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.
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