A Psychoanalytical Approach to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus

Dr. Vandana Khajuria, Vidushi Sharma

Abstract: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus (1818) investigates the psychological breakdown of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature with godlike ambition, monstrous creation, and paternal abandonment as its themes. In this study, psychoanalytic dimensions-mostly Karen Horney's theory of showing self-idealism and Freudian concepts of the psyche's strata, Oedipus complexes, and dream interpretation-are applied to Victor's unconscious drives and the fatalistic process of the creator-creation relationship. Recent studies by Smith (2021) and Brooks (2020) are cited to explain how Victor's conquest of divine power and his abomination of his Creature bring to the fore some deepest pathologies of the human psyche, such as narcissistic self-aggrandizement and repressed incestuous desires. The analysis shows that the novel reveals its horror not in the creature?s deformity, but in Victor's deformity-a failure to reconcile unconscious urges with moral responsibility. In the end, Shelley's piece becomes a deep voyage into how repressed trauma and impossible ideals translate into destructive forces-a truly timeless insight into human psychology. The paper contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions about the novel's psychoanalytic dimensions while reaffirming its relevance to modern studies of identity formation and psychological disintegration.

Keywords: Frankenstein, psychoanalytic criticism, narcissistic idealization, Freudian theory, Oedipal conflict, psychic fragmentation