Title: The New Frankenstein
Author: E.E. Kellett
Date of First Publication: 1900
Place of Publication: A Corner in Sleep and Other Impossibilities
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: ANDROID; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; QUEER FRANKENSTEIN; RACE/POLITICS
Critical Summary: Arthur Moore is a brilliant man who has been able to create outstanding inventions since a young age. Phillips, a physician whose perspective “The New Frankenstein” is told from, is Moore’s closest friend and admirer and begins the short story by detailing all the incredible creations Moore has come up with. Moore’s most recent one is a phonograph that is incredibly constructed. Phillips makes a comment to Moore about how amazing it would be if a phonograph would be able to speak for itself, not repeat.
Months after Phillips’ comment, Moore invites Phillips to see what he calls an anti-phonograph, one that produces its own sound. Phillips is skeptical when the machine begins to reply to his attempts at conversation, even accusing Moore of ventriloquism. Moore reveals that he intends to turn the mechanism into a full-on automaton and, what’s more, one that will behave as a perfect lady. Moore embarks on his project and Phillips becomes increasingly concerned with the state of Moore’s health and obsession with the automaton, often trying to convince him to take a break.
A year later, Phillips receives a note from Moore telling him to visit. When Phillips enters Moore’s house he is greeted by a beautiful woman whom he has never seen before. Moore appears, looking as though he is on the brink of death and asks Phillips what he thinks of his creation. Phillips is initially confused, but after Moore introduces her as Miss Amelia Brook, he realizes that the beautiful woman is Moore’s creation, a doll version of the anti-phonograph.
It isn’t enough for Moore to have simply created Miss Amelia and he wants Phillips to help him in introducing her to the public as an experiment to see how realistic she really is. Phillips initially refuses, but eventually caves and brings her to a party where he introduces Amelia as his niece. The experiment is successful as no one doubts for a second that Amelia is not a real person.
Two young men begin to take interest in Amelia: Henry Burton and Dicky Calder. Moore refuses to step in or let Phillips interfere. At one outing, Amelia is accidentally stabbed in the neck with a brooch and everyone rushes to staunch the blood, but because she is an automaton, there is none. Phillips successfully hides this.
Moore makes adjustments, not only giving Amelia blood but also giving her the ability to laugh when tickled. This becomes deeply unsettling to Phillips along with the fact that Amelia accepts marriage proposals from both Burton and Calder and sets the marriage dates for the same day.
Phillips warns Calder about the predicament and Calder, who is distraught, begs Amelia to push the wedding dates back, which she agrees to. At the wedding date between her and Burton, however, Calder shows up and stabs her in the chest. Though she doesn’t have a heart, the fall causes her to break her internal phonograph and in the background of the wedding, Moore collapses and dies. In the last line of the story, we find out that Phillips is in some sort of mental asylum.
The android theme was chosen because Amelia is a non-human entity masquerading as a real human. Though she is incredibly realistic, she has no heart and was created by someone else. The mad scientist/monster theme was chosen because Moore exhibits the characteristics of a mad scientist throughout the short story, starting with his obsession in creating the anti-phonograph to preserving and perfecting Amelia to the point that it takes a toll on his mental and physical health and affects those around him. The queer Frankenstein theme was chosen because Phillips has an intense sense of caring and admiration towards Moore throughout the story, often implicating that he just can’t say no to Moore though he can’t explain why. He is also disgusted by Amelia and the effect she has on Moore, at times even seeming jealous of the amount of time and effort Moore puts into taking care of her. The race/politics theme was chosen because of the commentary on Victorian values, especially marriage. Two men get engaged to the same woman without realizing because she is what is considered to be perfect by society’s standards. Moore often refers to her as the “perfect lady” because he has made her acceptable by the society’s standards. She is a doll-like figure who adheres to societal norms and graces and because of this, no one seems to doubt that she is a real human.
Administrative Notes: Briggetta Pierrot, CSUF; Lee Koehler, CSUF (editing)