Frankenstein is a novel which deals with immortality and human nature to achieve it with the help of science. It was written by Mary Shelley and it got published in 1818. This novel belongs to the genre of science fiction and it deal with the dark side of human nature and the fact that people are interested in creating life in order to be God-like which leads to failure.
The story begins with Robert Walton who is at the North Pole where he meets Victor Frankenstein. Walton gives him shelter on his ship and he is told the story of the creation of a monster. Robert Walton writes many letters for his sister to read because he finds the story fascinating as it really is. Victor talks about the time he spent in Geneva where he studied chemistry and philosophy which encourages him to search for the creation of life himself. He believes to be successful after he has spent much time on research. Victor collects parts of bodies of different people and he assembles a creature which he makes alive. He says: “After days and nights of incredible labor and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 44). The creature is a monster and even he is intimidated by it and begins to regret his decision.
Victor immediately sees that he has created a mistake and that the monster is unhappy. “ I beheld the wretch - he miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me” (Shelley 50). He encounters Henry in the street and takes him home to show him the monster. However, the creation has left which makes Victor ill. Victor describes the monster as: “the demonical corpse to which I had so miserably given life” (Shelley 51). At this point, Victor goes home to heal and be reunited with his family. Prior to leaving Ingolstadt, where he was studying, his father informs him about the death of his brother, who got strangled in the woods. He decides to go through the woods as well where he sees the monster, whom he finds guilty of killing his brother. Justine Moritz, Victor’s adopted sister is accused of killing William, and she is sentenced to death. Victor suffers because of the death of the two people he loved so much and feels great guilt. Upon walking in the mountain, he meets the creature he created once again and the monster says that he killed William in order to hurt Victor, the person who created him in such a ruthless way. The creature asks Victor to make him a partner which would be his equal so that he would not be so alone in such a life anymore. He says: “We may not part until you have promised to comply with my requisition. I am alone, and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me” (Shelley 158). The creature is aware of its monstrosity and grotesqueness since it feels that it does not belong to the society. He also thinks of Victor as his creator and regards him as the only person who could help him and relieve him pain. Moreover, the monster has the traits which belong to human nature such as misery, the wish for revenge and the feeling of being abandoned. Victors is reluctant to create another monster, but the creature is persuasive and he decided to do it with Henry’s help. Victor begins his work on an island in England, but his sense of morality tortures him. While working on this experiment, he sees the first monster looking through the window and smiling in a frightful way which makes him abort the mission. The monster has human characteristics and plots revenge against Victor. Victor drops the parts of the other monster he was going to make in the lake and he cannot return to the shore due to bad weather and he is pushed to another city where he gets arrested for the murder of Henry. It is obvious that it was conducted by Victor’s monster. It seems that everybody suffers because of Victor’s mistake of creating a monster and he sees that it was a mistake to begin with because he should not have played God. Upon his return to Switzerland, Victor gets married to Elizabeth, but he is afraid of getting killed by the monster which is why he tries to protect Elizabeth by separating with her. However, the target was not Victor, but his bride and the monster kills her. His father also dies and he plots revenge which happens on ice in the North Pole. However, the ice prevents Victor from killing the monster, but he meets Walton who tells the story in his letters. Victor dies very soon for health reasons and Walton finds his body accompanied with the monster in grief. The creature talks about his suffer which lead him to commit crime, about regret, the feeling alone and the hate which lead him in life. However, since the creator is dead, the monster also wishes to die and goes to the north.
This novel provokes thinking about human nature and there is a question of who is the monster and to which context it belongs as well as which gender it should be given. “The name Frankenstein tends to evoke not the unfortunate over-reaching young scientist Victor Frankenstein but his hideous creation” (Brooks). The reason for this may lie in the fact that Victor is also considered to be a monster since he created a person who has feelings. It is a creature, but it is not insensitive and it never finds its place in life. Moreover, it seeks help from Victor and cannot get it because Victor does not know what to do after this horrible incident which cost him the life of his brother and other dear people in his life. The first time that Frankenstein meets the monster, it is revealed that the monster has a sharp mind although he has a deformed body. Victor wants him out of his sight, but he thinks of Victor as his creator and he is miserable: “To this Monster, in a touching gesture, responds by placing his huge hands over Frankenstein’s eyes” (Brooks). The monster seems to have human characteristics and he wants Frankenstein to feel compassion towards him. The murders which the monster commits are the result of his powerlessness and resent he feels in life. The creature is miserable because it drives people away: “His first appearance with humanity, he tells us, already demonstrated the hopelessness of the spectacular relation: the shepherd he discovered in a hut fled shrieking from his sight, the villagers pelted him with stones” (Brooks). The monster also discovers the language as the means of communication and learns it by observing a family. This signifies that he is highly intelligent and does not deserve the life full of suffering.
The femininity in Frankenstein is related to the fact that Frankenstein asks for a female companion and decided to kill Victor’s bride. Moreover, the monster lacks a female creator because Victor Frankenstein is his only creator. “By stealing the female’s control over reproduction, Frankenstein has eliminated the female’s primary biological function and source of cultural power” (Mellor). The monster is deprived of its feminine side and is rejected from the society which makes him miserable. The true horror of Frankenstein’s creation lies in the fact that his world is dominated by men because there is no need for female reproduction. He also does not create a female monster and the world of immortal creatures is the world of male creatures although they are monsters. However, the lack of the feminine side leads to all of the monstrosity which happens throughout the story and is the reason for all the misery.
Works Cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. J P. Hunter. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. Web. 14 May 2016. <http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=B1DB005C57B402E672ADAA3A0DC32325>.
Brooks, Peter. "What is Monster." Frankenstein. Ed. J P. Hunter. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. Web. 14 May 2016. <http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=B1DB005C57B402E672ADAA3A0DC32325>.
Mellor, Anne K. "Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein." Frankenstein. Ed. J P. Hunter. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. Web. 14 May 2016. <http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=B1DB005C57B402E672ADAA3A0DC32325>.
