Victor Frankenstein is a young student at the University of
Ingolstadt when he becomes obsessed with discovering the nature of life itself,
as he describes here:
“It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.”
So, he was not exactly the mad scientist depicted in the
movies but a young student of science who got carried away trying to uncover
the secrets of life. You already know the result of his obsession – he succeeds
in creating life, building a super-human creature from spare parts (and by the
way, the scientist is named Frankenstein, not the creature!). When the creature
comes to life, Victor snaps out of his obsessive haze and realizes he’s done
something terrible, so he hides and the creature runs away.
His creative process encompasses just a small portion of the
book – the rest deals with his background, and the experiences of both himself
and his creation afterward. He had an idyllic childhood, growing up with loving
parents and an adopted and much-loved sister, Elizabeth. Much of his childhood
was spent in beautiful Switzerland with his best friend, Henry Clerval. His
happy life falls apart after his obsessive creation, though. Even before he
encounters it again, he is torn apart emotionally by thoughts of what he has
unleashed upon the world and worried about what his creation might be doing.
The creature’s experiences are even more interesting, as he
later recounts to Frankenstein all that has happened to him since he escaped
the laboratory. I won’t ruin the story by going into detail here, but the basic
premise is that when he encounters kind, loving people, he learns to be kind
and gentle. And when he (more frequently) encounters fear and loathing, due to
his gruesome appearance, he becomes angry and vengeful.
And that is really the heart of this novel – that the
creature begins as a blank slate and learns his behaviors from the other people
he encounters and how they treat him. It is both fascinating and heart breaking
to see his goodness ruined by mistreatment. The author makes a clear argument for the power of nurture
and experience to mold the soul, as Frankenstein explains here:
“We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep. We rise; One wand’ring thought pollutes the day. We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep, Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away; It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free. Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but mutability!”
Comparing the movie adaptations to the original novel, I found
that the book is far less action-oriented (though there is some action) and far
more thoughtful and thought provoking. Although the subject is Frankenstein’s
creation (never referred to as a monster in the book), clearly, it is a story
about human nature: both the creation’s evolution from kind and gentle to
violent and destructive due to its being mistreated and also the way that
Frankenstein’s own guilt eats away at him and prevents his own happiness. Oh,
and the creation is never described as green.
It is a fascinating story that stirs plenty of thought about
the nature of humanity and how our experiences shape us and affect how we treat
others. There is also plenty of action and adventure as Frankenstein and his
creation follow each other across Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, and even up to
the frozen Arctic. It’s a sad story, a tragedy really, that will make you
think. And no, the creation doesn’t wear a tux, dance on stage, and sing,
“Putting on the Ritz”(one of my favorite movie scenes ever!).
No comments:
Post a Comment