From Enslavement To Emancipation

In the year of 1818, Mary Shelly published her juvenile fiction Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and gained a huge success. Perhaps the impression this story has left for a lot of people is the gigantic figure of the monster and the phantom that followed Frankenstein day and night. While the abolition background in the late eighteenth century or the early nineteenth century was not mentioned in a lot of research on this story.This paper, with an application of Michel Foucault's philosophic ideas on power, punishment and purification, is going to map Mary Shelly's Frankenstein onto the British abolition and symbolic slavery grid and foreground the journey from enslavement to emancipation.The introduction part of the paper is about the author Mary Shelly and the writing background. The body part is divided into five chapters. The first chapter focuses on the theory of Foucault and the enslavement relationship between the main characters. The theory of transferring power observed by Foucault provides us a good basis to figure out the slavery relation within this book. In chapter two, physical enslavement is analyzed. The image of the creature has a lot of similarities with the African people. By comparing the shelter of the creature to the prison in Foucault's book, we will study the invisible status of the slaves in society. Foucault's argument on darkness and brightness connects us with the skin color differences, with the evil and goodness. In chapter three, it is about psychological enslavement. The different types of punishment happened throughout history which had been observed by Foucault help us to better understand the psychological torture to Frankenstein, or the slave owners. In Foucault's book, his theory of panopticon connects us with the eyes in this book. The physical eyes reflect the inner world of both the slave and slave owners and provide us a clearer way to understand their feelings. Women's gaze in this book is also rarely seen. The lack of women's gaze connects us with women's enslavement. In chapter four, physical and psychological emancipation are analyzed. The process from invisible to visible is the struggle of the creature to get his physical emancipation. The death of Frankenstein is his final freedom. According to Foucault, the water has a function of purifying people's mind and the ship takes Walton to a totally new realm. All the slaves went through a personal transformation. The analysis of Frankenstein with the application of Foucault's theory helps us to better understand the enslavement and emancipation within this book. Though Shelly has not physically participated in the abolition of slavery, her Frankenstein, however, is her advocated book for emancipation.