It's Frankenstein's Monster okay!
After reading it the other day, I was compelled to write about this book and Mary Shelly herself. I had read the book years before but I didn't have a blog then. If you don't wish to receive any spoilers from a book written on 1 January 1818 then I suggest you skip this post.
Anyway, Frankenstein was Victor Frankenstein, a young Italian man that goes off to study in Germany to pursue an obsession he built from a really young age. To me this early start to the obsession with overcoming death is fascinating. It stems from curiosity and grief as well as a reluctance from his father to truly listen to him.
Think back to your childhood, to when you were obsessed with something and excitedly shared this with your parents. That interaction is vital for a young mind and in this case, Frankenstein was ignored to continue his pursuit of the bizarre. He broached his father for an opinion only to be met with some ridicule at the subject matter. That was what spurred the young Frankenstein to get educated on the subject and start experimenting.
You know that moment - "I will show them. I will show them all!" We all have gone through that, a lot of us still do. This is the first lesson the book taught me - to truly listen to a person and be wary of how any scorn could affect the person.
Now we are in Germany, Victor Frankesntsien's mum has passed due to scarlet fever, adding deep grief to an already obsessive and fragile mind. His teachers at university see him as an excellent scholar and are pivotal in encouraging his obsession without knowing it. They fail to realise how far Frankenstein has gone and are unaware of the experience happening. Nothing odd there except when Victor starts to physically deteriorate because he forgets to look after himself which includes eating and sleeping. Yet no one seems concerned about this.
The result is the creation of the monster and the monster it certainly is. Frankenstein was only able to make the creature big and despite all effects for beauty, the result is hideous. When the creature opens its eyes Victor flees in terror. It's this one act of cowardice that truly sets the horrific events to follow in motion. After being alone for a day, the creature leaves and Frankenstein is nursed back to health by his best friend who is sent by his very worried family.
A lot of time passes, we are talking four months here and in that time Victor's youngest brother William is murdered so he returns for the funeral. Frankenstein is aware that his mind is fragile and addled but not enough to not believe seeing the creature near the crime scene. He searched for it in vain and watches helplessly as William's nanny is hanged for the murder. A crime that makes no sense to the family and plies Victor with guilt. He goes to the mountains to clear his head and be away from all the sorrow only to confront the Creature face to face.
The Creature's tale is sad because he was abandoned at creation, living in the wilderness, learning how to survive and seeing how its appearance instils fear in humans. He finds an abandoned building and spends months learning how to speak and read by observing the poor family next door. He grows fond of them so he starts leaving firewood out for them and doing random chores around the property. In time he gets the courage to talk to them but this only works with the blind father, as soon as the rest of the family sees him they flee in terror.
The Creature starts to hate himself again and destroys the property and all the crops, vowing to find Frankenstein and taking revenge for being created to live such a cruel life. He has Victor's journal and uses that to get to Geneva. He comes across William and tries to talk to him, thinking that one so young wouldn't have preconceived conceptions of appearance and wouldn't be afraid. Sadly that was not the case.
William was so scared and thought that telling the Creature how scary he was would make him go away. It just angered the Creature who in a fit of rage strangles the 9-year-old. He then takes the locket on the child's neck and flees. He uses the stolen locket to frame William's nanny whom he sees around the crime scene as she was helping to look for the missing child.
The creature demands that Frankenstein create a bride for him so he would not be so alone in the cruel world. Victor agrees and starts working on the female creature in Scotland, away from the rest of his loved ones. As he creates another monster he is confronted with visions of unleashing evil upon the world should the two creatures breed. This leads to him destroying his work while the creature watches in horror. The Creature confronts Frankenstein who stands by his reasoning. The Creature leaves after one final threat - " I will be with you on your wedding night."
Victor returns to Geneva only to be framed for the murder of his best friend then found innocent and able to fulfil his promise to wed. He is under the assumption that the Creature means to murder him on his wedding night so he locks his wife in her room and goes to search for the Creature. He returns to find her strangled on the bed. Her death kills his father a few days later and so Frankenstein, insane with grief and guilt embarks on a journey to find and kill the monster he created.
This is quite an epic journey that ends at the Arctic Ocean aboard a boat we come across right at the start of the book. The tale is narrated by Captain Walton who is on this expedition to seek fame and fortune. His account of Frankenstein is one of love and admiration until he hears the tale Frankenstein tells on his deathbed.
The Creature mourns over his dead creator and tells the captain that this didn't bring him any peace and all the people he killed just made him more miserable. He vows to kill himself and save humanity from coming across him ever again. He then leaves on an ice raft and drifts away, never to be seen again.
Victor's story convinces the captain and crew to abandon their over-ambitious dream of fortune and fame and return home to live their lives.
Epic right?! And all written in romantic Goth with fancy words and flowery language making it quite a lovely read despite the horror within. Plus Mary Shelley worked pretty hard on this book that was created on a trip away for a ghost story competition between friends.
Now let's get to the parts we all know and love but were never written in the book:
1. The use of electricity to animate the creature was introduced by the first movie adaption in 1931.
2. The put-together look of the Creature using various body parts was also brought to us this way.
3. The name - the Creature being called Frankenstein has been a mistake since the 1900s as the book kept gaining popularity. With more movies being produced over the years and added content this evolved to most people thinking this to be true. It's not.
There is a cool article about how the other side of the argument can be deemed to be true. So the monster could be Frankenstein since he identifies as being Victor's son. Or you could also say the monster is called Frankenstein because Victor was the monster all along.
Either way, now you know what it is supposed to be. You are welcome.
Comments
Post a Comment