The Real Monster-Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

After reading the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley I was so shocked by how amazing the book was I found myself explaining the story line to anyone who would listen.  Not only is there a monster who kills multiple people but there is also a monster who loses everything in his search for everything.  

I have no clue where the idea of Igor and Victor working in an underground laboratory in the lightning came from, because the novel presents none of these elements.  Instead the novel has two murders that are blamed on two innocent people, a wild goose chase through the Arctic, and love between two adopted siblings.  All of this is tied together with themes of false godhood, guilt, and good versus evil.  The novel also leaves the reader with one important question: who was the real monster?

Following gothic themes one would argue that the monster (he isn't given a name) is the monster.  He kills multiple people, including the man who is both his father figure and creator.  He lives in caves and society hates him.  But he also reads works of literature and tries to give goodness back into the world that has rejected him.  He finds himself living near a farm for a time and helps the family out be giving gifts that he knows they could use.  Once he is rejected once again by society, he just tries to find someone live himself to accept him, he wants his eve so he can be happy.  Sure, there are arguments (Victor gives many of these) about how once the monster gets his "wife" he will be happy for a time and then want something more, but through this comparison Victor compares him to mankind yet treats him like an animal.  

Victor arguably is the real monster.  He creates life and then abandons it, then once he again is confronted with it he tries to destroy it.  The monster kills many of his loved ones, but this is all in response to being treated like a monster.  Is he acting this way because he wants to, because he has never been taught to act any other way, or because of self-fulfilling prophesy. If the monster is conscious enough to understand good and evil, blackmail, motivation, and love and friendship then maybe also he is conscious enough to be accepted as a human.

-Amanda

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Assignment:

Discuss a specific example of the gothic as it appears in Frankenstein. Choose one example that you think is particularly prominent, exaggerated or interesting in its "gothicness" and then describe it, what is gothic about it and what is the effect of this element in our reading of Frankenstein.

Responce:

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was a huge surprise to me as I am sure it is to many who pick it up for the first time.  Once the reader gets past the seemingly unconnected (later to be explained) beginning the story of Victor Frankenstein is told.  But there is no monster, underground laboratory, or strange assistant.... yet. (Well some of those things never appear.)

About half way through the story the monster is first introduced, but then leaves for a lot of the novel.  His path is later explained in flashbacks to his master, but for a large part of this novel there is no monster present, unless you give into the belief that Victor himself is the monster or that the guilt weighing on him the entire time is his monster. This idea of having monsters such as the creation but also those feelings of guilt and doubt are a Gothic theme seen in many different novels.  

Victor also breaks the tradition of his culture when he creates his monster.  He plays god, succeeds for a time, but ultimately fails and is killed by his own creation for being an unjust and cruel "god".  Victor plays with the laws of nature that Europe had at this time.  Then he pays for it dearly.  Breaking the taboo is a strong theme in Gothic literature.  By trying to play god Victor creates his and many of his loved one’s deaths.

And maybe the most Gothic theme of all that Frankenstein follows is the constant state of death stringed through the entire story.  The beginning starts with Victor almost dying, being saved by the fishermen.  Then quickly in the story his mother dies.  Her death is what pushed Victor to try and learn re-animation which is what causes all of the other deaths.  His brother William is then murdered, but the wrong person is arrested, blamed, and killed for the crime.  Then to get back at Victor the monster kills both his best friend and his fiancée finally to kill Victor at the end of it all. 

-Amanda