Review of "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was written in 1818 in Geneva. It tells the story of scientist Victor Frankenstein’s thirst for knowledge and power, leading him to bring supernatural life to a monster that eventually despises his maker. Mary Shelley, born in 1797 by writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, created Frankenstein on a trip with her husband to Lake Geneva. Her work and her mother’s work are some of the first overtly feminist writing in England.

Victor Frankenstein grows up in a loving family and has a nurturing childhood, an example of romanticism used amongst writers at this time. His adopted sister and eventual wife, Elizabeth, provide him with a deep love for his family, which he misinterprets to try to claim possession over Elizabeth. His mother dies when Frankenstein is seventeen, and she tells Victor she hopes he will marry Elizabeth. As he grows older, Victor develops a love for philosophy and science. He gains enough knowledge to bring supernatural life to scraps of corpses he gathers from a graveyard. But just because he can create life artificially doesn’t mean he should. His Creature terrifies him, so Frankenstein flees his lab and abandons the Creature to fend for himself. Frankenstein finds comfort in his friend, Henry Clerval, but only briefly. During this time, the Creature learns human customs by watching the house and interactions of the De Lacey family. Through long-term close observation, the Creature learns English and understands human emotions. He also reads several classic works of literature and finds Frankenstein’s notebooks chronicling his creation. Discovering his origins petrifies the Creature, but he believes in his connection to humanity through his imagined attachment to the De Lacey family, who, upon meeting the Creature, is terrified of him and shun him. Out of his newfound hate for society, the Creature kills Frankenstein’s younger brother William after realizing his relation to Victor. The Creature continues to tell Victor his story and says that he will stop interacting altogether with humanity if Victor makes him a female counterpart. Victor initially agrees, but after realizing the future implications of creating another Creature, he stops his work, much to the disdain of the Creature. In addition to killing Victor’s friend Henry Clerval, the Creature warns Frankenstein that he’ll be present on his wedding night. Frankenstein prepares himself for the Creature to kill him, but the Creature instead kills Elizabeth. Frankenstein becomes terribly sick (both literally and figuratively) and vows revenge on the Creature. They chase each other around the world, even to the Arctic where Victor loses track of the Creature and tells his story to a sailor, Robert Walton. After recounting his tale, Walton returns to find Frankenstein dead from pneumonia with the Creature standing over him. The book ends with the Creature, distraught from having lost Frankenstein and being all alone, throwing himself off the ship and into the Artic sea forever.

The most important theme in Frankenstein is what is considered natural or supernatural. Many questions surround this theme. Is Frankenstein’s nurturing upbringing more “legitimate” than the Creature’s artificial origin story? Is Frankenstein’s desire for knowledge and god-like authority natural or abnormal? What is considered alive or dead, and how do we associate these traits with natural and supernatural qualities? How does Frankenstein stray from nature’s laws by creating a life without a woman? Most importantly, is the Creature supernatural? And if so, why does he then experience natural human emotions, desires, and ambitions?

In many ways, the Creature and Frankenstein mirror each other. They both desire familial love and are thirsty for knowledge. Ultimately, they both are lonely and have no family, so they rely on each other to chase and have someone who truly understands their loneliness. For this reason, the Creature is similar to a character, Caliban, from my last reviewed work, The Tempest. Prospero and the Creature rely on each other to ease their own loneliness in much the same way. In addition, despite being physically different and being looked down on by society, the Creature and Caliban have some of the most beautiful speeches, persuasive eloquence, and meaningful emotions.

I hope that future readers of this book will not think of its descriptions of the characters and settings as lengthy and exhaustive, but appreciate their thought and depth. This book has become one of my favorites of all time; it’s beautiful. This book’s beauty is exemplified through Shelley’s examination of what it means to be human at the rawest level.