Concetti Chiave
- The creature in Frankenstein is described as terrifying, with yellow, wrinkled skin, long black hair, watery eyes, and a monstrous appearance.
- People are frightened by the creature's appearance, and even the creature is scared by his own reflection.
- Representations of the creature often explore the idea of the "uncanny," which involves uncertainty about whether something is alive or inanimate.
- Ernst Jentsch introduced the concept of the uncanny in 1906, linking it to doubts about the animacy of beings or objects.
- Sigmund Freud further developed the idea in 1919, explaining the uncanny as something familiar that becomes frightening when perceived as different.
Description of the creature from Frankenstein
The Frankenstein’s creature appearance is terrifying: people run away when they see him and the creature himself is frightened when he sees his own face reflected in the water. This is how Frankenstein describes him: “His skin was yellow and wrinkled. His hair was long and black. His eyes were watery. He was monstrous!”.
The creature has been represented many times, but which representation is most effective? Consider the idea of the “uncanny”. The word is often used now simply to mean supernatural and mysterious, but the psychiatrist Ernst Jentsch used it more precisely it an essay in 1906: he said that “doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive or whether a lifeless object might be animate” caused a sense of “the uncanny”.
Development of the idea of the uncanny
He also said that in story-telling “one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton”.
The idea was developed by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay “The Uncanny”: something seems familiar to us, but then we realise that it is different from the familiar, and this frightens us. This explains, for example, the horrific effect in film and fiction of zombies or dolls that seem to be alive.
Domande da interrogazione
- What are the key features of Frankenstein's creature's appearance as described in the text?
- How does the concept of the "uncanny" relate to Frankenstein's creature?
- How did Sigmund Freud expand on the idea of the "uncanny"?
Frankenstein describes the creature as having yellow, wrinkled skin, long black hair, watery eyes, and a monstrous appearance, which terrifies those who see him, including the creature himself.
The "uncanny" involves uncertainty about whether something is alive or not, creating a sense of eeriness. This concept is relevant to Frankenstein's creature, as his human-like yet monstrous appearance evokes this unsettling feeling.
Sigmund Freud expanded on the "uncanny" by suggesting it arises when something familiar becomes strange, causing fear. This concept explains the unsettling effect of figures like zombies or animated dolls in fiction.
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