Our discussion in class prompted a few thoughts about what would happen if Frankenstein had actually created a mate for his monster and therefore attempted to pass on the legacy of these monsters.
1) No progeny. They come from dead bodies, their reproductive organs are nonfunctioning.
2) Regular children. Both Frankenstein and his creature both conceive of his monster as a separate species from humanity even though his monster came from human parts. Likewise, his mate would come from human parts. Under this supposition of functioning reproductive organs, their progeny would be the children of whoever donated the sperm and ovum after death. Their children would be humans, not this “new” species and therefore would be a sympathetic mediator between the inevitable monster/human wars.
3) Inhuman children. However, since the science of Frankenstein’s monster is never fully explained, an interesting possibility would be for their children to be some sort of hybridized offspring. They could hypothetically be the genetic offspring of all the donors to their parents, creating a wealth of genetic deficiencies and advantages. Or, since Shelley probably didn’t fully understand genetics, they could have turned out identical to their parents. They could have created an entire army of monsters to enact their father’s rage against Frankenstein and propogate their own subspecies.
4) Frankenstein’s children. Another possibility would be that while his monsters could not genetically create more of themselves, if his monster could force him to create one other person for himself, he could force Frankenstein to create children for him as well. There would be many issue from this. Would Frankenstein create children out of dead children’s body parts, or create adult offspring out of adult body parts.
Of course, this supposition has other issues. For instance, would his children age to adulthood as normal children do? Would his adult versions have aged to become elderly? Or would all of his creations merely decay as all dead flesh decays? Another interesting path not taken would be if Frankenstein were sympathetic to his creations. If they were decaying like all dead things, he might have replaced their body parts with new parts, making this new species essentially immortal. Of course, from this there would be many humans who would use this method to live forever and become like these monsters, which would have added an interesting dimension of a blurred line between monster and human, which ultimately was what Shelley was trying to do in portraying an intelligent monster and an inhumane creator. There would be no dichotomous relationship between these two groups, and the novel would have taken an entirely different turn.
Clearly I have lingered far too long on the possible outcomes of the novel, but I am curious as to what other people think would happen between these two “species.” Would they live peacefully or with enmity? Would humanity side with Frankenstein, or with his creations?