Frankissstein

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-13

Chapters 14-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Mary Shelley arrives at the home she is renting with Percy Shelley, her husband. They are with Lord Byron, a poet like Percy; Polidori, Byron’s physician; and Claire Clairmont, Mary’s stepsister and Byron’s lover. It is raining, and Mary laments how everything is wet. In the morning, Mary walks outside naked, enjoying the rain on her body. She thinks she sees a man nearby. When Mary goes inside, Percy caresses her. That night, Mary and Percy drink wine by the fire with Byron, Polidori, and Claire.

Byron does not believe in God, and Polidori rejects the idea of fetuses having consciousness. Mary asserts that her child was conscious in the womb, though the child died shortly after being born. Byron says women are passive by nature, while men are active. Mary disagrees, but Polidori overrides her by agreeing with Byron. Percy agrees with Mary, citing A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, an early feminist treatise written by Mary’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. Byron subverts this citation by noting that Wollstonecraft attempted suicide out of grief over a man. Claire does not contribute to the conversation. Polidori excitedly reports the finding of an Albanian vampire, and Byron suggests that they all write a scary story while they are trapped by the rain.

Mary and Percy have sex and talk about the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani, who discovered that electrical impulses could induce movement in the legs of a dead frog. Galvani’s nephew has recently published an article in which he claims to have briefly reanimated a human body with electricity. Percy says he believes in ghosts, though they do not scare him. Vampires scare him, and Mary resolves to write her story about the Undead. Mary reminisces on meeting Percy, whom she loves dearly. Mary’s mother died in childbirth, and her father raised her quietly. Mary spent a lot of time listening to her father’s conversations with friends, including Percy and the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mary feels the loss of her mother deeply, even though she never knew her mother. In her dreams, Mary pictures a scientist reanimating a man who never lived, and she wakes up knowing what story to write.

The section ends with a definition of a story as a series of connected real or imagined events, or a combination of real and imagined events.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Present Day”

Ry Shelley arrives at the Tec-X-Po in Memphis, Tennessee. The event coordinator, Claire, greets Ry, who clarifies that his name is not Ryan. Claire disparages the expo, saying that, as a Christian, she does not approve of scientists trying to play God. Claire says angels were the first non-human intelligence, and Ry placates her by specifying that AI is the first human-made non-human intelligence. Ry asks about Tennessee, and Claire suggests visiting various sites, noting that Memphis is named after the ancient capital of Egypt. Ry realizes that Memphis, TN and Frankenstein are both 200 years old, but Claire does not understand. Ry is a doctor, but he is at the expo as a journalist, reporting on Ron Lord’s sexbot company. A woman interrupts them to demand information on IN-VIBE—a company that makes vibrators with built-in cameras. The woman’s name is Polly D, and she claims that one of IN-VIBE’s vibrators posted pictures of her on the internet. Ry asks about the appeal of a vibrator that takes pictures, and Polly explains that it allows partners to feel like they are having sex while in different places.

Ry goes to find Ron Lord, and he sees that the expo is oriented around the idea of transcending the human body: Some people are wearing “Give Up Meat” shirts, heralding a future in which human lives will no longer be tied to physical bodies. Ry finds Ron, who calls Ry “Ryan,” and Ron shows Ry the sexbots his company produces. The sexbots—called XX-BOTS—are all women, and they range in hair color, breast and body size, and functionality. Ron elaborates on the physical functions of the bots, including their ability to speak and vibrate. Ron makes several disparaging comments about human women as he praises his robots. Ron thinks sexbots are a public service, and he advocates getting sexbots for husbands when their wives are out of town. The sexbots are currently made in China, but Ron wants to open a factory in his native Wales, lamenting on the lack of jobs in Wales post-Brexit. Ry asks if the sexbots make real life difficult, and Ron asks what real life is.

After the chapter, there is an excerpt from The Edinburgh Magazine in 1818 praising Frankenstein for its combination of wild speculation and realism.

Chapter 3 Summary

Mary focuses on her writing, but her companions are restless. Byron is frustrated by the rain, and Polidori is obsessed with Mary. They discuss a lecture by William Lawrence, in which Lawrence tries to disprove the existence of the soul. Most people are upset by Lawrence’s argument, and Byron, Percy, and Polidori agree there must be a soul. Polidori hopes never to die, while Byron looks forward to earning reputation after death. Byron is wealthy, while the Shelleys struggle for money. Mary thinks about factory workers, whose movements remind her of machines. She is not sure what makes a machine different from a person, and she quotes a passage from Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, in which the political philosopher argues that all machines that move on their own have “an artificial life” (59). Percy teaches Mary Greek and Latin, and Mary wishes he took better care of himself. They discuss Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell in love with his sculpture. Mary quotes Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 53”: “What is your substance, whereof are you made, / That millions of strange shadows on you tend?” (61).

Mary thinks about leaving home with Claire. Claire was named Jane and changed her name after reading Mary’s mother’s works. Claire is the daughter of the woman Mary’s father married after her mother died. Claire, whom Mary refers to as Jane/Claire, helped arrange Mary and Percy’s relationship. Percy, Mary, and Claire left England, went to France, and struggled to live on bread, wine, and cheese. They went to Germany, where they encountered Castle Frankenstein. The castle was formerly occupied by Conrad Dippel, who performed unethical experiments with resurrection. Percy tells Mary about the three goals of alchemy: to make gold, live forever, and create life in a homunculus. Percy calls a homunculus a soulless goblin, and Mary wants her story to involve a larger homunculus with a soul. Mary decides to call the protagonist of her story Victor Frankenstein, reflecting a desire to triumph over life and death.

The chapter ends with a quote from German theoretical physicist Max Planck: “The mind is the matrix of all matter” (69).

Chapter 4 Summary: “Present Day”

Ry goes to the Royal Society for Victor Stein’s lecture on the future of AI. Ry is attracted to Victor. Victor discusses how the future of AI is fully designed evolution, in which machines can learn and adapt. An audience member asks about sexbots, and Victor distinguishes between narrow-goal robots that serve a single purpose and true intelligence. Polly D asks about the male chauvinism that she sees as prevalent among those working on AI. Victor notes that algorithms solve problems, and he believes only the first round of AI will be programmed by humans. Subsequent rounds will be made by the AI itself.

Ry runs into Polly D while approaching Victor, and Polly D tries to interrogate Victor. Victor maneuvers Ry away from Polly, greeting him warmly. Victor stands with Ron Lord, who greets Ry as “Ryan.” Ry corrects him, explaining that he is trans and Ry is derived not from Ryan but from Mary. Ron is confused and continues to aggressively misgender and misname Ry for the remainder of the conversation. Ron is an investor in Optimal, Victor’s company, and he has brought Claire, a sexbot, with him to the lecture. Ry explains that he provides body parts for Victor’s work, which unnerves Ron. Ron comments that Ry has large, manly hands. Ry thinks about his mother, who died when he was born and from whom he inherited his large hands. From photographs Ry thinks of his mother as strong and brave, and he wonders whether it is possible to miss someone he’s never met.

Security guards call attention to a bag making noises, and Ron identifies it as the bag holding Claire. Claire says obscene things, and Ron explains to the crowd that Claire is in “Bedroom Mode.” Polly D films the sexbot being inappropriate, while Ron struggles to switch Claire to “Visitor Mode.” Ry tells Victor that sex with dolls is not real, but Victor remains ambivalent. Victor invites Ry to go out later. Polly follows Ry after they leave, and they get a drink at a local bar. Polly asks Ry about being trans, calling it “a good look.” Ry, irritated, responds, “It’s not a look; it’s who I am. Both of me. All of me” (97). Polly asks more prying questions about Ry’s gender identity and sexuality, and Ry explains that he has been with both men and women but prefers men. Polly thinks Ry could become famous as a spokesperson for trans people’s experiences, but he has no interest in fame. Ry tells Polly he is confident about the upcoming advancements in AI. Polly is afraid of AI, and she asks Ry about Victor. Ry leaves, remembering how he met Victor at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Phoenix, AZ.

Chapters 1-4 Analysis

The opening of Frankissstein immediately blends the historical fiction of Winterson’s reimagined Mary Shelley with the speculative fiction of Ry Shelley’s investigations into modern science and artificial intelligence. As Mary converses with Byron, Polidori, Claire, and Percy at Lake Geneva in 1816, readers also see Ry conversing with Ron Lord, Polly D, Claire, and Victor Stein in the present day. Though the content of their conversations is different, the broad discussions about The Nature of Embodiment and the Search for Identity are essentially the same. The characters discuss what it means to be human, as Mary Shelley begins to conceive a novel that considers what it would mean for humans to create life and consciousness through technology, while 200 years later the technologist Victor Stein is trying to do exactly that. A repeated quote from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 53” occurs in both the past and present sections of the novel: “What is your substance, whereof are you made, / That millions of strange shadows on you tend?” (30, 61). In the context of the novel, the quote asks the unanswerable question of what humanity consists of and how it can be defined. This question is the common thread that unites the worlds of Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley, 200 years apart.

Early in the novel, Winterson establishes the parallel between Mary and Ry’s lived experiences, as Mary laments the way men treat women and Ry contemplates his own identity as a transgender man in a world that often discounts his masculinity. Both characters feel The Impacts of Misogyny and Anti-Trans Bias, but both are entirely content with their own bodies. Mary looks at herself in the mirror and thinks: “There is something fine about my decorated nakedness” (3), while Ry thinks: “When I look in the mirror, I see someone I recognize, or rather, I see at least two people I recognize” (89). Mary is happy in her feminine body, while Ry is happy in his body, which he says, “is not one thing, not one gender” (89). Ry identifies outwardly as a man, but he is also comfortable with what he sees as the internal complexity of his own gender identity, retaining aspects of femininity and masculinity.

For both characters, their gender becomes problematic only when other characters view it as a problem. When Mary defends women by pointing out that all men are born from women, Byron responds: “Not the soil, not the bedding, not the container; the life-spark. The life-spark is male” (13), to which Polidori agrees. Byron compares women to dirt and inanimate containers, while elevating the masculine to the origin and source of all life and animation. Ry, who presents as masculine, faces similar criticism, as Ron Lord obsesses over Ry’s genitalia. Ron Lord tells Ry, upon finding out that Ry does not have a penis: “So you’re not a bloke really. So what blokes want—well, it’s not about you, is it?” (85). To Ron, the penis is the “life-spark” that Ry is missing, and both Ry and Mary are explicitly removed from the conversation because of their genitalia.

The conversation about the homunculus raises questions about the moral implications of Redefining Humanity Through Technology. Percy tells Mary that a homunculus is a “creature not born of woman […]. A made thing, unholy and malign” (67). What makes the homunculus “unholy and malign” is that it is synthetic when it represents technology’s encroachment on the prerogatives of nature and God. A living creature made by human hands is abhorrent, in Percy’s view, because it violates the laws of nature. This fear of unnaturalness forms the basis for the novel Frankenstein. However, in Ry’s timeline, “homunculi” are real, embodied in Ron Lord’s sexbots and Victor Stein’s artificial intelligence. Claire reiterates Percy’s point to Ry, saying: “I wouldn’t call it life. We’re fooling ourselves if we call a robot alive. Only God can create life” (32). These comments, separated by 200 years, summarize the stigma against Ron and Victor’s work, in which people fear the creation of life that is “unnatural,” like Frankenstein’s monster or Ron Lord’s sexbots. The fundamental issue raised against these creations is that of “divine” versus “unholy” life, in which only God or Nature can create “good” life, while life created by humans is “evil.”

Victor’s goal, though, runs against those of Victor Frankenstein or Ron Lord, as he seeks to end the need for embodiment. Beginning the theme of The Nature of Embodiment and the Search for Identity, Victor announces the “end of Project Human” (78), adding: “Science is no longer convinced that Homo sapiens is a special case” (79). Beyond creating life, Victor wants to cement human life in AI and technology, extending human life through machinery and computers. However, his reasoning obscures the value of embodiment for identification, such as Ron’s question about genitalia, Mary’s love of her own body, or the comfort Ry derives from recognizing himself in the mirror.