Book Report: Frankenstein

This is another re-read for me. Welcome back, my Gothic, monstrous friend.

Hubris, love, hate, life, creation, identity, justice and responsibility are all mixed up in the tale of a privileged scientist who does what he can without considering if he should.

Frankenstein (the scientist) creates his "Monster" because he can. But then he shuns his creation, running away and leaving the creature to find his way about world. The Monster desperately wants Frankenstein's love. Frankenstein just as desperately wants to forget what he's done.

So the plot is simple enough, but its the characters and the expansiveness of their interactions that make Frankenstein the enduring work it is. I can't help but sympathise with both creator and creation -- one repenting his "unhallowed arts" for being "not in deed, but in effect" the curse and murderer of his family and friends; the other seeking any connection with a world he did not ask to be a part of and cannot do without.

The Creature tries everything from exhorting pity ("Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?") to villainy ("You are my creator, but I am your master; obey.") to gain a sliver of acceptance from Frankenstein -- it is only when that is denied him that he lashes out. In the end, Frankenstein and his creation are remarkably similar, and neither can alter the cruel fate to which they are destined.

Philosophy has a large part in this book -- Mary Shelley was the daughter of two philosophers, and she spends a lot of time considering the ethics of Frankenstein's actions, and using those actions as a way to criticize the Industrial Revolution. Yet she also uses the Monster's story as a way to refute one of the major theories supported by her parents -- educational reform. Although the Monster learned language and became quite well-read, this did not make him a part of the "human family." The only thing that can do that -- acceptance by his creator (and the world at large) is forever denied him.

While Frankenstein is a rather short novel, it can also be one that's a bit of a slog. The large sections of philosophy may put some off, as may the loving, travelogue-like descriptions of the Alps and liberal use of fifty-cent words. But that's Gothic literature for you.

So while Frankenstein isn't, for me, as good of a curl-up-and read book as Dracula, it's still a classic. If you haven't read it, you should.

Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good, misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.