Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

As a child I’ve always held an intense fascination when it came to monsters. The deformed, horrible, or inhuman creatures that went bump in the night or lurked in the corners of mans’ very nightmares. What really attracted me to the whole monster thing though was the idea behind them. But more importantly, what initially makes a monster a ‘monster’? Is it because of their non-human appearance, their abilities, fear inducing qualities, or just their very nature? Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had me rethink this old question with a surprising amount of consideration. I’ll admit ,and with some shame, that until this class I’ve never actually picked up the Frankenstein novel and read it. I’m glad I’ve read it now though and can appreciate how well Shelley’s novel really encompasses the questioning of human nature and what a real ‘monster’ is.

At first when I had started reading Frankenstein I had held the initial idea that the so called ‘monster’ the main character, Victor Frankenstein, had put together and brought to life would be the sole antagonist of the story. With it’s horribly disfigured appearance and the way it was created I couldn’t help but consider the creature the monster that the main character would conflict with throughout the story. It wasn’t until after I had finished the novel that I came to realize that  it was really the opposite of this and that maybe Victor was the real monster in this tale.

In Shelley’s Frankenstein we’re thrown into the story of a young Victor Frankenstein. Victor is at first a character which I sort of sympathized and related with. He seeks to further his knowledge and understanding of life, something many of us wish to do. However over the course of the novel this really becomes an unhealthy obsession and ends up really backfiring on him in the end in the most tragic of ways. After studying for a good number of years Victor undertakes creating life through his acquired knowledge. He puts together various cadavers and makes a new being which he successfully brings to life. However, Victor then becomes horrified by the abomination he’s created and flees, leaving his creation behind. From here on the novel focuses on how Victor seeks to get rid of the creature and how disgusted he is by its creation.

Through Shelley’s fantastic use of switching the narrative around I really started to feel for Frankenstein’s creation. Despite it’s horrible appearance the so-called ‘monster’ was really just a misunderstood being who was incredibly lost and lonely, basically a newborn in the body of an unfortunately hideous and hulking creature. Through it’s point of view we come to understand that the creature just wants to be accepted and escape the void of loneliness that it’s been cursed to. It also expresses very noticeable human emotions and shows a surprising amount of intelligence and individualism when it confronts Victor in the story, something which isn’t common with how we consider a monster to be like.

I found that as the story progressed and I learned more about the characters that there was a somewhat saddening reversal going on between Victor and his creation. Victor is at first the character I felt sympathy for and followed with interest, and as for the creature I expected it to be the horrible bad guy that I should feel obligated to be against since it’s essentially the ‘monster’. But I ended up realizing towards the end of the novel that those first thoughts had switched. The monster was not a real ‘monster’, but a being which sought to find acceptance by its creator and various other people. I felt bad for the creature as it had to endure such a horrible existence that it had no control over. Although the creature had killed Victor’s loved ones it really didn’t know any better since it was abandoned by the very person who brought it to life. It also shocked me how creature expressed a level of humanity that really made me forget that it wasn’t exactly human in the first place. With Victor however, he lets his selfish obsession and thirst for revenge against his creation devour him. I really felt that he was slipping into the role of the ‘monster’ as he sought out to destroy the creature that he hated so much.

Monsters aren’t only just some made-up characters that are meant to scare us or invoke fear. I really feel that the monsters we read about and watch are really a representation of us in a form which is reflective of our thoughts and emotions, and essentially are there to have us question what makes us human.