Title: Role Model
Author: Mike Baker
Date of First Publication: 1993
Place of Publication: Frankenstein: The Monster Wakes
Type: Short story
Characters: No character
Themes: ANDROID; BYRONIC HERO; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS
Critical Summary: Paul and Andrea Shine are a couple eight months into their marriage. Paul, who now works as an advertising copywriter, met and got married to his first wife Patricia when he was still a university student studying poetry and writing. Soon they grew tired of each other, and when Paul met Andrea at a party he was quick to get divorced and remarried to Andrea. Despite the fact that she was six years younger than him and was the little sister of Patricia’s best friend. He does love and care for Andrea, though he is a patriarchal figure who expects his wife to prepare dinner for him every day. One day Paul witnesses Andrea carrying a jar with a brain into the house, but he lets it pass because she is a medical student, and claims it is for her homework. Two weeks later he is informed that his ex-wife was found dead, and when he gets home he finds Andrea muttering strange things to herself, but again doesn’t take it too seriously knowing that she sometimes takes amphetamines. The story slowly reaches climax when one day Paul finds the brain jar again in the basement, and goes to examine it after Andrea falls asleep after dinner. Along with the brain, he discovers a meat locker filled with organized human body parts, and a stitched-up body on a cart. Andrea catches him and drugs him and then kills him, saying that Mary Shelley is her role model and she is following her paths in life.
This story has many similarities as well as differences with the original story of Frankenstein, kind of merging together the story itself and with the life of the author, Mary Shelley. Although Percy and Mary Shelley are not presented as actual characters in the story, they are mentioned as a kind of figure that Andrea projects and identifies herself and Paul with. Along with seeing Mary Shelley as a role model and inspiration and trying to follow her path exactly, such as the death of her husband and his first wife, Andrea also sees Frankenstein as a true story and tries to create a creature of her own. Here the theme of android comes in, where a new human figure is created with parts of human body, though it is not a major factor nor does the creature actually come to life. Andrea is a Byronic, mad scientist figure, pictured as somewhat gloomy and sentimental yet with a strong will, her own ideas of what is right, and determination to reach her goal. Furthermore, the story is closely related to the theme of women and monsters. In the story Andrea can be seen as all of Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster itself. She is a character contrary to the patriarchal figure Paul, first seen as quiet and submissive, but turning out not to be. She is living the actual life of Mary Shelley, is absorbed in her own beliefs and creating life like Frankenstein, and at the same time is a monster that kills people and has complicated, mixed feelings.
Administrative Notes: Min Chae Kim, CSUF; Yesenia Rodriguez (editing)