PERSONAL OPINION :
                       FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MAN WHO      PLAYED TO BE GOD.
 

Mary W. Shelley is one of those writers who has been hidden behind the fame of her best known book : Frankenstein . Just like Lolita or Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , the story of  Frankenstein has past through the years whithout being forgotten , while the name of  Mary Shelley has not been maintained in most of our minds.
 Following the plot of  her own story , Mary Shelley is , somehow , the "victim" of  her creation,  a too often unknonwn name behind an incredible story.
 Frankenstein can be seen as the story of  a terrible monster who threatens the society , but , I will try to show why, at least for me , Frankenstein is the story of  how the society made of  him a monster .
In the following lines , I will try to explain  my own vision of  this book.

      FRANKENSTEIN OR HOW VICTOR'S CREATION BECAME A MONSTER.

Victor Frankenstein is a young and eminent student who decides to break the bounderies between life and death.
His desire will take him to work hard , even getting seriously ill , to achieve something that nobody has reached before : life after death .He devotes himself to that single pursuit  :

         "I was thus enganged , heart and soul , in one pursuit " (p.59)

but everything changes when he sees for the first time his creation:

        "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe?" and "I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created "(p.62 and 63).

 From this moment , the new creation is idetified as a monster , and just like that will be treated during the whole story , not only by a cruel and intolerant society , but by his creator, Victor , who rejects him from the beginning.
 Frankenstein , for me , is the sad story of those who are shaped by hostility , who spend their lives running away from hatred and looking for something called happiness.
 This is the story of a fussy creator who plays to be God , who decides to go where nobody else goes , but that forgets that , when the game ends , the responsabilities begin.
 From the moment in which Victor disowns his creation a hard relation is started between the two main characters , a relation in which both of them mean suffering to the other  one.This relation is described by the monster when he says :

       "You are my creator , but I am your master ". (p.180).

 With these lines , the monster shows that , even though he recognizes that Victor is the one who gave him life ,he is now who decides about his future : now , the monster is ready to make him pay his indifference ,  he is prepared to return him the suffering that his irresponsability has caused him all through his life and there is just one thing that the monster asks : love .
 The monster , from the moment in which is created , is searching for affection , all he wants is feeling that somebody cares about him :

     "I intended to reason . this passion is detrimental for me ; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess . If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me , I should return them an hundred fold ; for that creature 's sake , I would  make peace with the whole kind ! .But I  now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realised . What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate ; I demand a creature of another sex , but as hideous as myself ; the gratification is small , but it is all that I can receive , and it shall content me .I t is true , we shall be monsters , cut off from al the world ; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another . Our lives will not be happy , but they wil be harmless , and free from misery I now feel . Oh! my creator , make me happy ; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit ! .Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing ; do not deny me my request!"(p.156).

 All  the monster is asking for is a female companion , just like him ,  to feel the love he needs, because we must not forget that , the person whom we are calling "monster" , is a human being who has become violent due to the way in which he has been treated : he has never received affection , instead , he has been hated and maltreated : the society and his creator 's attitude have made of  him the monster that he is now:

       "I am malicious because I am miserable . Am I not shunned and hated by all mndkind?.You , my creator , would tear me to pieces , and triumph ; remember that , and tell me why I should pity a man more than he pities me?"  ( p.155).

  The moster tells his creator why he should feel love for someone who has always shown hate towards him . He also says :

      "Shall I respect man when he condemns me ?"(p.155).

 That condemnation is , for the moster , his own life : Frankenstein ( the creation ) , is condemned from the moment in which he is given life , from the moment in which the creator decides  not to take the responsability for what he has done .
 And now the creation has the power and the creator is nothing else but a toy for him : the monster is determined to play with whom  has played with him for such a long time and now he affers the conditions : he will disappear if he creates a female mate like him , if not he will go on killing those he loves , and the first one will be Elisabeth:

       "I shall be with you in your wedding night"(p.181)

  With this threaten , the monster wants his creator to feel how it is to be without  love , without that person he loves and that loves him: his friend and future wife : Elisabeth.
  Victor accepts the treat but  , decides to make another being just like the one that now is killing those he loves . But  he will break his promise with terrible consequences : again , a Victor's decision will cause a death , and this time is his wife's death:

     "Great God! why did I not then expire! why am I here to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest creature of earth?"(p.210)

  The monster has fulfilled his threaten : is the answer to an indiferent Victor who could have stopped everythig from the beginnig but that now is paying the highest price : seing those he loves killed by his own creation.

  Victor is , with his decisions , the guilty one for every murder: he is the one who decided to create human being , but was not able to be responsible for him and he could have stopped the deaths by creating a female mate for his monster , instead , he broke a promise knowing the consequences.

  Finally , I would like to say that Frankenstein  is the story of a stupid man who played to be God , who failed but who never took the responsability for what he had done . I t is the story of those who are always searchig for love and who ask themselves if life is worthy.

  



 
 
 All the references made belong to :
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Cambridge: CambridgeUP. 1998


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