56 pages • 1 hour read
Poor Things
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Background
Genre Context: Literary Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a literary movement that first developed in the 1960s. Many postmodern texts push readers to question what a novel is by pushing the boundaries of the form. These texts might eschew a typical narrative structure, opting to rely heavily on references to other texts, multiple perspectives, and metafiction. Postmodern stories may include elements of magical realism, unreliable narration, ambiguity, or fragmentation of the narrative. Some notable postmodern works include Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Many postmodern works use the novel as a space for political discussion.
Poor Things makes use of many of the conventions of postmodernist literature. It has multiple narrators, each with a unique perspective. The entire text is written by the real Alasdair Gray, who frames himself as a fictional character and claims to be the editor of a narrative written by Archibald McCandless. McCandless’s narrative includes letters from Duncan Wedderburn and Bella Baxter, both of which are narrated to McCandless by Godwin Baxter. Victoria McCandless provides her own perspective in the final letter, and the whole text is annotated with footnotes by Alasdair Gray. The text is written in close conversation with Frankenstein, and it also references many other works of Gothic literature. The novel’s ambiguity, its historical and fictional references, and its political discourse are postmodern elements that help build on the story’s themes.
Literary Context: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 Gothic novel by English writer Mary Shelley. In it, a medical student named Victor Frankenstein discovers the secrets of life. He builds a man out of several corpses and then animates his creation. He is immediately horrified by what he has made and shuns the creature. The creature has to fend for himself, as everyone he meets is frightened by his appearance. When he finds Frankenstein again, he asks his maker to love and accept him. Frankenstein refuses; the creature asks for a female companion instead. Frankenstein starts building the companion but changes his mind and destroys her. The creature, enraged, kills the people closest to Frankenstein. The two of them end up in a frenzied chase that leads them to the Arctic, where they both perish.
Poor Things is inspired by Frankenstein. McCandless strongly implies that Godwin was created and animated, not born. Godwin uses the same techniques to cut up and stitch together the two rabbits and to create Bella. Bella is not unlike Frankenstein’s creature: She is curious about the world and horrified by its injustices, and she develops quickly despite her young consciousness. Godwin also resembles the creature, as people fear him because of his strange appearance. He also wants a female companion because no ordinary woman could love him.
At the end of the book, Victoria’s letter makes the connection explicit, saying that in McCandless’s narrative, Godwin was created “by the Frankenstein method” (347). The existence of Shelley’s work within the narrative of Poor Things is one of the details that casts doubt on the veracity of McCandless’s claims.
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