The Handmaiden VS The Tormented Scientist- the Battle of the Narrators

 

In 'Frankenstein,' Shelley uses a plethora of narrators in order to highlight her warning and consequences of science and obsessive ambitions. The transgressive nature of Victor’s scientific pursuits manifests his own punishment and a ‘fall from grace.’ Shelley utilises structure to show how ambitions can spiral out of control, emphasised by her characterisation of Victor. This message is cemented by the mythological allusion to Prometheus. Through this, the punishment of ambitions is tragic and visceral. Whilst both texts use narrators to present the harm of science, with Offred describing the connection between the birth decline and radiation, from nuclear weapons, Atwood depicts a slightly different warning. In THT, Atwood uses the narrator of Offred to depict the transgressions of modern society. Through structure, we see how liberal America spirals into the religious fundamentalists state of Gilead that enforces the abuse and sexual exploitation of women. This notion is further by Atwood’s use of historical allusions; Offred is a universal narrator, representing the experiences of not only the women in fictional Gilead but also the persecuted in real life. By showcasing the horrors of society and its comparison to the world outside the text, Atwood removes compliancy and comfort from the reader. Additionally, through the narrator of Offred, and later on Piezoto, Atwood scrutinises the extent of societal change that has been made, commenting that structures like the patriarchy are still relevant, despite the crusade for liberation in the 70s and 80s.

Shelley utilises the Chinese box narrative that allows the perspectives of all narrators (Walton, Victor, the Creature) to be depicted. Although Victor’s narration and development takes a majority of the story at an initial glance, the narration is actually told through the retelling of Walton. Similarly, the narration of the Monster, who also tells the experiences of Safie, is retold by Victor. By doing this, Shelley highlights how ambition permeates through all narrators, and thus constructs her warning or readers of how dangerous ambition is. The most significant narrators that emulate this warning are Victor and the Creature. Initially, Victor's ambitions are light-hearted as he is only interested in anatomy and the human body. This is reflective of the boom in the Enlightenment era, where dissections were a common activity in the scientific sphere. From this, Victorians were able to piece together the function of body parts together, such as the heart being likened to a pump. Shelley mirrors this through, "fire form of a man was degraded and wasted," and "corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life." However, Victor's ambitions suddenly carry a much larger weight as he aspires to study the, "change from life to death and death to life." Despite being disgusting, the process of decay and the inevitability of death is natural, it is beyond any human's sphere of power- until Victor gets involved. His ambitions transform into something horrific and sinful as he states, "I found so astonishing a power placed with my hands," and "I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation." Victor's ambitions make him become a cheap imitation of God, creating life and removing all natural processes out of it. This notion is further emphasized by how he removes the role of a mother entirely out of reproduction, birth and nurturing of the creature. He corrupts the native and universal process of death and defies its' power by reanimating the dead. Science gives him the capacity to transgress against God and the natural order. This spiraling of ambitions can be reflected contextually as the simple practice of electrifying frogs suddenly progressed to using severed cow heads, and making them blink, move and twitch. This lead to the topical debate within the scientific community of reviving an assembled corpse. Aldini, a prominent scientist, emulates Victor as he too did the unthinkable- after a murderer was hanged in 1803, he secured the corpse and tried to revive it in a public display. Even though the experiment failed, the event was sensational. Victor's amplification of his ambitions replicates the existing discourse and discoveries that were happening in Victorian society. Shelley was observing how seemingly everyday more and more transgressive scientific experiments were being carried out, as humans toyed the line between mortal and godly.

Additionally, the Chinese box narrative presents how cruel ambition is to the creature, allowing him to speak his own story. Shelley juxtaposes the tragic deaths of Victor’s family and how he views the monster as demonic and the creatures’ initial innocence. However, because of how transgressive Victor’s ambitions were, this childish, vulnerable demeanor soon turns into blood lust, as the monster abandons his hearing for acceptance and instead swears wrath on humanity. Similar to how Victor’s pursuits get out of hand, the monster’s ambitions for acceptance quickly turn into revenge. By wanting acceptance so badly, the monster is continuously attacked and shunned, breeding his hatred. If the monster had not left the sanctuary of “maternal nature,” and accept his ostracization, the murders would not have happened. Therefore, Shelley also uses the secondary character of the monster and his role within structure to highlight the dangers of ambition. Therefore, through structural exploration of narrators, Shelley further highlights how dangerous ambitions are as all of these pursuits are branches of science and the progress of society.

Similarly, whilst Shelley presents the transgressions of characters because of ambition, Atwood uses structure to depict the transgressions of Gilead, warning against political compliancy. Atwood presents the change of liberal society to a religious fundamentalist state through an anti-linear structure. She delivers this through the narrator of Offred, once an educated, free woman to a ‘two legged womb.’ Offred juxtaposes the freedom of past-society with the totalitarian regime of Gilead by blurring the past and present. For example, Offred mentions the mundanity of school, stating “I had a paper due the next day. What was it? Psychology, English, Economics.” The tedium of education is something we have all experienced; we are comfortable in our ability to read and write, to be academically stimulated. This personal freedom is emphasised by how Offred was an editor, working in a publishing firm. However, Offred structurally disrupts this. She describes how Gilead forbids women to read or write, quoting, “bibles were kept locked up (…) only those strong of mind and steadfast character could be trusted with them, and that ruled out women.” As well as other books, the fact that the bible is “locked up,” implies how Gilead is able to successfully justify their zealous actions as well as horrific practices like the Ceremony and the Salvaging. Offred’s personal freedom is taken away, and with it, so is the comfort of modern readers. To further highlight this notion, Atwood creates a structural bridge between the past and present narration of Offred, offering an ‘in between.’ Offred mentions how she “didn’t go to any of the marches (against Gileadan formation) Luke said it was futile.” As well as contrasting the lack of freedom and the abundance of freedom prior and during Gilead, Atwood successfully illustrates through the structure of Offred’s narration the danger of compliancy. As a narrator, Offred’s is average; her memories of her past life depict shared experiences or emotions. Her past life is shown as mundane and unremarkable. As a handmaid under Gilead, she is also relatively average, even though she attempts to quietly rebel, represented by the very existence of her narration. Despite this, this mundanity is a stark contrast to the horrific acts that Offred narrates under Gilead. As a result, Offred as a narrator is universal. She emulates the experiences of all women trapped under religious fundamentalism and societal transgressions, such as the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The structural presentation of repression and religious regulation is parallel to what Iranian women, and other Muslim states, experienced, highlighted further by the bridge Offred depicts. Therefore, through this anti-linear structure and the universality to Offred’s narration, Atwood presents the transgressions of society, born from religious fundamentalism and political conflicts that the oppressed were compliant for.

Through characterization of narrators, Shelley reinforces how ambitions need to be controlled as the consequences can be disastrous. In Victor's case, his physical and mental health detoriate once his ambitions take control of him. Through this, ambition and science is subtly compared to a disease. An odd duality is set up here by Shelley as she parallels the description of the corpse that enkindled this passion in Victor to his current state. Shelley describes Victor as being, "emaciated with confinement," "my limbs now trembled, and" cheek had grown pale with study." Victor is a shell of a human being now, he is merely a slave to his ambitions, highlighted by "I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit." As a new being is being created, his life force is stolen from him, leaving him a shadow of a person. Once again, he disrupts the natural role of a mother as this duality emulates how a mother's nutrients and energy is given to a baby, when in the womb. As well as his physical punishment, Shelley highlights the emotional punishments of pursuiting ambitions. Even though "maternal," nature "whispered in soothing accents," and "bade me to weep no more," creating links to the romantic movement, Victor still considers suicide. The monster's existence has created a string of murders, to community individuals like Justine, to close family members like William, Henry and Elizabeth. These deaths signify the loss of innocence and purity of the world, thus creating a weight of guilt and depression on Victor. He states how he was "tempted to plunge into the silent lake," and he wants the "waters (to) close over me and my calamites forever." Therefore, from Victor's dangerous pursuit of his ambitions, many are punished for it; Victor is plagued with remorse and sickness, his loved ones violently die by drowning or strangling, and the creature is cursed a life of ostracization and social rejection. Shelley shows the dark side of ambitions through Victor in a society that encouraged scientific achievements and discoveries. Allowed by the government, such as the 1752 Murder Act, and the glory of discoveries, like Darwin and Galvani's fame, gave the Enlightenment movement a nice face. The difficulties of one scientist should be overlooked to prioritize the scientific progress of society. However, Shelley highlights how, like a disease, ambitions punishes all who are infected by it. Thus, the consequences of uncontrolled ambitions are grave and superior to human control. Even though mortals were able to balance between life and death, no one is able to escape the physical and emotional suffering of nature's punishment. This is highlighted by how Victor dies to his pursuits; he toils for the creation of the monster and eventually dies trying to capture and kill the monster.

Whilst Shelley uses a singular character, Atwood dichotomises Offred and Piexoto, a professor from the future, thus using characterization to highlight her warning of society's transgressions. By doing this, Atwood critiques the achievements made by feminism, arguing that the patriarchy is still alive. Contextually, Atwood could also be scrutinising to what extent social change has been made; even though the movement was making changes to the position of women, like employment and sexuality, women in developing and non-western countries still faced brutality, exploitation and abuse by men, reflected by the Decree 770 in Romania in 1966. Therefore, Piexoto discrediting and belittling Offred's narrative is much more significant than just the bitterness of readers. As well as taking away social freedom from Offred, her individual power has been taken away by Gilead, reflected by her role as a handmaid and what it entails. Every action Offred does is chosen by Gilead to fit their regime. She walks every day, in order to keep her body fit for birth, she goes to the doctors, to flag any issues regarding her fertility, and she endures the Ceremony and the subsequent simulation of natural reproduction, to become pregnant. Offred is therefore powerless, labelling herself as a “national resource.” This notion is further highlighted through the synecdoche of a "two-legged womb." Therefore, the fact that Offred reclaims her power through her exploration of language and words, and the narrative itself, is significant to her role as a narrator. Her narrative essentially encompasses the message of "don't let the bastards grind you down." However, the secondary narrator of Piexoto challenges and discredits Offred's narrative. Even though Gilead has been overthrown and the second narrator is entrenched in the future, Offred's power has been taken away just like how Gilead had. Firstly, Pieixoto, the lecturer, opposes the credibility and value of Offred’s experiences. He proposes how the tapes could be fake, stating, “there have been several instances of forgeries” that produced monetary fame because of the “sensationalism of such stories.” Through this, the lecturer is completely antithetical to our view of Offred; he presents her, not in that heroic and brave light, but instead as selfish and avaricious. Furthermore, by claiming that the tapes could be forgery, the lecturer eradicates all the grief and pain Offred experienced, diluting her experience to a mere “story.” It can be inferred that this evolved humanity view all Gileadan experiences this way, as “sensationalism” and a means for profit, which further disrespect Offred and the other characters we encountered, like Moira, Ofglen, Ofwarren etc. It’s not until the researchers were “reassured by experts” that Offred’s tapes weren’t forgery does the lecturer accept it. Despite this, he continues to point holes, stating “what of the nature of the account itself?” He questions the provinence of it: “no machine or tapes would have been available to her,” and “nor would she have had a place of concealment.” Rather than uplift her and compliment her resourcefulness to be able to accomplish this under strict Gilead regime, Pieixoto diminishes Offred’s experiences more, which is highlighted by his comment of “it has a whiff of emotion recollected.” He further disempowers Offred by insulting the narration’s value to his own reasearch: “what we would not give, now, for even twenty pages or so of printout from Waterford’s private computer!” A sense of bitterness is created here; all the dangers Offred experienced, coupled with Gilead’s spies and prohibition of language, has gone to waste as it’s deemed not “helpful” by this new society. Thus her experiences of death, punishment and trauma are invalidated and discarded, seen as useless by academia and thus wider society. Twenty pages of Waterford’s documents would have been more valued than the thirty cassette tapes of Offred’s narration. Pieixoto would rather have chosen Waterford’s computer over her narrative, reflecting how he sees Gilead through an apathetic and clinical lens, compared to the place of horror and pain Offred lived through. As well as commenting on the lack of change in humanity’s core since Gilead’s society, Atwood could be speaking from her own extensive experiences in academia, as a lecturer at the University of British Columbia, Sir George Williams University and the University of Alberta. It’s common for one’s traumatic experiences- such as genocide and life under dictatorship- to be graded on their worth and be discussed in a clinical fashion. Therefore, Atwood is subtly comparing Gilead and this new society, represented by this lecturer. In the same way Gilead treats its women as “birth services,” Pieixoto treats Offred’s life as metaphorical ‘words on paper.’ This notion is further emphasised by how Pieixoto compliments Gilead and its’ architecture, commenting that “its genius was synthesis.” Through the use of conflciting narrators, Atwood critiques the fragility of political movements, commenting that the patriarchy is still intact, despite the numerous waves and generations of feminism. As a result, she further enkindles the fire against compliancy.

Shelley utilises the concept of allusions, specifically Greek mythology, to aid the development of her narrators. Through this, her warning of science and ambitions is further cemented. “Frankenstein,”’s original and alternative name is “The Modern Prometheus.” Shelley actively used the myth of Prometheus and Zeus to inspire Victor’s narration, and thus his role as a narrator. To help humanity progress, Prometheus stole fire from the Gods, against Zeus’ orders. As a result, fire causes the loss of innocence in humanity, and defiance to Zeus. Thus, Prometheus is chained to a rock with his liver eaten by a eagles, only to be healed. Therefore, by transgressing against Zeus and forging his ambitions, Prometheus is cursed and punished with an eternity of torture. This is a direct parallel to Victor. Like Prometheus’ actions of giving fire to humans, Victor gives life to the monster. Like how Prometheus’ disobeys Zeus to do so, Victor commits sins against nature and God. His punishment is to be burdened by the monsters murders and the remainder of his life is dedicated to hunting down the monster, a parallel to how Prometheus is continuously punished. Both of these punishments are painful and burdensome. Walton states at the beginning of the novel, when he finds Victor within the ice, that Victor was “dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering” and how he “never saw a man in such wretched condition.” As well as physically, Walton notes how Victor is emotionally tortured, “generally melancholy and despairing,” and the “weight of his woes that oppress him.” The fact that Walton observes Victor’s emotional turmoil, even though he is a stranger, highlights just how viscerally Victor is being punished for his ambitions. This comparison of Prometheus could have been inspired by societal outrage and detrimental impacts of scientific discoveries that Shelley would have seen. For example, by claiming that mankind came from apes and their evolution instead of God’s power, Darwin caused divisions in society, causing the Victorians to questions religion and the Church for the first time. The story of Prometheus can also be applied to Darwin then; just like how Prometheus took away obedience to Zeus, these scientific discoveries were threatening religion. This application reflects how Shelley’s presentation of science’s dangers were a real, controversial thing, which emphases her warnings further. Additionally, the characterization and symbolism of Prometheus correlate directly to Victor, with Prometheus being seen as the author of the arts and sciences, just like how Victor represents scientific pursuit. Furthermore, Prometheus is credited with the creation of humanity from clay. This highlights, not only how Victor created life from inanimate material, but also how he desires to be worshipped as God, as the ultimate creator. This direct paralle serves to further emphasises the weight of Victor’s punishment for transgressing through science. Therefore, through the use of mythological allusions which inspire Victor’s narrative role, Shelley reinforces her warning against ambition and nature.

Atwood also uses allusions to reinforce her message, though through historical references instead. However, instead of mythological references, Atwood uses historical allusions o further presents the atrocities of society . This places more weight on Offred’s narration and role as a narrator of speaking for all that are persecuted. The terrifying events that Offred narrates originate from actual events in human history. Atwood once stated that, “the reason why I made that rule is that I didn't’ want anybody saying, “you certainly have an evil imagination and made up all these bad things.” I didn’t make them up.” For example, Atwood historically alludes to the Holocaust and structures within concentration camps, such as the uniform system and power dynamics. Nazi soldiers would give Jewish prisoners power to punish other Jews, even though the Jews were all in the same predicament, to maintain oppressive control in times when they weren’t there. This is reflective of how Gilead is maintained through figures like the Aunts and Serena Joy. Even though Gilead represses all women, the Aunts willingly punish defiant Handmaids and indoctrinate them, thus supporting and regulating Gilead. “It was the feet they'd do, for a first offense. They used steel cables, frayed at the ends. After that the hands.” This internal fragmentation is reflective of the divides in the feminist movement of the 80s, with feminists arguing whether porn and sex work is indicative of patriarchal liberation. This highlights the universality of Offred’s narration and role as a narrator; she emulates those who suffered the sins of society. In addition to this, by making Gilead a microcosm of all of humanity’s crimes, one would expect protest and rebellion to it even more pronounced, which Atwood subverts through her presentation of Offred’s compliancy. Therefore, by using Offred’s narration to depict Gilead in all of its extensive existence, Atwood takes away the reader’s comfort in Gilead’s fictionality, and hence the possibility that these atrocities could happen to them. Thus, Atwood once again highlights society’s transgressions and the dangers of compliancy through Offred’s narration of Gilead.

In essence, both Shelley and Atwood use their narrators to present their warnings to readers. Both texts are speculative and symbolic of the future, with 'Frankenstein,' showcasing the dangers of science, and 'The Handmaind Tale,' reflecting the transience of societal change. Whilst Shelley advocates for boundaries set on science and ambitions, Atwood encourages readers to take a more sceptical- less complaint- approach to society, depicting the transgressions of Gilead. Shelley, observing the radicalism taking place in the scientific community and wider society, utilises primarily the narrator of Victor to express her warning. The characterisation and structure of Victor's narrative reflect how fast one's control over their ambitions can get out of hand, spiralling into dangerous consequences. Similarly, Atwood utilises the secondary narrator of Piexoto and the constant historical allusions to reflect how transgressive society is, even when it proclaims progression.