Jericho Brown’s ‘Dear Dr. Frankenstein‘ is a warning against the dangers of scientific arrogance, told through the guise of a letter to the fictional doctor of Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel Frankenstein. Like the novel, Brown uses biblical imagery to showcase the futility of attempting to assume the role of a divine creator.
Summary
‘Dear Dr. Frankenstein‘ establishes a parallel between its narrator and the titular doctor in order to suggest his fate could be shared if others make his mistakes.
The poem begins with a kind of confession on the narrator’s behalf. They claim they understand how Doctor Frankenstein must have felt after creating a life because they, too, have done so. The narrator goes on to detail how they constructed a person out of the disparate body parts of thieves and murderers.
As the poem draws towards its conclusion, Brown depicts the moment God realized his creation, humanity, had outgrown his control and influence in order to parallel the experience of Frankenstein. Finally, Brown ends the poem by asserting the fact that true originality is impossible and that all we will ever build is the result of what has come before us.
Context
Jericho Brown is an award-winning contemporary American poet and professor. He was born in Louisiana in 1976 and earned an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston.
His first collection, Please, was published in 2008, and he has subsequently published two further collections of poetry. ‘Dear Dr. Frankenstein‘ was first published in Brown’s celebrated 2014 collection, New Testament, and his most recent collection, 2019’s The Tradition, was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Detailed Analysis
Stanzas 1-2
I, too, know the science of building men
Out of fragments in little light
Where I’ll be damned if lightning don’tStrike as I forget one
May have a thief’s thumb,
The immediate use of the personal pronoun “I” helps establish the poem’s intimate and confessional tone. It also captures the loneliness which often comes with greatness, such as the isolated experience of Victor Frankenstein in the novel once he realises that nobody will ever truly understand what he has done but him. The metaphorical claim that the narrator makes people “out of fragments” could be intended to represent the process of writing poetry, as the artist is forced to draw upon different physical and emotional aspects of real people in order to create fictional personas and voices.
The reference to lightning harks back to the famous scene of the monster’s awakening in Shelley’s novel. However, it also alludes to the figurative spark of creativity often associated with moments of genius or inspiration. This implies that the fate of Victor Frankenstein is shared by all those that bear the weight of genius.
Stanzas 3-5
Another, a murderer’s arm,
And watch the men I’ve made leave
(…)
Eve, turning from heaven to her
The poem continues by outlining the fact that the component parts of the people the narrator claims to have made may have come from flawed or dangerous individuals. This could be interpreted positively as it could imply that past crimes or mistakes don’t mean someone cannot change or become part of something meaningful.
Conversely, it could imply that no matter how new somebody may appear, they still possess the negative things they have done within them. Brown uses a simile to liken the departure of the men he has built to the loss of a good idea that he forgot to write down. This again establishes a link between the physical rendering of flesh and the abstract sense of creation that accompanies the writing process.
The next simile compares the act of creation to a vehicle in reverse to imply that not all scientific progress actually benefits humanity or helps move the species forwards. Brown then depicts the moment God realized Adam began taking authority and naming creatures himself. This act of defiance actually mirrors that of parents and their children, who inevitably grow up and begin to resist the rules and expectations of their parents.
Stanzas 6-7
As if she was his
(…)
Nothing we erect is our own.
Brown uses an unusual choice of language with regard to Adam’s attitude towards his wife, Eve, implying he operates her as though she were machinery. This could reflect the sense of detachment the narrator and Victor felt towards humanity, seeing them as mere ways of perpetuating their own legacies rather than valuing them as equals.
The list-like nature of these lines echoes the impossibility of reasoning with such people, so certain they are that they are correct. Ultimately, the poem concludes with the hyperbolic claim that “nothing we erect is our own.” Brown thus emphasizes the fact that all human inventions and discoveries are the direct or indirect result of things that had already been built or discovered, no matter how much one might wish to attribute them to individual brilliance.
FAQs
The titular Dr. Frankenstein refers to the character in Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel Frankenstein. In the novel, Frankenstein is able to create a living being by assembling parts stolen from corpses and applying some kind of electrical spark. The creature ultimately torments Victor after the latter shunned it, eventually consuming Frankenstein’s entire life.
The poem has seven stanzas and is written in free verse. It is written in the form of an imagined letter or speech made to the fictional doctor, in which the narrator expresses their solidarity with him but also offers a warning.
The identity of the speaker is never revealed, although their claims suggest they may be a scientist like Dr. Frankenstein. However, the allusions to writing suggest they may be a poet or writer, like Brown, and that the references to building people are intended to be comments on the process of creating fictional characters.
The poem’s message is that genius can be isolating and that we should not overvalue the brilliance of individuals. Oftentimes, greatness is the result of far more than it might appear at first glance and is rarely the work of any sole person.
Similar Poetry
Readers who enjoyed ‘Dear Dr. Frankenstein might want to explore other Jericho Brown poems. For example:
- ‘Duplex‘ – A fascinating and thought-provoking exploration of the power of memory.
- ‘The Tradition‘ – The title poem of Brown’s 2019 collection explores racial prejudice in the US.
Some other poems that may be of interest include:
- ‘Power‘ by Adrienne Rich – Another poem that takes a famous scientific individual as its inspiration, this time the real scientist Marie Curie.
- ‘The God Called Poetry‘ by Robert Graves – This poem similarly explores the nature of creativity and expression.
