Comparison Essay

How is The Creation in Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus similar to Tyler Durden in Fight Club?

The complexities of the characters in both Fight Club and Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus cannot go unrecognized, as Palahniuk and Shelley dive deep into the manifestation of the subconscious. Both main characters in Fight Club and Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus have a character that is a direct product of themselves which they cannot control, yet are responsible for the characters’ actions. This can clearly be seen in Fight Club in the relationship between the narrator and Tyler Durden, in which Tyler possesses control over the narrator. This same toxic relationship is seen between Victor Frankenstein and his Creation in Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. The control that both the Creation and Tyler Durden hold over the main character and their actions similarly align. 

Within Fight Club Tyler Durden is used to represent an “alter ego” of the narrator, one in which the narrator has no control over, yet is entirely responsible for. 

We’re not two separate men. Long story short, when you’re awake, you have the control, and you can call yourself anything you want, but the second you fall asleep, I take over, and you become Tyler Durden. (167)

The narrator has come to realize that he and Tyler are in fact the same person; however, the actions of Tyler aren't necessarily representative of the narrator and his consciousness. The contrast in characters is also recognized in an article written by Elizabeth Kinder and Patricia Pender, published by Salisbury University: “Tyler Durden, the narrator’s pathological projection or alter ego, offers a bald, bold contrast to Edward Norton’s nondescript, nameless narrator” (Kinder and Pender, 541). The article compares characters within the film adaptation of Fight Club, however, the comparison in characters can clearly be seen in the novel. It can be assumed that Tyler is in control of the narrator, as he can “take over”, forcing the narrator to lose control of his actions. Tyler’s actions are irrational, especially in contrast to the narrator’s actions, when he is awake. “Every time you fall asleep,” Tyler says, “I run off and do something wild, something crazy, something completely out of my mind” (163). Within Chapter 8, Tyler intentionally pours lye onto the back of the narrator’s hand, leaving a shiny red burn. “The back of your hand is swollen red and glossy as a pair of lips in the exact shape of Tyler’s kiss” (77). The burn scar on the back of the narrator’s hand which he refers to as “Tyler’s kiss”, could be seen as a metaphor for Tyler’s ownership of the narrator, as a reminder he is in control and always present. A first person narration style is used by the narrator, whose name we never learn. Despite him and Tyler Durden being the same person, the story is never told through the first person perspective of Tyler. This contributes to Tyler’s uncontrollable and unreliable character, and creates a detachment from the narrator, in which he loses control when he becomes Tyler. Author, Chuck Palahniuk, has had multiple troubling experiences throughout his life, including the murder of his father. The narrator’s inability to control Tyler’s choices and actions could be seen as a reflection of the unpredictable and uncontrollable obstacles that life provides.

Furthermore, within Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, Frankenstein’s Creation is also a direct product of the main character, Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein ultimately loses control over his creation, and despite being two different beings, feels the burden of guilt and responsibility for his Creations actions. After learning of his brother’s murder, Frankenstein returns home to mourn with his family. Not long after his arrival to Geneva, he spots his creation in the woods, where Frankenstein becomes certain that his creation is responsible for the murder of his brother. 

...my imagination was busy in scenes of evil and despair. I considered the being whom I had cast among mankind, and endowed with the will and power to effect purposes of horror, such as the deed which he had now done, nearly in the light of my own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to me. (95)

 Frankenstein feels the guilt of his brother's murder, as he feels partly responsible for the actions of The Creation. He recognizes that he is the source of The Creation's existence, and despite being two separate beings, still bears the guilt, which is shown by his use of the term “The being whom I had cast among mankind”. Not only does Frankenstein bear the guilt of his creation’s actions, but the ones he loves have been murdered as a result of his refusal to create another being at the request of The Creation. “A fiend had snatched from me every hope of future happiness: no creature had ever been so miserable as I was; so frightful an event is single in the history of man” (268). The Creation’s control over his creator is especially shown by Frankenstein’s use of a metaphor, saying: “A fiend had snatched from me every hope of future happiness”, implying that his own unhappiness is a result of his creation’s actions. Author Mary Shelley, similar to Frankenstein, lost multiple of her loved ones, including the loss of three of her young children. Shelley’s own losses and lack of control over them could be reflected through Frankenstein’s own losses and his inability to stop The Creation from taking more of the people he loved away from him. Towards the end of the novel, Frankenstein is rescued by a ship during an expedition to track down his creation. The captain of the ship he meets, and eventually tells the story of his life events leading up to that moment, is named Robert Walton. The entirety of Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus is a re-telling of the story limited to what Frankenstein told Walton. This method of narration allows the reader to fully understand the pressure and guilt that Frankenstein felt, especially looking back after the murder of his family and friends. Paul Sherwin, within an article published by Cambridge University Press, a highly reliable source, states: “Yet the climactic encounter with the Creature unsettles everything even more and leaves Walton powerless to act. The final word and deed belong to the Creature” (Sherwin, 883). This suggests that Frankenstein's Creation has always been in control, and continues to be in control even after the death of Frankenstein.

Fight Club represents the character Tyler Durden as an unconscious alter ego of the narrator, most likely as a result of mental illness and insomnia. Whereas Frankenstein shows the creation as an entirely separate being, whose actions weigh heavy on the conscience of Victor Frankenstein. Chuck Palahniuk and Mary Shelley use a second character to represent and act as the main character’s fatal flaw. Both main characters in Fight Club and Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus have a character that is a direct product of themselves; one they can’t control, yet are responsible for. Tyler Durden and The Creation are present throughout the book and exhibit a control over the main character that alters the main character’s decisions, usually causing them to act in ways that will ultimately affect them negatively. This can be seen within the narrator of Fight Club’s attempt to prevent Tyler from taking over. 

The second I fall asleep, Tyler takes over and something terrible will happen. And if I do fall asleep, Marla has to keep track of Tyler. Where he goes. What he does. So maybe during the day, I can rush around and undo the damage. (175)

The narrator knows that if he goes to sleep his alter ego, Tyler Durden will take over and act in ways that will only prove to be harmful for the narrator, showing that Palahniuk uses Tyler to portray the narrator’s own fatal flaw. This same relationship can be seen after Frankenstein’s creation requested that Frankenstein make another being the same as himself. He is aware that his creation is watching him, waiting for the second creation to be complete. Frankenstein fears that The Creation may harm his friend Clerval. “Sometimes I thought that the fiend followed me, and might expedite my remissness by murdering my companion” (219). Despite worrying that Clerval's life may be put at risk, Frankenstein had at the time moved forward with building the creation. It was when Frankenstein scrapped the new being, that Clerval was murdered as retaliation. Shelley shows that Frankenstein’s greatest fatal flaw is his inability to control and predict The Creation’s actions. Despite a majority of Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus being re-told by Walton, it is told in the style of a first-person stream of consciousness narration, similar to Fight Club. Both Palahniuk and Shelley use this narration style to express both the pressure and guilt the main character feels as a result of their fatal flaw. Metaphors and similes are also heavily used throughout in order not only to express the emotions of the main character, but also to build the complexity of the relationship between the characters.

Chuck Palahniuk and Mary Shelley’s ability to portray the main character's fatal flaw as an entirely separate character shows the complexities in which the main characters struggle with their own prior actions and the result of them. Both Tyler Durden and The Creation are products of the main character's prior actions, and exhibit control over the main character, as ultimately all of their actions will be the responsibility of the main character.

Works Cited

Chaplinksy, Joshua. “Bio.” Chuck Palahniuk, The Cult, 2024, https://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/chuck. Accessed 16 January 2026.

Kinder, Elizabeth, and Patricia Pender. “‘A Copy of a Copy of a Copy’: Framing the 

Double in ‘Fight Club.’” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3, 2014, pp. 541–56. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43798990. Accessed 18 Jan. 2026.                                                                                                                       

Kuiper, Kathleen. “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | Biography, Books, Frankenstein, Parents, & Facts.” Britannica, 2 January 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft-Shelley. Accessed 18 January 2026.

Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club: A Novel. WW Norton, 2018.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: Or The Modern Prometheus. Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2024.

 Sherwin, Paul. “Frankenstein: Creation as Catastrophe.” PMLA, vol. 96, no. 5, 1981,  pp. 883–903. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/462130. Accessed 18 Jan. 2026.