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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2013-08-27 From Prometheus to Presumption: Frankenstein's Theatrical Doppelgänger Reid, Brittany Lee Alexandra Reid, B. L. (2013). From Prometheus to Presumption: Frankenstein's Theatrical Doppelgänger (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26236 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/894 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY From Prometheus to Presumption: Frankenstein’s Theatrical Doppelgänger by Brittany Reid A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2013 © Brittany Reid 2013 ii Abstract This thesis examines the Doppelgänger relationship between Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, as it is characterized through both Frankenstein and its first theatrical adaptation. With a specific focus on Richard Brinsley Peake’s 1823 gothic melodrama, Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein I unpack how the novel’s cross-medium adaptation leads to a changed conception of the relationship of its central characters. In Frankenstein, Victor is the focal figure and acts as the Creature’s dominant counterpart. However, the characters’ cross-medium adaptation from page to stage inverts this Doppelgänger relationship from Shelley’s initial conception in the novel. Consequently, the Creature is privileged as the drama’s focal figure while Victor is rendered both secondary and subservient. By contextualizing both texts within their formal, generic, critical, and cultural milieus, this study explores the implications of this significant role reversal to the Frankenstein myth. iii Acknowledgements 1. My supervisor, Dr. Anne McWhir, and my committee members: Dr. Susan Bennett and Dr. Barry Yzereef. 2. The Government of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for providing me with generous grant support to complete this study. 3. My professors and fellow students in the Department of English and the Department of Drama at the University of Calgary. iv In loving dedication to my own fated doubles: My family, my best love, my friends, my mentors, and my passions v Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………………...……………………………p. ii Acknowledgments ………………….…………………………………………………..…….. p. iii Dedication ………………………….……………………………………………..……p. iv Table of Contents …………………….……………………………………….…….......p. v List of Illustrations …………….……………………………………………………………....p. vi Introduction: Frankenstein, At the Double………………...…..…………………………………..1 Chapter 1: Frankenstein’s Doppelgänger: A Study in Fiction …………………………………..15 Fated Counterparts………………………………..….…………………………………...22 Twin Descents…………………………………………………………………………....38 Chapter 2: Presumption’s Doppelgänger: A Study in Theatre………………………………….. 57 Starring “The Creature” as “_______” ……………………………………..……………62 Also Featuring Victor Frankenstein as “?”……………………………………………… 75 Playing the Part: Theatrical Case Study Analysis ……………………………………….91 A Final Curtain Call: Concluding Remarks………………………………..………………… 103 Works Cited and Consulted ………….…………………………………………………………106 vi List of Illustrations 1. Plate 6 from William Blake’s Jerusalem……………………………………...…...……..6 2. Frontispiece to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein by Theodor von Holst ……………….10 3. A poster from Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein………………….…………..10 4. Frontispiece to the 1831 edition…………………..…………………….……………… 19 5. Detail of Constantin Hansen’s Prometheus Creating Man in Clay (1845) ...……...……25 6. Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)……...………………43 7. Poster from Presumption’s 1826 remount…………………...………………...……...…67 8. Mr. T. P. Cooke……………………………………………….…………………………72 9. James William Wallack in Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein (1823) ……..…87 10. Mr. James William Wallack …………………………………………………………….90 11. Cover of Dicks’ Standard Edition of Presumption (1865) …………………..………….93 12. Image from Beraud and Merle’s Le Monstre et le magicien (1826)…………………… 96 13. Another image from Beraud and Merle’s Le Monstre et le magicien (1826)…………...97 1 Introduction: Frankenstein, At the Double In the nearly two hundred years since Frankenstein’s 1818 publication, the novel’s many doubles and dualities have become integral to its literary legacy. In addition to the character pairings, frame narratives, allegorical implications, and significant uses of intertextuality within the novel, these mirrorings, doublings, echoes, and multiple meanings go beyond the pages of Mary Shelley’s classic text by reaching into its critical and cultural heritages. For example, Frankenstein has been adapted innumerable times for stage, screen, or page, creating an artistic dual legacy for this Romantic text. As well, discussion continues as to whether the 1818 original version or 1831 revision should be considered the novel’s definitive edition, permitting the story two distinct yet interconnected literary identities. Continuing in recent years, Charles E. Robinson’s illuminated edition of Frankenstein in 2008, entitled The Original Frankenstein, credits Percy Bysshe Shelley as the novel’s co-author and renews discussion about collaborative literary composition in the nineteenth century. In “The Ambiguous Heritage of Frankenstein,” George Levine describes the significance of these mirrorings and multiplicities in Frankenstein: “Such doublings and triplings, with reverberations in and out of the novel in Mary Shelley’s own life and in modern psychological theory, suggest again the instability and ambivalence of the book’s ‘meanings’” (15). Through the interplay between its many textual, critical, and cultural doubles, Frankenstein offers limitless new readings and allows for continued engagement with this canonical work. This study participates in the continued re-imagination of Frankenstein’s infamous doubles. For this reason, my study not only addresses Shelley’s novel, but also engages with the broad and long-lived Frankenstein mythology. My research is grounded by a focused consideration of the story’s most significant character doubles: Victor Frankenstein and his 2 Creature.1 From this point of departure, I demonstrate how Victor and the Creature’s innate similarities and intrinsic connection cast them in a Doppelgänger relationship in Frankenstein. With an inclusive interest in both the novel and its cultural legacy, I then observe how the relationship between Victor and the Creature is changed from its fictional representation in Frankenstein to the novel’s first theatrical adaptation in 1823: Richard Brinsley Peake’s Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein. Through these twinned depictions, Victor and the Creature’s Doppelgänger relationship is again doubled through its fictional and theatrical representation. At once a distinct theatrical creation and a responsorial creative critique, Presumption itself acts as an uncanny double for Frankenstein and, like the Creature to Victor, maintains a natal link to its source. In this way, the relationship between Victor and the Creature within the Frankenstein mythology is formally reflected in the story’s twinned legacies in fiction and theatre. Consequently, as a cross-medium adaptation of Shelley’s source text, Presumption is yet another of Frankenstein’s many doubles. Before moving on, a cultural and critical context for the double and Doppelgänger is needed to understand both how these terms apply to Victor and the Creature’s relationship and why they have significant bearing on Frankenstein. The belief in figural doubles has ancient origins. Twins, couples, duplicates, and pairs make frequent appearances in Classical writing and often carry great symbolic significance. In Roman mythology Janus, the god of transitions and new beginnings, is depicted with two faces: one looking back to the past and another ahead to the future. In both Greek and Roman mythology, the eternal link between twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, led to their immortalization as the Gemini, one of the zodiac constellations. Similarly, 1 For consistency and clarity, I will identify this character throughout my study as “the Creature.” I will also identify the Creature using “him” rather than “it” to better reflect the sense of sameness between him and Victor. 3 throughout the tradition of Judeo-Christianity, pairings such as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, or Jacob and Esau are described as mirrored opposites transfigured through familial love.2 Closer than kin, these biblical doubles exemplify the elevated risks and rewards of such innate interpersonal connections by extending beyond the expectations of a typical husband/wife or brother/brother relationship. Although each depiction is unique, they all contribute to the rich collective mythology of the double. Whether appearing as dual personalities, kindred spirits, or character complements, these early doubles transcend the confines of prototypical human relationships to forge a complex bond with each other. At their most foundational level, these relationships can be attributed to a preternatural
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