Frankenstein (Book Review)

This timeless classic piece of literature will forever be remembered in the lives of its many readers. It is most magnificently written by the talented Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Shelley’s writing style and story development is showcased through this story. The story opens as a series of letters, these are written by a captain who finds a man lost out in the sea of ice and water. He harbors this man on his ship. This man, while on the ship, tells his story to the captain. Thus the story of Frankenstein begins. Frankenstein begins the story introducing himself and his character. As the story progresses he goes to school at which he studies the sciences and natural philosophies. While he excels at this, he becomes transfixed on creating artificial life. This becomes his sole goal; Frankenstein becomes engrossed in his creation for the longest time. He finally creates life in this once inanimate being, only to have it run off. At this Frankenstein is taken ill and cannot fathom what he is to do about his run away organism. He is brought home to his family at the word of his brother’s death. This puts him in a worse state, when he finds out the death was caused by his creation. He eventually decides to seek out the monster and end it. While he does find it; the being has—to his surprise—learned the English language and can communicate very well. The being then tells him of his genesis and the development up-to his present state. Through the story telling, the being makes a proposal to have Frankenstein make another being of the opposite sex to accompany him. This is because he is fraught with the misery of forever loneliness and isolation. Any human being who saw him were taken by fright and attacked him for his monstrous looks and size. He finds that he can only achieve happiness comparable to that of normal human beings. This creature attempts to persuade Frankenstein to make another being. Although Frankenstein is taken by his own creations sadness, he cannot justify his brother’s death. He finally agrees to do this only if the male being and the female being leave the known human world and live in the wild for their remaining existence. He then takes the necessary steps to make the being of the opposite sex. Frankenstein creates the being half of the way, but is haunted by his first male being. He then realizes that he cannot make another of these terrible creations, thinking that if the other being had freewill it may not choose to live with the male being off in isolation. At this the male being is furious and takes out his rage through a thick plot of taking the lives of his closest friend and Frankenstein’s beloved wife. Frankenstein is wrought with misery and seeks to end the beast and chases him to the end of the world in the ice and the sea. This brings the reader back to the letters and assumes the position of the captain’s perspective. The story closes with Frankenstein’s death and the chilling remorse of the beast. The last seen the beast sneaks on the ship to look at his creator one last time. He speaks eloquently to the captain at his regret and says farewell to all mankind; then is gone forever.

From this story I gained much. What Shelley gave me through her writing was that men are slaves to their passions. As Frankenstein was slave to his monster, men become enslaved to their obsessions or money, power, drugs, etc. These obsessions come back to haunt you and try to assume control over your life. In some cases, and in Frankenstein’s instance, these men are swallowed up.