Frankenstein by Mary Shelly 6 Points

   The first time I read this novel, I was a sophomore in high school. I chose to not really read the book since it was just another long classic that I had to read for English class. The only reason I picked it out of the list was that I had remembered some of the main events. Rereading the book, there are a lot of details that I  missed the first time around, especially the double meanings and interesting word choices that Mary Shelley used to tell her story. There are many preconceived ideas about this book that the media has run with. Most people, when asked what the novel Frankenstein is about, will automatically say that Frankenstein is a monster that was created from stitched-together parts and brought to life by electricity on a stormy night. The first time I read the novel, I was a bit surprised to find that it started off by telling the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, an all-too-human man of science. Granted, I like most kids, had grown up watching movies that portrayed the un-named creature as Frankenstein. 

Shelley conveys a number of messages through this story, but one theme, in particular, the age-old “nature vs. nurture” debate, struck a chord with me because I think that it resonates with struggles that still affect society today.  Nurture has created a societal beauty standard; if you're deemed not good enough, then you're looked down upon. The saying, "it doesn't matter what you look like, because you're beautiful on the inside" just reinforces that idea, and it's a back-handed compliment meant to tear someone down.  In a way, Dr. Frankenstein himself, rather than his creation, is the true monster, just not the monster that everyone envisioned. 

In the book, Dr. Frankenstein is seen as relatively handsome with a nice career path. He's very smart and talented, as he studied all the old masters before being sent off to school in the city. He easily overachieves and outshines most of the others in his class and becomes a favorite of one of his science teachers. He was born into an educated family and is expected to go to school, find a wife, and settle down with a nice career. He soon develops a god-like demeanor; he becomes obsessed with creating life, to the point where he isn't leaving his study or even eating. I think that this demeanor was nurtured because of the environment he was brought up in, and also, that this is the reason why Frankenstein doesn't take responsibility for his actions. He had everything handed to him and growing up with that idea that you can have everything, you start to believe that everyone else is there to serve you and there aren't any real consequences for your actions because nothing is your fault. Not that Frankenstein believed everyone else was meant to serve him, but he did believe that he was capable enough to create another life. The moment he is successful with his creation of life, he instantly regrets his actions.  He doesn’t even wait for his creation to fully come to consciousness. He just leaves him there all alone and describes him as horrid and ugly. It's here that really shows how Frankenstein can't take responsibility for his own actions. He'd rather run away than face what he's done. 

When you spend that much effort and time on something, why run away from it? Why not be proud of your accomplishment? Frankenstein's god-like persona wanted to create another living being, which he did.  But what he really wanted was to create something deemed beautiful; something that would have been accepted by society. I think one observation that Shelley was trying to share with her readers was that we have all been trained by society to accept only a certain standard of beauty. Unfortunately, that stops us from genuinely seeing the good in people who don’t meet those standards, or in general, giving those “others” a chance. Equally problematic, society’s ideals of beauty can serve as blinders that keep us from recognizing the internal ugliness that is sometimes hidden beneath attractive facades. In the story, Frankenstein literally ran away from his creation. I think that was a symbol for what a lot of people do emotionally. We run away and write people off based solely on physical traits.  Or we do the opposite, which can also be unhealthy, and gravitate towards others simply because society deems them attractive.

Frankenstein blames his shortcomings on his creation, which shows a complete lack of personal responsibility. Over the course of the novel, the creature makes many attempts to get in contact with Frankenstein. But Frankenstein rebuffs his creation every time, convinced that he is a monster that can only do evil. When the book changes to the POV of the creature, Shelley goes into detail about how environments really affect how someone turns out. The creation was turned into a monster over time because of how he was treated; he wasn't created as one. It doesn’t even seem quite fair to refer to him as a monster, in that he really wasn’t evil or truly monstrous, until the very end when monstrous acts where the only way to get Frankenstein's attention (the murder of William and the framing/execution of Justine).  He was a sentient being who didn’t meet society’s standards of beauty, and who was cast aside and forced to make his way without parental nurturing. For lack of better words, I will cite the cliché "don't judge a book by its cover.”  Although that saying is admittedly overused, it does ring true. People were comfortable around Frankenstein because of the way he looked, and people threw rocks and nasty words at Frankenstein’s creation because of how he looked.