What is it all about? (Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Member Name: Vemsy

Product:	Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Date:	04/09/01 (268 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting , exciting at times, Many different themes explored

Disadvantages: Unbelievable in places

Frankenstein - the word itself conjures up images of a huge lumbering monster with bolts in either side of its neck that has just emerged from a slightly seedy tank full of electrical wires. Gee, not exactly what the book is about...

Actually the creature we depict is the creator, Victor Frankenstein; the creature itself has no name and indeed, no bolts.

Frankenstein is an extremely difficult book to get into, probably because it was written in about 1815 and updated at about 1830 (I think). Incidentally, it was dismissed as trash by anyone who has read it now, and many people would agree that it is trash now. Still, Shelley does write an interesting story, if slightly unbelievable.

The story is mostly told from Victor's point of view, occasionally the creatures and at the beginning through letters by Captain Walton.
The story pretty much explores Victor's thirst for knowledge, his total ambition and his struggle against the creature he finally creates.

This is not the whole story though, there are many different themes that run through, including the comparison between Walton and Victor, the way they feel that they have wonder a friend who shares the same burning ambition to succeed against all odds. There is an endless battle between good and evil in this book, but the creature is not inherently bad natured, he is driven to it by alienation from the world since he was rejected by his *father*, without any friend, nor interaction with any person who can tolerate the way he looks.
Some might say that the creature is the personification of Victor's suppressed evil nature.

There is the relationship between Elizabeth and Victor and the way Shelley depicts all women to be graceful and beautiful to contrast with the creature. Shelley also likes to make references to Paradise Lost and the constant struggle against good and evil.

Of course the book can be unbelievable at times, Shelley skirts over t
he scientific parts, manage to slip in a plot device so the creature is educated and the long journeys only seem to take a couple of days.


At times the book seems self indulgent and pointless, with Shelley using it to have a go at the failings of society and the corrupt nature of the justice system of the time, but if you can get over this, the book can become quite a good story which is both frustrating and abrupt as well as interesting and intriguing.

It is also very hard not to get irritated with the incredibly selfish Victor! ;-)

Summary: