Frankenstein

Last week I read the Novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. I had first read this book in high school and rereading it was once again an entertaining experience. After experiencing studies on character concept development in my major, I found that the characters in Frankenstein are quite appealing and have grabbed my sympathies. Everyone from the monster, to Victor Frankenstein himself, are all figures who are victims of unfortunate circumstances. Because they are so human, their human flaws and personalities result in their down fall.

While popular modern culture sees the Monster as a heinous villain, In the novel, we understand the back story behind the Monster. It was an ugly unfortunate creation shunned by society. No matter how much it tried, it never was treated as a human. Society it self assisted in sculpting the fury of this monster. The monster’s own creator, Victor Frankenstein rejected him. How could one not become a monster if all its life it’s led to believe that he truly was one?

As I read, I discovered the second monster in the novel was Victor Frankenstein. At first he seems to be portrayed as an unfortunate soul. When I take a step back and looks at the whole picture, I realized how heinous the acts this man committed were. He played the role of God creating a monster whom he rejected in the end. He shuts himself away from society to satisfy his obsession with science. He didn’t have the courage to save of the lives of those who were unjustly accused. In the end his acts cause significant ripples an resulted in the deaths of many people he loved.

The characters in this novel are very tragic. The monster isn’t just the creation itself. They include the society within the book, the monster, and Victor Frankenstein. Their evil decisions stem from the core root of human nature. Can one say they were truly monsters or are they merely just acting upon instinctual response? If that’s the case couldn’t all of us be potential monsters?