A Comparison of Rei Ayanami to Frankenstein's Monster

[Jakobramsey]

While the two are from entirely different universes, I feel that the similarities between Rei Ayanami and Frankenstein's Monster regarding their conception and struggles leads to valuable insights (and possible inferences) about the typically enigmatic character of Rei.

Much in the same way that Victor Frankenstein created his "Monster," the scientists at Gehern created Rei Ayanami in a laboratory using the remains of other organisms (principally, the genetic material left from Yui Ikari After perishing in an experiment).

Frankenstein's Monster (whom I shall refer to simply as "the monster" for convenience), born a more or less fully developed human, is plagued throughout Mary Shelly's book by intense feelings of abandonment, purposelessness, and perhaps strongest of all, loneliness. When he later meets his creator, Victor, he refers to himself as "The Adam of [Victor's] labors."

Rei shares the Monster's suffering from lack of identity, purposelessness, and intense loneliness (although she doesn't actually realize the latter until episode 23). I feel that although she (of course) never refers to herself in any way like the Monster does, she could be called the "Adam of Gehern's labors."

I myself am unsure when exactly the first Evangelion was constructed, so is it possible that Rei, in addition to being a way for Gendo to preserve a part of his wife, was also a sort of proto-prototype Evangelion? She, like the Evas, is an empty body with a foreign soul installed, and can be mass produced. She is also viewed as a tool by some (one of the keys to Instrumentality, just as the Evas are).

Rei's suffering from purposelessness (I am speculating here) may be what drives her to pilot her Eva. In episode 6, when questioned by Shinji, she says that
Rei: "it's a bond"
Shinji: "To my father?"
Rei: "To all people."
I therefore interpret her use of the word "bond" as a sort of connection derived from her self-assigned responsibility of protecting them. She validates her existence through the Eva, just as Shinji does. She also holds Gendo in the highest regards (al least early on in the series) because she feels that she is useful to him and vice versa, thereby she has purpose or meaning. However, Rei, like the Monster, also wants to be an independent individual, and soon, her properties as a tool prove dissatisfying to her ("I am not a doll") and she resents why Gendo values her.

The Monster's drive to acquire identity and meaning ends tragically. After rejection by humanity, he resolves to seek revenge upon Victor for cruelly creating him, and making him what he is. Ultimately, the Monster (SPOILERS) commits suicide after having murdered several people in order to emotionally torture the sickly scientist who then dies himself.

Rei, I surmise, would actually like to commit suicide herself, seeing as she lives in constant anguish resulting from her existential dilemmas as well as (what I assume) is her imperfect biological construction, which leads her to be in near constant pain.
As Rei becomes more aware of who she is, she also tries to understand what she is. This may explain her choice of reading material in episode 9 (ostensibly, a book about genetics or biology).
Often, people write Rei off as being emotionless, but I believe her condition is so intense that it just overpowers all the other emotions she feels. To add to her suffering, she knows suicide would be futile because Gendo would just resurrect her in the form of another clone, which also makes her resent Gendo more.

Additionally, Rei, just like the Monster, is further alienated and isolated by the knowledge that she is not really human, or at least is not a natural one, and seems to depend on the Nerv Staff for medical care simply to sustain herself. In the light of her true desires, this makes her condition a tragically ironic one.

Do these inferences hold any water?

*EDIT*
More possible supporting evidence:
(from Rei's Instrumentality in Episode 25)
Rei III: No, it makes me happy. Because I want to die. What I desire is despair. I want to return to nothingness.
Rei II: But I can't. I cannot return to nothingness. He won't let me return.
Rei III: He won't let me go back yet.
Rei II: I existed because he needed me.
Rei III: But it's over now. He's not going to need me anymore. He's going to abandon me. I thought I had wished for that day to come, but... Now, I am afraid.

In this short dialogue we can see proof of Rei's feelings, as well as further similarities regarding isolation and abandonment and the anguish/motivation they cause to behave a certain way as seen in Frankenstein's Monster.

[Seele00TextOnly]

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[Jakobramsey]

Thank you very much Seele00TextOnly. I, like Shinji, value the respect and approval, and significance to others very much.

[Drabant]

Sounds legit to me. The two are in similar situations, and definitely feel the same about a lot of things.

Though, I would say that there is of course a difference in both how people treat them and how capable they are of self-assessment.

The former is of course, something that affects Frankenstein much more than Rei. Think "the beauty and the beast" - people aren't afraid of Rei (except Aoba), but instead find her attractive. Rei can blend in and even be admired, if only at a distance due to her own distant personality.

Rei seems eerily self-aware for someone her age, going down to the very fundamentals with good accuracy (to the point she personally realizes what everyone else in the main cast realizes only inside/after Instrumentality, without going into Instrumentality herself), but is nearly oblivious when it comes to express herself for the sake of expression, easing into a social situation. Faking a smile because it's appropriate is something she wouldn't do unless encouraged to. But this is a tangent - Rei's self-awareness is very acute, and her actions can be viewed to be logical and rational to the extreme. So, while committing suicide is a possible exit for Rei, at least for a while, I don't think she would try doing it (after Rei I anyway) unless there was a good reason to. Defeating an Angel is certainly worth it - summed up, it would actually be a rational and necessary choice for Rei, as sad as that is.

I might be wrong in remembering, but I think Frankenstein was driven more by emotion than Rei, which does cloud his self-assessment a bit.

I therefore interpret her use of the word "bond" as a sort of connection derived from her self-assigned responsibility of protecting them. (...) She also holds Gendo in the highest regards (al least early on in the series) because she feels that she is useful to him and vice versa, thereby she has purpose or meaning. However, Rei, like the Monster, also wants to be an independent individual, and soon, her properties as a tool prove dissatisfying to her ("I am not a doll") and she resents why Gendo values her.

Which is true and something I agree with, but I think Rei is also aware of her own situation more earlier than most might realize. Like you pointed out, she skips right over Gendo when she names her reason for piloting, even when suggested it as a possible answer. Gendo is out of the equation as far as EVA-piloting goes. Some episodes later, Rei admits to the fact that she "is not the favourite", and she "knows that very well". While Rei holds Gendo in high regard, it's also not just Gendo she respects, but it's the work they do. Rei would by that statement, also know that Gendo doesn't place as much value in Rei herself, as he does in Rei as a tool to his ends. But that's just Gendo, right? He's like that to everyone.

I too think it's a very good comparison to make.

[Sharaz Destler]

I actually read Frankenstein for Brit Lit last year.

One thing people often miss about the Creature (I really don't like calling him a "monster") is that he was handsome when Victor first built him. It was only when he started moving that he became creepy--he wasn't going to grace any magazine covers, that's for sure, but there was something else that made him horrifying to his creator.

[Der Kommissar]

It's interesting to note that the same thing seems to happen to Rei in-setting. Characters view her as inherently strange and off-putting. Of course, how much of that is personality and how much is gut feeling, who can say?

[Jornophelanthas]

I find this a very interesting discussion and comparison, but I disagree on two points.

First, I believe Rei is not fully aware of her own nature. There is no indication to me that Rei has ever stopped to consider that she is an artificial human being. She does acknowledge that she is different from others due to her spending lots of time inside NERV laboratories, but in my opinion this emphasizes her loneliness, and not so much any knowledge about her nature as an Angel soul in an artificial human body.
This knowledge only comes to her when Kaworu points it out to her, first by mentioning that they are the same, and then revealing himself to be an Angel, and choosing to die while smiling at her.

In fact, I believe that End of Evangelion is the first time that Rei actually learns of Lilith's existence. After all, Lilith is one of NERV's best kept secrets, which even Misato was not cleared to have knowledge of.

The second thing is Drabant's argument that Rei is rational to a fault, rather than emotional (like Frankenstein's monster).
I disagree with this, because Rei is actually a very emotional individual. She just does not know how to interpret and act on her emotions. But her emotions are very real, nonetheless.

She does not know why she decided to keep Gendo's broken glasses.
She does not know why she appreciates Shinji's presence as a fellow pilot after the Ramiel battle.
She denies Asuka's accusation of being a puppet, even though rational thinking would prove her to be incorrect.
When Shinji mentions that she would be a good mother, she says she is embarrassed, but she does not know why (and neither does he).
She chooses to die for Shinji, but she does not know why.
Right before she dies, she cries. But she does not know why.

Rei has a lot of emotions coursing through her, and they affect her as they would affect us. The difference is that Rei is unable to make sense of them, nor how to deal with them. She just suffers in silence.
(This changes slightly, as Shinji, Asuka and Misato start treating her as a regular human being, and she learns a few things about how to relate to other people on an emotional level.)
She can fall back on rational thinking to function among humans, but she knows that it's not enough to be like the other humans. This is a major cause of her loneliness.
But she doesn't even know that what she is feeling is loneliness, and that Shinji makes it go away, until right before she self-detonates Unit-00.

(Which is why she is crying. She now understands loneliness and how to deal with it. But she also knows that it is now too late for her. Her tears are from grief. She doesn't understand what grief is, but she does feel it, and suffers from it.)

[Sharaz Destler]

That is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on this forum. Many thanks to you.

[Seele00TextOnly]

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[BornIn1142]

Some quibbles:

First, I believe Rei is not fully aware of her own nature. There is no indication to me that Rei has ever stopped to consider that she is an artificial human being.

1. "If I die, I can be replaced." I don't believe that line simply referred to another pilot taking her place on the roster.

2. She consciously used an AT field in episode 24, indicating a growing awareness of properties that distinguished her from ordinary humans.

3. I'm pretty sure Rei was much farther in the know than Misato. She had to have some understanding of the role she had to play in Gendo's plans. She had to have known what he wanted to do in order to decide not to go along with it. I find the idea that Gendo just gave her a quick run-down off-screen during the JSSDF invasion hard to accept.

[Azathoth]

She does outright admit that she's aware she's not human during the "Case of Rei Ayanami" sequence. She fully realizes that there's something extremely abnormal about her nature, but her self as Rei - "the me formed from interaction with others" - prefers to pretend that she is a normal person. The reason why she continues with this charade is that she is aware and afraid of the fact that she is also inhuman: "You have a dark, invisible, and unintelligible mind within you, where the true you exists." Later in the sequence she gives this true self voice in one of the most chilling moments in the entire show. It's worth noting that this internal dialogue ends with Gendou retrieving her for the purpose of beginning Instrumentality - in other words, this is what she is thinking while staring into the Reiquarium in EoE.

Any ignorance that Rei has of her true nature is willful. For what it's worth, though, she does express in the same sequence the opinion that Gendou created her soul, which is only very loosely accurate (he is in part responsible for the creation of the bodily form that would enable her to become the Rei-personality, "the me formed from interaction with others", but when we speak of Rei's soul we typically assume we are referring to the disembodied will of Lilith) - so whatever else may be true she is clearly a little confused about what's what with her selves. (One wonders if the dichotomy Rei draws between her Rei-self and her Lilith-self is just a coping mechanism she uses or if it would, in fact, result in a variable number of glowy red lights in the real world).