Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus: Correcting Faulty Mind-reading

Abstract

Victor Frankenstein’s nauseous feelings on first seeing the creature are seen to prefigure similar mind blindness in later science fiction—in, for instance, H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898). In perhaps the most compelling part of the chapter the creature’s thoughts about the cottagers are examined in relation to the two different kinds of theory of mind mentioned in the Introduction—TT and ST. The creature’s feelings are also discussed about various literary works in relation to ‘emotional contagion’ and empathy. Using recent speculation by neuroscientists about possible links between mirror neurons and morality, this chapter also provocatively suggests that the creature in certain respects is more ‘human’ than the fictive humans who surround him.