So this month I decided to re-read it and remembered all over again how fantastic this novel is.
Most know the overall story. A doctor by the name of Victor Frankenstein seeks to create life. What many don't know from the films is that the creature (or monster as it is referred to) was suppose to be made from the most beautiful body parts.
Once it is brought to life the doctor immediately rejects it as he realizes that in its appearance alone it is not human. He then becomes terrified and flees from the monster. He is reunited years later when the monster begins to slowly torture his creator by destroying the people that he loves the most.
"Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin."
What I was never expecting from this story was my immense feeling of empathy I had for his creation. He is not this horrifying monster who only wishes to bring death and pain to all around him. He is actually created with good and love in him. It is only through the rejection and cruel treatment first at the hands of his creator and then from the human race that he begins to indulge in his feelings of hatred and resentment for the cruel acts done to him. He was immediately abandoned and even though he strove to become a civilized person, he understood that he would never be accepted. And the worst part of it all was that none of this was ever his choice.
And with this in mind I began to despise Frankenstein (he is the doctor, NOT the monster... just FYI). He, from his own pride and egotism, tried to play God and then when he succeeded he freaked out. He then spends the rest of the time rejecting his creation, even when his creation makes a perfectly reasonable argument that he was not innately bad but had come to make bad choices and judgements due to the actions of his own creator. He attempts to make himself the victim, as if this creature was torturing him for no reason.
It really brings up the question of how we as human beings would be if we were raised being entirely rejected by the closest species we could identify with.
"I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?"
The most compelling part of this story is that this creature never asked to be created. He didn't choose to be what he was. It was the doctor that made him and gave him life. And then to be treated as the abomination seems so undeserving. He deserved happiness by whatever means was available, which is what he explained and asked of the doctor. And still he rejects his creature and treats him as if his existence is his own fault, when truly, it is the doctors.
I found overall the story to be vastly more philosophical. It seems to question how things appear and how we react and if these merely stem from the fear of the unknown or whether our reactions are logical. The creature was frightening in appearance so he is rejected, though he is able to reason as a human being. He is the only one that embraces the unknown while the humans all choose to fear it and reject him instantly on no basis other than appearance.
I won't say that this treatment justified the creature for what he did. But it does stand to reason that he would not have made such horrible decisions if he was merely allowed to be accepted in some way, even if that meant he had someone of his own kind to share a life with.
"I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy one, I will indulge the other."
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