When I was reading the parallels made between madness and disability, I kept thinking about the Creation and how he would fit between these two distinct terms or labels, disabled and mad.
Frankenstein’s “evil” (murders) manifests from the anger and resentment he feels towards Victor, who we’ve described in class as the stereotypical mad scientist. The Creation as a “mad” individual, instead of a disabled individual, can definitely be argued based on how Victor has neglected and segregated the Creation.
As a “mad” character, his acquirement of self-dependency, a wealth of knowledge, and even superior strength… automatically makes him more of a threat to society than before. This is also seen when Victor contemplates creating the mate for the Creation. He fears the potential control that they could have. (this also screams Linton’s Reassigning Meaning… passiveness: disabledness and contol: abledness.) Victor doesn’t want to understand the Creation and would rather him be passive and easy to manipulate; he would rather the Creation be dead. As the creator, this could really highlight how psychiatric institutes would drive mentally ill or disabled persons to an even more unstable state. I think it is interesting to look at the Creation through the lens of the doctor/patient perspective. Like, the humanitarian aspect of just wanting to be seen and wanting to improve c/s/x livelihood is similar to how the Creation just wanted a better living standard.
The Creation truly just wanted to be recognized and have their own identity and relationship with Victor. Brewer talked about embodiment and I think that section of the text would explain this idea well. There was this idea of, “individuals are labelled rather than individuals choosing their own labels.” and the Creation simply wanted to be seen as the moral and sensitive creature he was rather than the monster he was made out to be.
