Samantha Moline
Sigmund Freud contributed many ideas which have had a great impact on society and one of them was his famous Penis Envy hypothesis through which is said that women felt inferior to men because they did not have a penis. Freud’s theory is not generally accepted today and ironically I believe that it is much closer to the truth to claim that men suffer from womb envy. Men’s obsession with creation.
An examination of two literary works, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley illustrate my assertion.
The protagonist of Mary Shelley’s novel is Victor Frankenstein who discovered through his research the ability to create life. While narrating the story of his monster’s creation, Frankenstein states: “What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp” (Shelley 31). This statement implies that men have always sought to create human life. Their ability to create a human life in conjunction with a woman is not enough.
Frankenstein is set in the early nineteenth century when the natural sciences were still very primitive. Even then, men thought that science contained the answers that would enable them to create human life, independent of God or women. This novel prophetically illuminates men’s determination to create life. Scientific studies have continued with these goals and are born out today. More recently there have been many new advances in the reproductive sciences. For years now, doctors have been able to fertilize embryos outside the womb through in vitro fertilization. From this we get the term test tube babies. It is theoretically possible that scientists can now create human embryos from the genetic material of an adult through the use of cloning, Though this has not yet been done with humans, scientists have been successful in creating a viable cloned lamb. Men are very close to independently creating human life.
Brave New World is another farsighted novel. In this novel, Aldous Huxley portrays a vision of what human society will be in the future. The first and possibly the most shocking aspect of this new society is how human life is created. Cloning research had not yet even begun when Brave New World was written. Because of the reproductive methods portrayed in the future society of Brave New World, men had complete control over the population. As one critic says Huxley creates a world where, “The first step in production of citizens is a financial transaction and a patriotic act” (Williams 11). Williams refers to the fact that in the novel, women donate their eggs as a patriotic act and are paid for doing so. This is done today, though not because of any sense of patriotism. Women are paid to donate eggs, which doctors then use to help impregnate women who cannot otherwise conceive. This is not so shocking, but what is done with the eggs in Brave New World is.
“Babies of course, are born- or rather decanted- in the laboratory; and by a process known as the Bodanovskify one egg can be made to proliferate into ninety-six children, all of them identical in feature, form, and brain power” (Chamberlain 27). These ninety six babies would develop in test tubes until they would be viable in our environment like a newborn baby. Men were not content to then let nature take its course. As a character explains, “We decant our babies as socialized human beings. . . as future sewage workers or as. . . future world controllers” (Huxley 14). Instead, every potential new citizen was manipulated before birth so that role in society was predetermined.
Seventy percent of all female fetuses produced were sterilized (Huxley 13). “To obviate the possibility of childbirth”, the thirty percent of girls not sterile are “put through daily Malthusian Drill in their impressionable teens” (Chamberlain 27). Huxley also writes about a small and uncivilized population coexisting outside of the modern society in Brave New World. The people living in these crude communes were despised as heathens and freaks. They received no social conditioning and were products of nature. They were especially despised because they continued to produce children naturally. The role of motherhood and the act of giving birth were repulsive to the advanced society of Brave New World (Williams 18).
Huxley’s novel starkly presents men’s drive for control and manipulation of human life. Huxley presents a future society implementing many new forms of technology unknown to science when the novel was written. The parallels between what scientific abilities were foretold in the novel and the present scientific abilities now are obvious. More breakthroughs in genetic manipulation and cloning are occurring everyday. In Huxley’s novel, men have completely usurped the unique role of giving birth from women. Most people would believe that Huxley’s novel is very fantastical. In fact the ability for men to completely take over the role of producing children is a scientific reality.
History shows that as men first became obsessed with the idea of creation, they revered the phallus. They endowed the phallus with extraordinary abilities. Men believed that they were solely responsible for the creation of human life. As time went on and knowledge of the natural sciences increased, men learned that they were not completely responsible for the creation of new life. This was a sore blow to the male ego.
After this revelation, men transferred their obsession of the phallus to an obsession to create life through the application of science.
Frankenstein further illuminates men’s passionate obsession to create life. The application of intense scientific research led Victor Frankenstein to discover the secret of life. That same determination drove modern scientists to make a similar discovery, the ability to clone life. Where scientists would use genetic material, Frankenstein used various body parts from assorted human corpses.
Men can now independently reproduce themselves or anyone else. In this case, reality seems more incredible than fiction. Though we live in a world where overpopulation is becoming an increasingly major problem, jealousy of women’s ability to nurture life and give birth continues to compel men to find new ways to reproduce.
Works Cited
“The Art of Love”. Swiss World. (Dec. 1998): 6. Business Index. Chicago Public Library. 29 Nov. 2000.
Chamberlain, John. “Aldous Huxley’s Satirical Model T World”. New York Times Book Review 7 Feb. 1932: 5. Rpt. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World: Bloom’s Notes. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall, PA.: Chelsea House, 1996. 26-28.
“Cloning”. Biotech: Life Sciences Dictionary N.D.<https://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu! searchldict-search.phtml>. 4 Dec. 2000.
Godderis, Rebecca. Pink Freud: A Critical Examination of Women and Psychoanalysis. 2000. <https://www.sfu.ca/—wwwpsyb/issues/2000/summer/godderis.htm>. 30 Nov.2000.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper, 1932.
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant. “Medicine and Anatomy”. Women’s Life In Ancient Greece & Rome. N.D <https://www.uky.edulArtsSciences/Classics/wgrlMedicine35 I.html>. 30 Nov. 2000.
“Penis Envy”. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2000.
“The Sacred Phallus”. Studio 925. N.D. <https://www.studio925.comlphallus.htm>. 28 Nov. 2000.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover, 1996.
Williams, Tenley. “Thematic and Structural Analysis”. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World :Bloom’s Notes. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall, PA.: Chelsea House, 1996. 11-