Title: Fortitude
Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Date of First Publication: September, 1968
Place of Publication: Playboy Magazine
Type: Play
Characters: Victor Frankenstein; Elizabeth Frankenstein; The Creature; Justine Moritz; Henry Clerval
Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; SYMPATETIC MONSTER; BYRONIC HERO; RACE/POLITICS; ANDROID
Critical Summary: This play opens with Dr. Frankenstein leading Dr. Elbert Little on a tour of a large room filled with machines, each of which perform various different functions of human organs; ultimately an artificial body. Dr. Little is astounded both by the medical wonder displayed around him and the courage of the patient, Sylvia Lovejoy. They stop to talk to Dr. Tom Swift, Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant, who monitors the machinery and makes adjustments accordingly. Dr. Frankenstein shows Dr. Little just how much control they have over Sylvia by adjusting a setting that controls Sylvia’s mood.
The scene cuts to Sylvia’s room where the last remaining part of her original body—her head, which rests on a tripod and is connected to pipes and wires coming up out of the floor—is being attended to by her beautician and closest confidant, Gloria. Due to the adjustment made by Dr. Frankenstein, she suddenly bursts into tears, only to return to normal a moment later and asks Gloria to wipe her tears away. Gloria is obviously distressed and tries to hide her own tears from Sylvia.
The mailman dances into the room with a handful of letters addressed to Sylvia, which she opens with her mechanical arms. In the middle of opening letters, she recalls a shameful letter she wrote in a moment of despair to a doctor in Vermont.
The scene cuts to the outside of Sylvia’s room. As Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Little prepare to enter, Gloria exits and proceeds to burst into tears. She begs Dr. Frankenstein to kill Sylvia and put her out of her misery. This angers Dr. Frankenstein and he proceeds to tell Gloria and Dr. Little the story of how this situation came to be, which was inspired by his mother’s death due to cancer and his recent graduation from medical school at the time.
Gloria reveals that Sylvia asked for a pistol the previous month, and Dr. Frankenstein says that he already knew that because he reads all of the letters she sends out, including the one sent to Dr. Little asking him for cyanide. Dr. Little enters Sylvia’s room and they have a brief conversation about death.
The scene cuts back to the organ room where they put Sylvia to sleep for the night and Dr. Frankenstein reveals that her mechanical arms are designed so she can’t hurt herself in any way. Suddenly, an alarm goes off, indicating that someone has entered Sylvia’s room. Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Little run up to the room to find Gloria, who claims she left her watch. They wake Sylvia up to check if anything has been done to her.
The scene cuts back to the machinery room, which Gloria sees for the first time. She and Dr. Frankenstein get into a fight and realize that the microphone/speaker set up is still on and Sylvia has heard every word. Gloria tells Sylvia through the microphone that there is a pistol in her knitting bag if she doesn’t want to live anymore.
Dr. Frankenstein enters Sylvia’s room where she holds the pistol, but is unable to aim it at herself. Dr. Frankenstein reveals that the machinery is capable of sustaining two lives and Sylvia shoots him.
The final scene opens with a second tripod set up in Sylvia’s room upon which Dr. Frankenstein’s head rests. Dr. Swift, Dr. Little and Gloria stand are in the room as they wake up the two head, both of who regard each other as old and beloved friends.
The main character sconnection to Frankenstein is fairly obvious: Dr. Frankenstein in Fortitude is a new Victor Frankenstein. Eve more interestingly, Sylvia is both the Creature and Elizabeth simultaneously, as she is Dr. Frankenstein’s medical creation as well as his love interest. Dr. Frankenstein is the “Byronic Hero” of Fortitude: brilliant enough to have graduated from medical school and earn a degree in mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering from MIT yet determined to keep his creation alive, no matter the cost. Dr. Frankenstein is also representative of the “Mad Scientist” as his creation goes awry and ends up killing him.
In this case Sylvia is the mirroring “Frankenstein Monster” who turns on her creator and shoots him to death. Because Sylvia is somewhere between man-made and still human, she also falls under the category of “Android” as her human head is attached to machine organs. Sylvia is also representative of the “Sympathetic Monster” as her suffering becomes ever more apparent and she all but begs for death, making the reader question the consequences of eternal life. This eternal life is only made possible by her extreme wealth, seeing as she a billionaire’s widow, which brings the politics of class and wealth into play. Without the large amount of money backing Dr. Frankenstein, none of his creations would be possible. But because he has such advanced degrees, there is also the assumption that wealth backed his education in some form. In turn, class comes into play as we see Dr. Frankenstein constantly ignore Gloria’s concerns because she is a working class beautician who obviously can’t understand the genius of his work.
Administrative Notes: Briggetta Pierrot, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)