Title: The Sport of the Gods
Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar
Date of First Publication: 1902
Place of Publication: Dodd, Mead and Co.
Type: Novel
Characters: No Character
Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; RACE/POLITICS; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER
Critical Summary: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods begins by depicting an African American family during Reconstruction who live and work as diligent servants for the Oakley household. When the Master Oakley’s younger brother finds he is missing a large sum of money, the innocent Berry is accused of thievery and deemed guilty after a quick and unconvincing trial. Scorned by the Oakley family and the African American community, Fannie Hamilton— Berry’s wife— and their two children, Joe and Kitty, decide to leave their Southern city and look for refuge and opportunity in New York. Joe, fervent to be part of the fast, metropolitan scene, begins a love affair with Hattie Sterling, an entertainer who works at a local club he regularly attends. As Joe falls into alcohol addiction and wastes his money on liquor, Hattie helps Kitty get a job at the club, where, surprisingly, she flourishes as an entertainer. In contrast, Joe’s condition worsens and, in a rage, he strangles Hattie when she tries to end their relationship. Finding herself essentially alone, Fannie remarries for financial security. Back on the Oakley estate, Master Oakley receives a letter from his brother admitting that he actually gambled the money away and knew Berry was not guilty. The truth is eventually revealed and Berry is released only to find his family in shambles. When Fannie’s new husband dies in an accident, Berry retrieves Fannie and they return to the Oakley residence to live and work for the family.
The most evident connection between The Sport of the Gods and Frankenstein is the role of race and politics. Although Shelley’s Creature is most presumably horrifying based on his “ugly” appearance, it should be noted that fear of the Creature also arises from the markedly different color of his skin. This specific type of “otherness” that is incomprehensible to Victor, as well as other humans in the novel, is what ultimately applies to the Hamilton family in Dunbar’s novel. Berry, though a loyal servant to the Oakley reside for twenty years, is reduced to being nothing but his skin color when the first air of felony blows through the household; gone is his credibility and in its place lies “the unfaithful nature of Negroes” that the white community assumes. Just as Berry—who becomes representative of all African Americans— is judged without concrete evidence, so too is Shelley’s Creature seen through a kaleidoscopic array of negative judgment without anyone truly knowing him. Also, key in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s novel is the Mad Scientist and Monster dynamic, in which Hattie Sterling plays the role of the Mad Scientist and Joe transforms into her Monster. Desiring to become a wise “man of the world,” similarly to Victor’s Creature’s desires of virtue and fame, Hattie brings him into the world of urban immorality and corruption that instead result in his addiction to alcohol and his overall degradation. Realizing the wretch, he has become, Hattie disowns Joe who in turn murders her for abandoning him after she made him the horrible creature he had become. Once, so passionate to live, he loses all spirit when his creator dies, mirroring Shelley’s Creature who states his plan of suicide when he finds Victor dead, for both lose the only person remaining who could possibly care for them in their ruined state. The connection between Shelley’s narrative and Dunbar’s is made explicit in his titling of Chapter XIV “Frankenstein.”
Administrative Notes: Jasmine Estrada CSUF; Allison Archer CSUF