Monsters and Goblins

"I created a monster, and now I'll never be alone again, I think I've made myself a new best friend, yeah, it's making me stronger..."

-X Ambassadors "My Own Monster"

In Frankenstein and “Goblin Market” we see nature portrayed as a seductress and seductor; a perilous wonder through which the human race is triggered, tempted, and sometimes even tortured. Instead of giving nature its usual part as a mere backdrop, Shelley and Rossetti offer nature a leading role in their works — an unrelenting force that challenges those who dare to underestimate either its softness or its strength. In these texts, the characters who position themselves outside of nature are not only more likely to feel threatened by nature, but also, to our horror, try to dominate and conquer it as well. The main characters in Frankenstein and “Goblin Market” show us how both external and environmental factors can influence how we identify with nature and why nature is reduced to a mere object of examination within the detached perspective.

Although Victor has a heavily nurtured upbringing, he does not directly identify with nature, and thus, perceives it as something that ought to be dominated especially since nature's powers seem to be superior to his own. Protected from the elements, Victor enjoys a "domestic" childhood, “watching” nature with wonder from a warm and loving house and “witnesse[s] a most violent and terrible thunder-storm” in his teenage years which sparks his interest in electricity (70). In this scene, Victor is a “witness” to events involving nature who destroys an oak tree right before his eyes, which incites fascination and inquiry into this phenomenon. In his college years, this passion is reignited when one of his favourite professors gives a lecture on the “miracles” performed by modern philosophers proclaiming that:

They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and [show] how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows. (Shelley 75-76).

However, by personifying nature and then speaking of man’s relationship to it in such a manner, not only is the professor detaching his students from the outer world but he is also suggesting that they are in a category higher and more powerful than nature and may, therefore, dominate, “command”, control and “penetrate” it. Because of this flawed perspective, Victor’s scientific pursuits work against nature rather than in harmony with it which results in a form of tension that can only build with time. Indeed, once Victor is heavily immersed in his first major creation, his “eyes [become] insensible to the charms of nature” (81) which is further evidence that he considers nature to be merely an alluring distraction that seeks his arousal occasionally. When Victor reflects on the time after William is murdered, he says that the only thing that could renew him during this period of grief was nature, reflecting, “I contemplated the lake: the waters were placid; all around was calm, and the snowy mountains…by degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me…” (97). Instead of identifying with the lake, Victor only thinks about the lake, which, according to this passage, is a healer whose physical features “restore” him back to health. Because of this detachment, Victor does not identify with nature, and thus, cannot fully respect it either.

Even more detached from nature, is Victor’s careless creation, the monster, who, unlike Victor, tends to find beauty in more unnatural places because of the alienation he experiences in both his inner and outer worlds. Initially, for the monster, the cottage is more beautiful than any forest, mountain or lake could ever be, because it is filled with “natural” beings that he longs to connect with as well as the nurture he never received. Being the mere by-product of a man who does not identify with nature and who failed to nurture him, the monster has neither nature nor nurture to look to for strength in his isolation. When the monster reflects on his first few weeks alive, he tells Victor that “A great fall of snow had taken place the night before, and the fields were of one uniform white; the appearance was disconsolate, and I found my feet chilled by the cold damp substance that covered the ground” (123). According to this passage, where others would likely find beauty in snow-covered fields, the monster is, instead, disheartened by this scene. Rather than lifting his spirits, nature’s elements are more likely to burden the monster who feels “oppressed by [the] cold” (122) especially in the winter months because it reminds him of his own birth which is why winter is a particularly bleak time of year for him stating:

Autumn passed thus. I saw, with surprise and grief, the leaves decay and fall, and nature again assume the barren and bleak appearance it had worn when I first beheld the woods and the lovely moon…but my chief delights were the sight of flowers, the birds, and all the gay apparel of summer; when those deserted me, I turned with more attention towards the cottages. Their happiness was not decreased by the absence of summer… (Shelley 145)

This passage is important because it illustrates the contrast between Victor and the monster’s points of view. Unlike Victor, who is positioned in nurture looking out at nature, the monster is out in nature looking in at nurture. Rather than focusing on himself and his own comfort, the monster only considers how other living things are affected by the elements, though, this selflessness does become more difficult to detect once his murderous rampage begins. Arguably both viewpoints eventually result in an either a depraved or soulless state of being in this text.

By contrast, in “Goblin Market”, rather than being the object of human observation and experimentation, nature is itself the observer, that looks in on main characters Laura and Lizzie who are likened with nature by the speaker who writes of the sisters:

Golden head by golden head,

Like two pigeons in one nest,

Folded in each other’s wings,

They lay down in their curtained bed:

Like two blossoms on one stem,

Like two flakes of new-fall’n snow…

Moon and stars gazed in at them,

Wind sang to them lullaby… (Rossetti 548)

Rather than being nature’s observers or mere by-products of nature, Laura and Lizzie are nature according to these lines that compare the sisters to birds, blossoms, and snowflakes. However, there is evidence to suggest that the sisters, themselves, do not identify with nature or consider themselves a part of it when Laura, against her better judgement, decides to linger near the “goblin men” one day observing that:

One had a cat’s face,

                 One whisked a tail,

One tramped at a rat’s pace,

One crawled like a snail,

One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry

One like a ratel tumbled hurry scurry…(Rossetti 547)

This passage suggests that Laura thinks of these men more like animals than humans, and since she does not consider herself to be an animal, cannot identify with them which leads to even greater curiosity. However, even so much as looking and listening to this “form” of nature is considered sinful by the sister’s standards and “must not look at Goblin men” (547). In this poem, “nature” (“Goblin men”) seeks to “charm” its admirers with sumptuous fruits, and even “allows” some of its customers to pay with their bodies instead of money. In “Gobin Market” nature is a seductor that should not be touched, listened to, or even looked at, yet something that our senses are naturally aroused by which creates unnatural friction between the outer world and its human inhabitants, the majority of whom, do not directly identify with nature.

Both Frankenstein and “Goblin Market” inspire readers to contemplate the harm in objectifying nature and the cruel consequences that can arise from this mistreatment. The characters in these texts show us how important our identification to nature is and how this connection (or lack thereof) affects our relationship with the outer world, hence, our treatment of it as well. Worryingly, these character’s lack of identification with nature creates a barrier between them and the outer world which leads to heedless actions and greater struggle. From fruitful summers to fatal winters, Shelley and Rossetti caution their readers about nature’s most harmful reproductions that can destroy even the brightest minds.

Sincerely,

Heather

Note: This post has been inspired by a scholarly lecture on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein presented by Dr. Laura Suski, an insightful lecture on Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market" presented by Professor Terri Doughty, seminar discussions on these texts with my LBST112 classmates facilitated by Dr. David Livingstone, and the quote "the greater your inner light, the brighter your outer world" by Matshona Dhliwayo.

Works Cited

Rossetti, Christina. "Goblin Market." Course pack for Liberal Studies 112: Knowledge, Good and Evil, compiled by Dr. Kaia Scott and Dr. David Livingstone, Vancouver Island University, 2024, pp.546-553.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Edited by D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf, Toronto,

Broadview Press, 2012.