Mary Shelley is Amazing

So just to start off I would just like to say that Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one of my all time favorite books. I have read it a couple times and it grabs my attention every time. There is definitely something lost in the modern day depictions of the monster in modern media. They lose the amazing interactions between the monster and creator that are present in Mary Shelley's novel. Nothing is more fascinating than human interaction and how human perception colors the world. Shelley does an amazing job at portraying the relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and his creation and how that relationship evolves over time.

I will highlight a couple points that I find most interesting and try to show how Shelley develops the characters over the course of the story.


So, at the beginning of the novel the main character Frankenstein attempts and succeeds at creating life, but after he finishes his work and steps back to witness his creation he is horrified at what he had made. He abandons his monster and tries to pretend that nothing happened. Unfortunately for him he cannot escape his monster as reports of death at the monster's hands reach Frankenstein. [I personally can't really blame the monster for these deaths. Imagine being born with a huge body with incredible amounts of strength and no experience or teachings to go base your life off of. I think there is a reason we are small and then grow stronger. We learn how to control ourselves before we can do any real damage. The monster didn't have this luxury.] And eventually the monster comes after Frankenstein himself.

So to start of the novel there is a type of cat and mouse interaction between the two. Frankenstein refuses to take responsibility for his actions and the monster, so enraged at being thrust into this life hated by everyone, tries to take revenge on the person who should have showed him some type of care, his creator.

Towards the middle of the novel the tides start to change a little. Frankenstein's guilt at what his creation has done starts to eat at him and he decides that he must do something to rectify his prior negligence. At the same  time the monster realizes that all he really wants is a companion that will treat him in a civilized manner. So when the two finally meet they come to a sort of agreement where Frankenstein agrees to make a female companion for his first creation. He feels that he owes the monster something and the monster promises Frankenstein that he will take his future companion and disappear. I love this part of the book. The human nature that is captured in the interaction of these two makes me sympathize with the monster and really hope for the success of this whole thing.

But, long story short, Frankenstein ends his work prematurely and destroys everything because he cannot take the thought of there being another creature in the world like his first. [Personally I think it shows a lack of trust on his part. He didn't believe that his monster would merely leave. I don't really know what would have been better. Should he have continued? I don't know.] So the monster goes into a rage and the remainder of the book is spent with them chasing each other around with Frankenstein trying to kill his creation once and for all. The monster's one chance at love was taken from him and he now has no human reason to live apart from the basic animal instinct to survive.

Now the most amazing part of the book is the finally interaction between the two. Frankenstein had chased his monster to a icy waste land and he himself is about to die. He has returned to a state similar to the frenzied state in which he creator the monster. Nothing else matters. Just like in the beginning nothing mattered besides finishing his creation; nothing matters now besides ending his creation. Interesting how he came full circle. The incredible change is in the monster. He shows up at his creators death bed and instead of ending the life which he had sought to make miserable, he thanks his creator for giving him life! [This part blows me away. Just seeing how much the monster changes is worth reading the book not to mention many more great reasons on top of that.] He tells him that he will not bother Frankenstein any longer and then just disappears. He becomes truly human. At the end of the story the monster embodies all of the virtues that we consider truly human.

So it begs the question, who is the real monster?