Love-Hate Relationships - Novel Blog 7 (Frankenstein)

"For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; 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?"

~ Frankenstein, page 165

Throughout the novel, all the people give the creature crap about being a hideous, horrid beast. Which is true. However, if you think about it, the creature is the only character (or at least one of the only characters) who shows emotional depth and multiple sides of his personality. He is by far the most round character in the whole novel. When he does his narrative, we see how he feels; his emotions are very, very extreme, and we witness a gamut. We see pain when he is abused by the villagers for his appearance, sadness when he weeps with Safie for the Native Americans, anger when he sets the De Lacey's house on fire, hope and excitement when Victor first agrees to creating the female, remorse after Victor dies and he realizes how horribly he has sinned, and sadistic pleasure when he sees Victor mourning the wife he just murdered. His complex character creates confusion for the readers; we hear about how he was beaten for being ugly, but then he murders several innocent people and gets sick pleasure out of it? It's really hard to tell if you even like him or not. But honestly, he's the most realistic character in the whole novel. Victor shows little emotion but fear and anguish, and he can't even get over the fact that the creature is unattractive; he's incapable of change. Elizabeth represents beauty, compassion, and innocence the whole novel; she doesn't show any other traits. Clerval is the supportive friend. Alphonse Frankenstein is the loving father that everyone wants.

It's really funny that the creature is supposed to be this terrible, demonic monster, but he has the most human character - the one-sided people in the book are more like artificial beings programmed with limited emotion and personality. Real people have both good and bad in them, and that's what makes this book so difficult. We don't want to like Victor because he is so flat, even though he doesn't do anything wrong. We love the creature because he is so genuine, but it's that genuineness that requires him to do bad things and experience painful emotions - which makes us simultaneously hate him. That, friends, is the great paradox of this novel. And of life in general.

Baby Imma Be Your Motivation - Novel Blog 6 (Frankenstein)

"Why had I not followed him, and closed with him in mortal strife? I shuddered to think who might be the next victim sacrificed to his insatiate revenge."

~ Frankenstein, page 123

So is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that Victor doesn't actually do anything in this novel? He just kind of sits there and thinks about the creature (who is no longer Cornelius because he's a jerk) and wonders who will die next and gets sick. I'm pretty sure he isn't healthy the entire book. Victor has two tasks that he completes during the novel:

1) create the monster.

2) chase the monster.

Other than those, the creature is the one who actually drives the plot. We would be absolutely nowhere if he just disappeared into the wild after Victor ran from him. Let's think about it: the creature tried to befriend the De Lacey's, killed William, framed Justine, threatened Victor (which led him to create the female monster - a task he still didn't even complete), threatened Victor again, killed Henry, killed Elizabeth, and motivated Victor to keep chasing him. Yes, the monster is a totally horrible being, but at least he's doing something. Victor literally just sits there and whines about how anxious he is and how sick he is and worried about everyone else he is. Then why don't you get the heck up and stop it, Victor? What a pansy.

Discovery - Novel Blog 1 (Frankenstein)

"I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man."

~ Frankenstein, page 1

Frankenstein was originally published in 1831, so Mary Shelley obviously had some big ideas for the book. (Really, how does an 18 year old girl come up with this??) People didn't have the technology we do today, but the idea of creating life (from nothing, not procreation) has been with us for a while. I think a big part of the novel is discovery and exploration - not only with Robert Walton's letters about his escapades at the start, but throughout the book as well. Victor's incessant desire for education and knowledge reflects this, as does the monster who is product of his ambition (who shall now be called Cornelius). During chapters 11 and 12, Cornelius describes his experiences discovering the world around him after his birth. It's human nature to want to learn more about how everything functions - and one day, we may create life from nothing. The speed at which technology is advancing suggests that that day is probably closer than expected; think about how much we have progressed in the last 100 years. Although our first attempts at playing God may not yeild super humans who have perfect grammar (I imagine them more like the Stewie and Brian clones on Family Guy), it could happen soon. I believe that our inclination to learn, explore, and discover will lead us to do the great things that Mary Shelley wrote about in the 19th century.