Title: The Mad Scientist’s Daughter
Author: Theodora Goss
Date of First Publication: 18 and 25 January 2010
Place of Publication: Strange Horizons (StrangeHorizons.com)
Bibliographic Reference: isfdb
Type: Short story
Character: Justine Moritz
Themes: ANDROID; FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; POSTHUMAN; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; BYRONIC HERO; RETRO SF
Critical Summary: The Mad Scientist’s Daughter follows the lives of six women who have deep ties to some very famous literary madmen. They are all “daughters” of Mad Scientists and live in the shadows of their famous fathers.
Catherine Moreau, daughter of Dr. Moreau, is a half human half cat hybrid with a slight bloodlust and a penchant for writing Adventure novels. Beatrice Rappaccini, the Daughter of Giacomo Rappaccini, has a talent for plant potions and powders that she sells to the nearby medical school. Mary Jekyll, the daughter of the famous Henry Jekyll and his wife, is sweet, even tempered, and enjoys philosophy and embroidery. Diana Hyde, daughter of Edward Hyde and a prostitute, is a volatile actress (and probably also a prostitute herself). Despite their differences, Mary and Diana are inseparable. Justine Frankenstein is the “daughter” of Victor Frankenstein. Technically, her body once belonged to Justine Moritz, the ward and house keeper of the Frankenstein family, but the reanimated corpse was raised as Victor’s daughter. She is sweet, timid, and tall, and has a voracious appetite for poetry and religious books. Helen Raymond, daughter of Doctor Raymond, has a habit of summoning satyrs and nymphs, and frequently encourages the other women to try and join forces and take over the world. She suggests using some of Beatrice’s poisons to take London ransom in exchange for a cure, as well as kidnapping Queen Victoria, only to kill and reanimate her with the help of Justine.
On the surface, this is a very fun and quirky story. But deeper down, this is a story about characters often neglected in the lives of these fantastic men. When it comes to Mad Scientists, often women turn out to be neglected in favor of “the work.” Often, too, they are victims of their “fathers'” machinations and ambitions, thereby reduced to serving as devices for asserting, reinforcing, or maintaining their humanity and/or masculinity. Typically, women end up the victims in the stories of Mad Scientists. Goss’s work aims to humanize the female characters in the background; as a feminist text, it forces the reader to step away from the male-centric view that characterizes so much of the science fiction canon (including the female-authored Frankenstein!)
As “funny” as Helen’s frequent suggestions at world domination are, they do bring to light some very real valid questions. Especially when it comes to the treatment of female characters in Mad Scientist tales. These suggestions of Helen’s seem to be not so funny when a character like Diana brings up the fact that “You know they’re going to come after us eventually. They always do—scientists, other monsters, the police. So why not take control first”. “They” always do come for the women eventually, and this story works to critique that patriarchal textual and meta-textual prejudice.
This story takes the women, who appear in the background of male lead stories and gives them that which their fathers didn’t, a voice. While not all these scientists had daughter’s per se, all these scientists did have women in their lives. One thing in common about all these Mad Scientists was that the women in their lives, other than having no real voices of their own, usually ended up dead. Goss’s text plays off of the unfortunate demise of the women in the original stories, by utilizing the trope of a clear and unmistakable death survived. In simpler terms, Goss gives the characters who have been mistreated by science fiction the most a second chance to have their stories be heard.
Administrative Notes: Written and Edited by Louis A. Magallanes Jr.