“Remember, that I am thy creature;
I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest
from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am
irrevocably excluded.”[1]
Frankenstein. Popular culture has
connected that name with, most frequently, a hollow-eyed humanoid monster,
visible stitching tracing its skin and electrical probes protruding from its
neck.
In reality, however, Frankenstein is so
much more. Frankenstein—Victor Frankenstein—is the name of a scientifically-minded
man, and a book title. The brain-child of authoress Mary Shelly, not the name
of the creature he created.
I finished reading the unabridged
version of Frankenstein yesterday,
and goodness, it was brilliant and I can’t get it out of my mind.
Shelly didn’t give Frankenstein’s “monster”
a name, so to avoid too many long handles or too many pronouns, I’ll call him “Creature.”
Victor Frankenstein started out as
curious. He simply wanted to understand how the universe and the creations in
it, worked. He wanted to know how life was formed. That is all well and good;
curiosity and a thirst for knowledge are wonderful things. The problem began
when Victor decided to take his research a step further, and apply it to imbuing
the essence of life to an inanimate humanoid being he himself had fashioned.
No one can conceive the variety of
feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success.
Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through,
and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me
as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their
being to me. . .Pursuing these reflections, I thought, that if I could bestow
animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time. . .renew life where
death had apparently devoted the body to corruption. [2]
He worked for nearly two years on his
quest to create a new species.
Then it finally happened.
I saw the dull yellow eye of the
creature open. . .
How can I describe my emotions at
this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and
care I had endeavored to form? . . .I had selected his features as beautiful.
Beautiful!—Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black. . .his teeth of a pearly
whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery
eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which
they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips. . .
For this I had deprived myself of
rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation;
but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless
horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I
had created, I rushed out of the room...[3]
Victor’s Creature disappeared, and for a
while, though plagued with the thought of having released such a being out into
the world, Victor believed his problems were over.
But they had barely begun. To avoid as
many spoilers as possible, I’ll leave it at, that through a series of sad
events, Victor and the Creature meet again.
I find it interesting that neither
Victor nor Creature are clearly a hero or clearly a villain. Creature commits a
series of crimes that Victor vows to avenge for by destroying the being he
created. He beings to feel like a monster himself, that he had ever ventured
upon the task to create another life. I think these song lyrics are fitting for
the state of mind both characters experience at times:
I
feel it deep within,
It's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I
Feel like a monster
I hate what I've become
The nightmare's just begun
I must confess that I
Feel like a monster
I feel like a monster
My secret side I keep
Hid under lock and key
I keep it caged
But I can't control it
‘Cause if I let him out
He'll tear me up
And break me down
Why won't somebody come and save me from this?
Make it end![4]
It's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I
Feel like a monster
I hate what I've become
The nightmare's just begun
I must confess that I
Feel like a monster
I feel like a monster
My secret side I keep
Hid under lock and key
I keep it caged
But I can't control it
‘Cause if I let him out
He'll tear me up
And break me down
Why won't somebody come and save me from this?
Make it end![4]
Both characters contain basic human
goodness, and the selfish, sinful depravity that has invaded the world since
Eden. Both are capable of kindness and evil. Both are angry, confused, lonely,
and wishing for their respective lives to turn right-side-up and stay there. Due
to their actions, both inflict irrevocable harm upon each other and upon people
Victor cares for.
I didn’t root for either Victor or
Creature, nor love one and hate the other. In fact, I felt profoundly sorry for
both of them. Victor set the first boulder in their landslide of misery
rolling, but Creature is by no means faultless himself.
Victor just wants his simple, quiet life
back, without Creature haunting his every step.
Creature
wants to be loved and understood for who he is,
instead of being an outcast because of his physical appearance.
Both of their desires are, in of
themselves, perfectly good things. Yet, due to the courses they have set
themselves upon, seemingly impossible to attain. Anymore on that, however, will
leak spoilers.
Upon finishing the book, I was asked
what theme I found in the story. After thinking for a moment, several themes—brilliant
themes—came to mind. Whether or not Shelly consciously put them into the story,
or if they were just a natural outworking of the tale, they are wonderful
because they transcend culture and era. They are, in their essence, incredibly
applicable to life, no matter what century you were born in or what the popular
culture is like.
One is the importance of life, that it
is not something to be taken lightly, neither in the taking nor the giving. Human
beings such as ourselves have no business trying to create life in a laboratory,
because we do not have the necessary wisdom and strength to handle the
responsibility that comes with such actions.
“[Y]ou, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy
creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of
one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?”[5]
Another is how much our thoughts,
and the thoughts of others, shape who we become. Self-esteem, peer pressure,
bullying, culture, popular opinion, even in people with strong characters,
these things still have an effect: to tear down or build up. And on the mind of
someone who is very impressionable, the results can be incredible.
For Creature, it destroyed him.
Because of the first impression he gave—his ugly appearance—people consistently
reacted out of fear and disgust, without giving him the benefit of the doubt
(with the exception of a blind man), and confirmed his fears that because he
looked horrible, he was horrible, by changing his attitude from one of curiosity,
affection, and helpfulness, to one of wrath and destruction.
“I had admired the perfect forms of
my cottagers—their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how was I
terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first I started back,
unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and
when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I
was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification.” [6]
“Was I then a monster, a blot upon
the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?
“I cannot describe to you the agony
that these reflections inflicted upon me: I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only
increased with knowledge.”[7]
“I have good dispositions; my life
has been hihtherto harmless, and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice
clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they
behold only a detestable monster.” [8]
“You, who call Frankenstein your
friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. . .he could
not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured. . .For while I
destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. . .still I desired love
and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I
to be thought the only criminal when all human kind sinned against me? . . .I,
the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked,
and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.”
[9]
I will not reveal the ending of the
story, but I thought it was both sad and fitting. It was not a perfect
Hollywood ending. There wasn’t a huge showdown between Victor and Creature. It
didn’t end with one “beating” the other. Yet it was still a fulfilling conclusion
to the story.
This book, while not very long, is
one well worth the time spent reading it. It’s not all black and white, there
isn’t a clear hero and a clear villain. There isn’t even a pristine clash of
ideals. It’s a story of human nature, of revenge, of the possible consequences
of “playing God,” and the juxtapositions people find inside themselves.
“You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard
myself. I look on the hands which executed the deed; I think on the heart in
which the imagination of it was conceived, and long for the moment when . .
.that imagination will haunt my thoughts no more.” [10]
I really enjoyed this review. It has been a number of years since I have read this tale, and I appreciate your observations. You may have just ignited a small flame in me to read this again.
ReplyDeleteThanks, glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteYou were't kidding when you said you wrote a long review! I do need to read this one. Thanks for sharing. ;)
ReplyDeleteNo, I wasn't! You're welcome, and when you read the book, be sure to tell me your thoughts!
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