gay friend groups: (The Modern Prometheus) (The 8-Foot Homunculus) (The Beautiful Italian Orphan) (The Poet Boyfriend) (The Falsely Accused) (The Gay Sailor) (Th
‘Alphonse is awful’ ‘Henry’s dad is a bitch’ yes but have you considered that Justine’s mother is quite possibly the worst parent in the whole fucking book
imagine your husband dies and the first thing you do is go ‘yay now I can abuse my least favorite child 🥰🥰!!’ and then you proceed to do so to the point that she jumps at the first opportunity to get tf out of your house. and when the rest of your children die (for reasons that may or may not be your fault), your first instinct is to guilt-trip your only surviving kid into coming home to take care of you by manipulating her into believing that her siblings’ deaths were her fault. oh, and don’t forget the Catholic Guilt™️! A+ parenting.
Frankenstein characters as ghosts (depending mostly on their deaths):
Victor: A sorrowful spirit wandering through the cold in the far north. His wails can be heard upon the arctic wind from time to time. Some feel it is a warning that they should only find death in the cold ice and don’t dare venture out but some have been enticed by the mystery and sought out the source of this voice, a task which ultimately lead to their demises in the treacherous icy waters.
Elizabeth: A protective spirit for many young women. Her ghosts watches over brides on their wedding night haunting down anyone that tries to hurt them. She manages to save lives, more than she could when she was alive.
Justine: Her ghost is restless, unable to get justice. She is found standing in the corners of court rooms, watching mournfully as other innocents are condemed, unable to do something. When she appears it is usually a sign of a great injustice happening.
Henry: His ghost still wanders the shores and streets of Ireland always in search of his best friend but forever unable to find him.
When spoken to he'll only say he's "waiting for Victor" and continue on his way; an eternal search for someone he can never see again.
William: The ghost of a small child lost in the woods. When you cross paths with him he'll ask you for the way and whisper that his brother was supposed to look for him. Sometimes the ghost is willing to play hide and seek with you but when he has to hide he will always disappear, not to be found until the next night when he will wander through the woods again.
Creature: I think he as he lived can also be applied to a ghost. At first a benevolent spirit that helps people by bringing firewood or other little tasks. But he looks too horrifying to human eyes and only scares them. Later a vengeful ghost seeking only his creator's destruction.
No matter of he is alive or not he's a ghost in his own way, unable to exist in the same world that humans do, something unnatural, something to be feared by mankind.
the fact that every 19th century author manages to write the "sunshine and dead inside" friends to lovers ship dynamic every god damn time, it's phenomenal
(Victor Frankenstein, The Creature, Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry Clerval, Justine Moritz, William Frankenstein, Caroline Frankenstein, Ernest Frankenstein, Alphonse Frankenstein)
personally i don’t have many strong opinions on it! i don’t think there’s much in the text to support it (and i believe elizabeth refers to justine as her sister when visiting her before her execution if i recall correctly), but i think it could be fun and cute if you enjoy shipping. in general, i do acknowledge and have even analyzed the homoromantic/erotic subtext in frankenstein, but i don’t think it was intentional or intended to be read that way, and while i enjoy engaging in shipping sometimes (and i’ve even written waltonstein fic myself), i think honestly as a whole shipping within the frankenstein fandom tends to detract from the value of the book because people focus on (inventing) romance rather than the themes and commentary that are actually present, and it usually comes at the expense of the actual characterization. i get im complaining about shipping in a fandom space, which is often inherently shippy, but it’s still a bit tiring when the only interest and content/discussion surrounding supporting characters like henry and justine and walton (who IS a narrator and a complex, rounded character! why do we not talk about walton more!) are only ever through romantic relationships with victor, elizabeth or the creature.
i can’t talk much on elizabeth x justine because i haven’t seen too much content of it, but while it isn’t as severe as other fandoms, i do see henry and victor specifically flanderized and reduced into one-dimension tropes when shipped with each other. i get henry wasn’t a rounded character in the first place but he was definitely still flawed (ex. being avoidant about victors issues, never confronting the situation even when something was obviously wrong, etc) and at times even confrontational/chastising—not unkind but chastising (im thinking specifically when henry & victor first reunite at ingolstadt and henry lectures him a little for not having written to them) and i don’t see this written about very much at all, specifically in shipping content where henry is the happy sunshine golden retriever to victor’s black cat or whatever.
i also never really see mentions of henry’s life outside of context of his life revolving around victor if that makes sense, even though shelley goes out of her way to give us a bit of backstory on the clervals, and to establish that he has stuff going on outside of his relationship with the frankensteins. it’s always “henry is sad victor is going away for college and won’t be able to see him” and YES that is absolutely a part of it, but he’s also a dreamer who’s dissatisfied with the career that’s been dictated by his family, the life trajectory set out for him, who advocates for himself and argues with his father to pursue these dreams and get a higher education. he IS optimistic and a deliberate foil + supporting character to victor in a lot of ways, but he was also dissatisfied and upset with the career that had been chosen for him, and it’s implied his relationship with his father is a bit rocky, and, like victor, he could be a bit morose almost—go look in the 1818 novel when clerval is walking victor to the carriage after williams death; it’s quite far from most fanon interpretations of him
overall i think shipping in frankenstein can be entertaining, but i tend to be quite picky and enjoy content that dissects the themes and characters themselves more rather than romance just being the sole focus, and for this reason i tend to stick more to the analysis side of things!