Frankenstein, Frederick Douglass & The Tragic Mulatto Narrative
On the 1st January 1818 English author Mary Shelley, the daughter of philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft published her popular book, Frankenstein. In February of the same year, Frederick Douglass was born. To many the two events appear totally unrelated but in my analysis of the text and the event there is something that connects the two.
In my mind, the book Frankenstein is a allegorical story about the coming of the mulatto race. It is the tragic mulatto narrative written as a tale of science fiction. Its publishing date is interesting because it was published the same year of the assumed birth of one of the greatest mulatto leaders in history who would escape from slavery and go on to become one of the most ferocious abolitionists.
I understand that on the surface the story of Frederick Douglass is a heroic story that arises out of the tragedy of slavery and in that sense does not follow the Tragic Mulatto narrative but my analysis appeals to the unspoken and perhaps unconscious thoughts that may have existed in the mind of Douglass. Thoughts that he may not have been able to articulate in public at the time that he lived which he buried in his subconsciousness. Maybe Frankenstein reflects some of the psychological experience that Douglas experienced. Along with many other mulatto heroes of black thought.
Douglass was a mulatto slave, the product of a European slave owner and a slave of African descent. He would teach himself to read and go on to author 3 autobiographies of his life as, slave, runaway and abolitionist. Like Frankensteins creation, Douglass may have pined for a companion that was like him. I cannot help wonder if his Father shared many of the same fears as Frankenstein; that his mulatto creation would birth a new race of mulattoes that would plague the white race.
Perhaps these fears were prevalent in white circles in 1818 and there was genuine fear amongst the white Fathers of mulatto children that the yellow skinned children they had produced would come back to haunt them and Mary Shelley used her science fiction tale as an allegory to reflect the fears that she had heard about. Maybe, she had imagined that a strong, mulatto man would become the most powerful abolitionist voice in America. That a mulatto child would be the undoing of slavery.
Frankenstein is the story Viktor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a huge 8ft humanoid, with yellow skin and watery eyes. After creating the humanoid, that would become known as “Frankensteins Monster”, Viktor Frankenstein flees his laboratory in fear of the hideous creature that he has created. When Frankenstein returns to his laboratory, the yellow humanoid has disappeared. Frankenstein falls ill from nervous exhaustion and takes months to recover, when he finally recovers he is informed that his brother has been murdered in Geneva. He goes to the crime scene of the murder and he spots the yellow humanoid at the crime scene and is convinced that he is responsible for the murder. His Brother’s Nanny is convicted of the murder and hanged but Frankenstein believes that she has been wrongfully convicted and continues in his belief that the yellow humanoid that he has created is responsible. He flees to the mountains riddled with guilt and anxiety. Whilst in the mountains he comes face to face with his creation who pleads with him to hear his story.
The yellow humanoid is intelligent and articulate and tells Frankenstein his story. He tells him of his early days in the mountainous wilderness in solitude; how people hated him because of his appearance and how their hostility led him to isolate himself in fear that he might be attacked. He had made residence in an abandoned cottage. Not far from the cottage was a poor family and the yellow humanoid started to help the family without their knowledge. He tells how he would listen to their conversations and learnt how they spoke. One day he finds a bag of books and starts to teach himself how to read. When he finally gets to see his own appearance in a reflection of water, the yellow humanoid is shocked by his own appearance and hates himself as much humans do because he is different and yellow.
As time goes by, the yellow humanoid plucks up the courage to approach the family. He goes to the house and converses with the Father, the Father is blind and they converse well but his family arrive and are shocked by his appearance and beat him up before fleeing the cottage in fear that he might return and harm them. The 8ft yellow humanoid becomes enraged and angry and decides that making friends with humankind is a waste of time and vows to gain revenge on humankind. He leaves to search for his creator who he believes has a responsibility to him and is the only being that can help him. When he arrives in the city where Frankenstein resides he murders his brother and frames the Nanny.
Speaking with Frankenstein, the 8ft yellow humanoid demands that Frankenstein create a female companion for him with whom he would leave with for South America. After being threatened by his creation, Frankenstein agrees although he is against the idea.
Frankenstein becomes worried that the two yellow humanoids will create a new race. He wonders whether the female yellow humanoid will be evil as he believes his creation to be. He decides to destroy the female yellow humanoid but the male yellow humanoid confronts him and threatens to kill his family and friends if he does not oblige. Frankenstein is terrified not least at the prospect of death but at the prospect of the two yellow humanoids being a plague to mankind and creating a new yellow race just like them.
Frankenstein takes a boat out to sea and disposes of the instruments that he used to create the humanoid. His boat gets blown off course to Ireland when he falls and asleep. Frankenstein arrives in Ireland where he is arrested for the murder of his friend who has in fact been murdered by his creation. Frankenstein is arrested for the murder and charged and placed in prison before being released on all charges.
Frankenstein arrives back in Geneva and is going to be married but the yellow humanoid kills his wife to be. This starts a pursuit by Frankenstein across Europe and beyond seeking revenge. Eventually in his pursuit of his creation, Frankenstein dies whilst on a ship at sea. Unbeknownst to Frankenstein, his creation had been hiding on the ship and comes to mourn Frankenstein, telling the others on board that the death of his creator Frankenstein had not brought peace but misery and that he regrets his acts of murder. He vows to kill himself before drifting off on a raft never to be seen again.
Mary Shelley does not tell us what became of the yellow humanoid that Frankenstein created. The story ends tragically with the yellow humanoid at the point of suicide and without a companion like himself.
The story of Douglass’ escape from slavery reads something like the story of the giant, yellow humanoid in the Frankenstein tale. They are both different from their creators in physicality, they both escape their creator never to be seen again but we never know what becomes of Frankenstein. Maybe if Shelley had made a part two, the yellow humanoid may have become a plague to humankind that created and rejected him in the same way that Douglass became a plague to slave owners across the US who had also rejected him as his creator had. We will never know what happened to the giant yellow humanoid that Frankenstein created. We will never know if Shelley wrote the book as an allegorical tale of mulatto identity but situating the text as an exploration of mulatto identity and psychology offers an opportunity for reflection.
It offers an insight into the minds and hearts of some of the most potent anti-racist activists who have had a mulatto identity whilst identifying as black and sets us on a path to better understanding the mental health, identity experience and psychology of mulatto people. A racial demographic rarely considered in debates about race.
On the surface, Frederick Douglass is a heroic figure and far from a poster boy for the Tragic Mulatto myth but there is a sense of wonder as to whether he found a place to belong psychologically or if he remained a racial outsider his whole life.
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