After Reading Frankenstein
This blog was created for the 2018 spring class for Lit of Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy course at Ringling College of Art and Design. In this blog I will talk about the books we read and what they mean to me personally. If you have come across this blog and have not read the book I am talking about this week, I will warn you now that I will spoil it. The first book we read was Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. For those who don't know, Mary Shelly is the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the leader of the feminist movement in the late 1700s. When Mary Shelly was born her mother unfortunately did not survive.
Mary wrote Frankenstein for a horror book club she was a part of. And being an admirer of her mother's work she made sure to include many social statements and meanings deeper than simply the dangers of playing god. The monster when born was kind and gentle, then was driven to violence because of an unaccepting society. He was different, a man made entirely of perfect body parts. Because of this society shunned him, called him a monster, and he became angry at his creator for giving him such a life. He set out for revenge, killing those close to Frankenstein, and eventually meeting Frankenstein himself to ask simply "Why did you make me this way".
The story of Frankenstein I feel is much more about the monster's troubles than those of Frankenstein himself. His struggling place in society I feel is meant to reflect the role of women at the time. Uneducated, stuck indoors, it was as if they too were shunned from society. The monster was not a bad person, he was simply driven to do bad because of society, which I believe to be the most important lesson of the book. No one is born evil, only driven to it.
While I agree that the monster was an important element of the story, my personal experience was that doctor Frankenstein actually played a larger role in the story than I expected. Based on some people generally assigning the name "Frankenstein" to the monster Before I read the novel, I assumed that the monster was the most important or at least interesting aspect of the story. However, when actually reading it, I found Victor to be a fascinating and complex character. This might be based on the fact that I related to him overly committing to an obsession/ occupation to the degree that it was damaging to his social life and thus his well being. I think I gained more personally from reading his experiences and struggles. His connections to his family made him very human and made his pain seem real to me.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'm not trying to minimize the monster's role, he is essential. The story would be meaningless without him.The monster was a catalyst for Dr. Frankenstein's development. The monster's pain translated to important questions about life that were filtered through Victors own tormented thoughts.
I really like your connection of the monster's struggles to women's struggles of that time. This helped me understand some of the motivation for the writing. I think this is central to the story.