Frankenstein (review)
by Mary Shelley
Author
Mary Shelley (born Wollstonecraft) was born in London on August 30, 1797, to Mary Wollstonecraft, a women's rights activist, and William Godwin, a philosopher and novelist. At just sixteen, Mary met the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she married in 1816 following the death of Shelley's first wife. Their marital life was brief and marked by severe grief: only one of their four children survived childhood, and Shelley died drowned during a storm in 1822. It was her husband who insisted that Mary cultivate her writing talent. Frankenstein was published in 1818 and, after her husband's disappearance, Mary continued her writing career. Still relatively unknown, Shelley published Posthumous Poems in 1824 and Poetical Works in 1839. Between these dates, she also wrote several books, but without much success:
- The Last Man (1826)
- Perkin Warbeck (1830)
- Lodore (1835)
- Falkner (1837)
Meanwhile, to earn a living, she wrote stories and sketched profiles of writers for an encyclopedia.
As for her beloved Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, initially published anonymously in 1818, Mary continually revised it and republished it in 1831 with minor changes, the addition of a preface by herself, and her own name.
In those years, she revisited old European routes after a long time, traveling with her son and writing her last published work, Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844).
Mary Shelley died in London in 1851.
Summary
The novel Frankenstein recounts the ill-fated story of Victor Frankenstein, a native of Geneva from a noble family.
A lover of science and natural philosophy, he begins his university studies in Ingolstadt.
Here, under the teaching of Monsieur Krempe and Monsieur Waldman, he acquires a complete scientific preparation.
Victor's enthusiasm grew when a crazy and blasphemous project occurred to him: to give life to a "creature" not alive and thus discover the mysteries of the origins of life and death.
Victor sets up a laboratory and begins to work day and night in his endeavor with passion and enthusiasm.
In his laboratory, he combines parts of corpses taken from cemeteries, constructing a being significantly larger than a man and of deformed and terrifying appearance.
Using various methods, including the energy that had been recently discovered at that time, Victor manages to bring the monster to life, which will begin to wander through Switzerland, abandoned by its creator who now understands the gravity of his mad action.
After a few years, during which Victor hopes that the terrible "individual" might have died, the monster reappears, killing William, Victor's brother.
The entire town is shocked, and an innocent girl, Justine, is tried.
Victor now falls into a state of despair, both for the death of his dear brother and for the remorse due to what he had done, and especially for the unjust accusation of poor Justine.
Now Victor wants nothing more than the death of the creator of all these misfortunes.
There will thus be an encounter between the two in which Frankenstein, the monster, with persuasion and insistence, asks his creator to "manufacture" a being of his own kind as he can no longer bear the loneliness, aggression, and intolerance towards him by humans.
Victor does not want to accept but will start his work anyway, which will soon be destroyed and thrown into the sea.
The "being" will take revenge by killing H. Clerval, the doctor's dear friend, and later his beloved wife Elizabeth.
In a long and painful struggle, the two will reach the far north, where perennial ice constitutes much of the landscape.
Here the story ends just with...
Characters of the novel
- Margaret Saville (sister of Robert)
- Robert Walton
- Alphonse Frankenstein (father of Victor)
- Victor Frankenstein
- Elizabeth Lavenza (wife)
- Henry Clerval (friend)
- Ernest (younger brother by 6 years)
- Krempe (prof. of natural philosophy)
- Waldman (prof. of chemistry)
- De Lacey (blind man)
- Agatha (sister of Felix)
- Safie (Arab)
- Kirwin (magistrate)
Narrative Time
- Duration of the letters: from December 11, 17.. to September 12, 17..
- Duration of the main story: 3 years
- Duration of Victor's narration: 24-25 years
Places of the Narrative
- St. Petersburg
- Geneva
- Belrive
- Chamonix
- London
- Scotland (Perth)
- Orkney Islands
- Ireland
- Cologny
Structure
For Robert Walton:
- INITIAL SITUATION: Robert is traveling in the Northern seas.
- DISRUPTION OF EQUILIBRIUM: arrival of Victor Frankenstein.
- DETERIORATIONS AND/OR IMPROVEMENTS: recounting of Victor's life.
- RECONSTITUTION OF EQUILIBRIUM: death of Frankenstein.
- FINAL SITUATION: Robert continues to travel.
For Victor Frankenstein:
- INITIAL SITUATION: from Victor's childhood to university studies.
- DISRUPTION OF EQUILIBRIUM: construction of the monster.
- DETERIORATIONS AND/OR IMPROVEMENTS: series of misfortunes.
- FINAL SITUATION: death of Frankenstein.
Comment
This novel by Shelley is not just a simple unreal and horror story, but hides a deeper meaning: mankind, which has always sought to grasp the meaning of life and death through assumptions and experiments, as in the case of Victor, has often made mistakes.
The author focuses the problem on science, one of the disciplines in which one must set a limit not to be exceeded in order not to compromise human nature and its mysteries.
This concept, which Shelley presents clearly, is a modern concept that especially holds true today.
We are now in 2002, and science, which has been evolving for centuries, has now gained great space in society and expanded its capabilities and knowledge.
Science has reached a point where it could go beyond the purpose of discovering new horizons which, although interesting and useful, would compromise the ethics and morality of man.
This is the problem that often arises on the path of both a modern scientist and a scientist like Victor who, without thinking and reflecting on what he had done, produced something terrible and unnatural.
Is it thus necessary to push beyond this limit?
In my opinion, it is necessary to reflect greatly on the consequences that innovations could have on Earth: nowadays, this problem arises again with genetics, a science that investigates the origins of the human species and how life has developed, up to the possibility of creating identical individuals with the same physical characteristics and the same potential.
Man, as a thinking being, must thus strive to reflect on what he is about to do, to act best for himself and humanity in general.
The reading of this novel is recommended for lovers of the genre in question.
Significant Pages
- The first three letters (from pg. 3 to pg. 8)
- Chapter XVIII in which the author discusses the construction of the second monster
- Chapter XXIV in which the confrontation between Victor and the monster occurs
