1818

"The differences between the first, 1818, and second, 1831, editions of Frankenstein, correspond with Mary Shelley’s philosophical changes. By the deaths of Clara, William, and Percy; by the betrayals of Byron and Jane Williams; and by her economic dire straits, Mary Shelley philosophy changed—events are decided by an indifferent destiny of fate. The values in the first edition—nature is a nurturing force that punishes only those who transgress against its rights, Victor is morally responsible for his actions, that the Creature is driven to evil by social and parental neglect, that families similar to the De Laceys, who love all their children equally, offer the best hope for happiness, and that egotism creates the greatest suffering in the world. 

All those notions are rejected in the second edition.

In the 1818 edition, Frankenstein possesses freewill: he could have abandoned his quest for the “principle of life,’ he could have cared for his Creature, and he could have protected Elizabeth. But in the 1831 edition, Frankenstein is a mere pawn within the force of nature, which is beyond his understanding. Victor says, “Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction” (Rieger, app. 239). As well, Elizabeth changes her tune to fatalism: “I think our placid home, and our contented hearts are regulated by the same immutable laws” (Rieger, app. 243).

In the 1831 edition, Mary changes from her organic nature to a mechanistic nature. She portrays Nature as a juggernaut or a mighty machine, an “imperial” tyrant (Rieger, appl. 249). In this edition, human beings represent puppets. 

 

Victor’s sins are not egotistical “presumption and rash ignorance,” but rather bad influences, which include his father’s ignorance, or Professor Waldman’s Mephistophelian manipulations. 

 

Victor’s sin is not his failure to Love and Care for His Creature, but rather his original decision to construct a human being. 

 

Victor is portrayed as a Victim rather than Creator of Evil. 

 

Clerval, who originally functioned as a Being of Moral Virtue, is now portrayed as an equally ambitious being of fame and power, a Future Colonial Imperialist.

Thus in the final 1831 edition, Mary Shelley disclaims responsibility for her progeny and insist that she remained passive before it, “leaving the core and substance of it untouched” (Rieger 229). 

 

Invention “can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself” (Rieger 226). Imperial nature, the thing-in-itself, is triumphant. 

 

Mary’s imagination can mold shapeless darkness into a hideous monster. Similar to Victor, Mary has become an unwilling “author of unalterable evils” (211).