by Jamie Clubb

Created on: May 31, 2010

Frankenstein

Plot:

Arctic adventurer Captain Robert Walton happens across a desperate man who he rescues and takes on board his ship. The man, a one Victor Frankenstein, befriends the explorer who he feels an almost immediate kinship with. Hearing of Walton’s ambitions to reach the North Pole he feels moved to tell the story of how he came to be in such a dire situation hoping it will serve as a cautionary tale for the driven captain.

Victor was inspired from a young age by the writings of ancient alchemists to seek out the secrets of nature. He eventually settles into serious medical science, but the wonderment of his early youth won’t leave him and he uses his new practical skills to achieve an incredible singular goal: to create life. This will lead to tragedy. Having been brought up with a loving family and an adopted sister who is destined to be his wife, Victor will experience a life of pain for his selfish actions. Appalled by the “monster” he has created Victor will shun his work, only to have it come back and haunt him with murder and persecution…  

Review:

“Frankenstein” is a novel that has many fascinating themes. It is the first of the three most influential 19th century horror novels, the other two being “The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde” and “Dracula”, and the most diverse. Some of the most popular areas of discussion include its status as a science fiction novel. Mary Shelly remarked that she was inspired by the discussions between her future husband, the great romantic poet Percy Shelly and his close friend, the equally notorious poet, Lord Byron, as they prophesied the scientific developments of the future, including the creation of life. This brings us to the moral question that many see in “Frankenstein”, and is even stated by Elsa Lancaster when she played Mary Shelly in James Whale’s “The Bride of Frankenstein” in 1935, should man play God? Given her influential husband’s rather aggressive stance on religion (Shelly was expelled from Oxford University for publishing a pamphlet on atheism) and Mary’s own rather radical upbringing (she was the daughter of two famous progressive thinkers, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft) it’s a surprisingly conservative Christian view. Technically speaking, “Frankenstein” is the only one of the previously mentioned horror novels that isn’t Victorian,

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