References to the fictional creature of “Frankenstein” in Frankenstein in Baghdad suggest that fiction and reality are not always easy to differentiate. The character of the Whatsitsname in Ahmed Saadawi’s novel is based on the character of “the Creature” (popularly known as “Frankenstein”) in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818). The novel acknowledges this original source of inspiration on multiple occasions: different characters mention the movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), starring Robert De Niro, and Saidi transforms Mahmoud’s article on the Whatsitsname into “Frankenstein in Baghdad”—the very title of this novel. These references identify similarities between the two fictional characters. For example, like the Whatsitsname, Shelley’s original “Creature” feels that humanity has treated him unfairly because of his hideous appearance. As a result, he seeks revenge on humans for their cruel actions.
More broadly, direct and indirect references to Shelley’s novel serve a political role: to launch a reflection on the fragile limits between fiction and reality in conflict-torn Baghdad. Characters’ transformation of the Whatsitsname into a fictional entity—as Saidi does when he calls the creature “Frankenstein”—aims to relegate horror to the realm of fiction, when, in fact, real-life gruesome events take place on a daily basis in the Iraqi capital. Using a fictional frame of references allows characters to maintain a sense of control over the chaotic reality around them, but also emphasizes the brutality of their current environment. References to Mary Shelley’s work thus reveal the multiple purposes of fiction in these characters’ lives, as they attempt to make sense of the horror around them and to cope with its psychological toll.
Frankenstein Quotes in Frankenstein in Baghdad
She looked at the picture of the saint hanging in front of her, his lance raised and the dragon crouching beneath him. She wondered why he hadn’t killed the dragon years ago. Why was he stuck in that posture, ready to strike, she wondered. Everything remains half completed, exactly like now: she wasn’t exactly a living being, but not a dead one either.
He told her it would be about the evil we all have inside us, how it resides deep within us, even when we want to put an end to it in the outside world, because we are all criminals to some extent, and the darkness inside us is the blackest variety known to man. He said we have all been helping to create the evil creature that is now killing us off.
There were people who had returned from long journeys with new names and new identities […]. There were people who had survived many deaths in the time of the dictatorship only to find themselves face-to-face with a pointless death in the age of “democracy”—when, for example, a motorbike ran into them in the middle of the road. Believers lost their faith when those who had shared their beliefs and their struggles betrayed them and their principles. Nonbelievers had become believers when they saw the “merits” and benefits of faith. The strange things that had come to light in the past three years were too many to count. So that Daniel Tadros Moshe, the lanky guitarist, had come back to his old mother’s house wasn’t so hard to believe.
Frankenstein Symbol Timeline in Frankenstein in Baghdad
