Dr. V Frankenstein, The Addict

Walton a[s]nd DR V. FRANKENSTEIN, THE ADDICT[s]

“How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!” - V Frankenstein, Drunk & Junkie

Walton, Frankenstein and the Creature [1] are all suffering from a case of terminal uniqueness.

Terminal uniqueness is the belief that the situation a person is facing is somehow fundamentally different from the situations others have experienced. In other words, people with this condition believe that no one else has ever encountered what they are facing and therefore, no one can understand what they’re going through. Terminal uniqueness is often related to personal exceptionalism or the belief that a person is unusual, extraordinary or not like other people in some way.

via https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/drug-addiction/related-topics/terminal-uniqueness/#gref 

The first case of terminal uniqueness Mary Shelly presents is Walton, who vainly trudges through the polar seas to pioneer a passage through the very ice caps that currently melt in desperate, wretched gestures[4] , animated into death by our own species’ violent addiction to fossil-fuels.

The next case of terminal uniqueness Mary Shelley Constructs is that of “Dr” Victor Frankenstein. He is the most obvious addict in my opinion, and chapter III of Book III is an extremely romantic poetic retelling of “a day in the woeful life of addiction” as experienced by a person who relishes the terminally unique extravagance of his own self pity:

“The sleep into which I now sunk refreshed me; and when I awoke, I again felt as if I belonged to a race of human beings like myself, and I began to reflect upon what had passed with greater composure; yet still the words of the fiend rung in my ears like a death-knell, they appeared like a dream, yet distinct and oppressive as a reality.” pg 122

The othered “creature” identity and subsequent “wretched” alienation that every single layer of this narration seems to be implying [and that Mary Shelley hoped would speak to the reader] I would argue, is a product of the primal roots of addiction. Mary Shelley materialized our own bodies’ response to our mind’s repugnant addictive behavior in the creature’s form; a figure to be used by its own mind in addition to both Walton and Victor as a scapegoat for their responsibility in their own wretchedness. It’s really interesting to think about the people [esp. men] that Mary Shelley knew in her lifetime and how her experience of their addictive behaviors may have influenced her portrayal of these characters and their performance of human identity.[5] 

I also just want to point out that Mary Shelly’s perspective circludes all of these russian doll layers of terminal uniqueness and that’s pretty special.

Could Mary Shelley be implying that Walton’s description of these events are influenced by his own self-centered fear regarding his addiction to the prospect of greatness; an illusion he guards with volatile terminal uniqueness?

Victor Frankenstein abandons the creature as soon as it shows potential to act independently of the “Doctor’s” own will. At once, the creature becomes “wretched” to its creator; a putrid product of his addiction made material and sentient “my spirit risen from the grave” (pg 51)

wretch (n.) Old English wrecca "wretch, stranger, exile," from Proto-Germanic *wrakjon "pursuer; one pursued" (source also of Old Saxon wrekkio, Old High German reckeo "a banished person, exile," German recke"renowned warrior, hero"), related to Old English wreccan "to drive out, punish" (see wreak). "The contrast in the development of the meaning in Eng. and German is remarkable" [OED]. Sense of "vile, despicable person" developed in Old English, reflecting the sorry state of the outcast, as presented in Anglo-Saxon verse (such as "The Wanderer"). Compare German Elend "misery," from Old High German elilenti "sojourn in a foreign land, exile."

vs. retch-- an unsuccessful attempt to vomit

            ~Frankenstein is trying so desperately to dispel this wretched addiction from his body but his attempt to vomit is unsuccessful; he merely retches, and thus gives material reality to the quality he tries (unsuccessfully) to rid himself of, and rather than being free of his wretchedness by othering it, he just alienates it [and in turn himself] to the point of desperate pursuit.

The creature [in so many words] tells Victor that all of his evil actions have been the result of a desperate loneliness. The creature just wants to hear Victor take responsibility for the wretchedness he created and cannot face so that the creature may feel free from blame, an innocent victim. The creature needs to hear that the revulsion and fear he stirs in others is entirely the fault of his creator, justifying the creature’s position as a blameless victim of neglect.

“Everywhere I see bliss, from which I am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.”

This swinging between monster and victim allows both the Doctor and creature (and Walton  [and maybe Mary Shelley and/or her peers??]) to constantly evade the repercussions of their relentless escapist pursuits.

“Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us”

 WHY is there no possibility of both living on their own? Because Victor knows he has crossed a line, and the creature of his addiction has been materialized, meaning it will pursue him with the rage of an ignored fiend until Victor commits himself to completing another ritual of materialized addiction. Specifically, one that theoretically (with the help of delusional narcissism and ignorance of reproductive intricacy) might possibly garner the potential to reproduce in its own wretchedness; a potential that inevitably will lead to many wretched bodies in pursuit of their negligent creator. BUT in typical addict fashion, with the elegant persuasion on the creature’s (addict brain) part, Victor Frankenstein genuinely believes for a moment that these creatures would not only be able to exist independently of his constant attention and he may be free of his own wretched reflection in the eyes of his creature/s.

“All, save i, were at rest or in enjoyment: I, like the arch fiend, bore a hell within me; and, finding myself unsympathized with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin” pg. 95

“Half surprised by the novelty of these sensations, I allowed myself to be borne away by them; and, forgetting my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy,”

The addiction dares, pitifully, to feel happiness in short bursts of disorientation