Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley begins in a very unique way by opening with the narration from a third party, someone not involved with Victor Frankenstein’s story. In the form of Robert Walton’s documentation, we can more easily understand Frankenstein’s remarks and references, for example, to his current depression and misfortune, and how he got to the North Pole.

            Frankenstein’s early life was vital to the story in that it showed how he came to crave the accomplishment of testing his discoveries. As a young boy, he had been interested in reading and learning as much as he could. When he discovered the outdated books on alchemy and philosophy, he became fascinated with then and took them as truth.  When he discovered their true worth in college, he stops reading them and takes up natural philosophy and chemistry, but you can see that those other subjects had a deep impact on him, and when he discovered the path to the secret of life, he combined his old passions with his new studies to help him towards his unnatural goal.

            As he is working toward this goal, you can see a great shift in his character. Frankenstein goes from being eager zealous to stressed and unyielding to his personal needs, like sleep. The closer he gets, the more high-strung he becomes, driving him to take less care of himself. I think this lack of maintenance contributed to the horror he felt when his creature came to life. Seeing the monster he had created combined with fatigue caused him to become increasingly anxious and nervous, leading him to insanity and illness.

            The wretch’s account was the most interesting to me because he was comparable to an infant: everything is new and must be tested and explored. As he watches the family, he learns and becomes somewhat dependent on them for knowledge. He sees them as friends. But when they reject him, he is heartbroken and seeks happiness from his creator, Frankenstein. Frankenstein is still very afraid and hates him. When Frankenstein refuses to create a mate, the wretch retaliates and continues to haunt him, and eventually gets revenge by killing Frankenstein’s wife. Frankenstein knew the wretch would do something then, but was still unprepared in his paranoia. As he ventures across the ice, the tale is brought full circle to present day. When Frankenstein dies and the wretch comes, Walton must confront the legitimacy of the story and comes to understand the wretch’s feelings and lets him go.

            Reading this book was a new experience to me: I don’t usually read books at this level, so it was a little difficult. It took me longer to interpret all of Frankenstein’s thoughts but I did understand them, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book.