009, 12:56 am

God made the world in seven days and it takes you three months to make my suit!? tailor: But look at the world, and look at my trousers!

LOL, Wilf!

It does become ever more obvious as we humans become ever more powerful that we're not very good at revamping the way the world functions. Victor Frankenstein's creature was a mess, but he didn't cause global warming.