The Significance of Graphic Violence in Frederick Douglass' Narrative

I believe Frederick Douglass' narrative of his life was written to move people to the point where they could not possibly condone slavery. With this goal in mind, a kind of scene that has not been present in enlightenment and romantic era texts emerges: the depiction of graphic violence. I believe that Douglass purposely details every moment so that the reader is confronted with the brutality of the slave condition. This is in direct contrast to Frankenstein, where murder is also common, yet described with little to no shock-value.

Douglass' description of his aunt's beatings at the hands Captain Anthony shock the reader as soon as the first chapter with a chilling description of his master's cruelty, "No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin"(Douglass 238). The repeated references to the blood, and the senselessness of the beatings, combine to evoke a strong emotional response in the reader. Because of this desire to impact the reader with the brutality of the slave condition, graphic violence is an important part of Douglass' narrative.

The significance of violence's role in Frankenstein is, I believe, a foil of it's significance in Douglass' slave narrative. Several people are murdered by the bare hands of the monster, even Dr. Frankenstein's own bride is brutally killed on their wedding night. However, Shelley's description of the violent scene is very subdued in comparison to Douglass', "the deathly languor and coldness of the limbs told me, that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend's grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips" (Shelley 136). There are no references to blood, or even to the act itself, only the aftermath in which Frankenstein even states he "might have supposed her asleep" (Shelley 136), which is quite the contrast to the picture of violence painted by Douglass.