November 2020 Classic of the Month: 'Frankenstein'
- Caroline Selby
- Nov 12, 2020
- 3 min read
How a novel Mary Shelley wrote at just 19 years old has continued to impact the world, centuries after being written.
The classic of the month for November 2020 is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. When I first read this book years ago, I knew it was one too powerful to forget.
Robert Walton, captaining a ship bound for the North Pole, recounts his dangerous mission to his sister in England through a series of letters. Encountering treacherous conditions, Walton soon spots Victor Frankenstein, who is traveling by dog sled. After Walton takes the mysterious man aboard to help him gain back his health, Victor begins to tell him of his life and the monster he created.
While attending the University of Ingolstadt and studying chemistry and natural philosophy, Victor becomes obsessed with the desire to discover the secret of life, spending months making a creation out of old body parts. Finally bringing his creation to life, Victor is horrified at the sight of it, and runs out of his apartment, while the monster disappears.
Learning his monstrous creation is responsible for the death of both his brother and the woman accused of his brother’s murder, Victor’s guilt intensifies tremendously. Seeing his creation again, Victor is grudgingly convinced to create a female creature equally gruesome to serve as his monster’s only companion.
Victor soon becomes distraught though, unable to create and unleash another monster on the world, horrified by the possible outcomes. Absolutely furious, Victor’s monster vows revenge on his creator, promising to appear again on the night of his wedding.
After dumping the remains of his second creature in a lake, Victor finds himself accused of murdering his friend Henry Clerval. Seeing the mark of his monster’s fingers on his friend’s neck, Victor is again appalled at the horrors he unleashed on the world by the use of his own hands.
Victor, though, is soon acquitted of the crime and marries a woman named Elizabeth. Worried his monster will make good on his promise and murder him, Victor sends Elizabeth away and waits for the monster’s return. Unknown to Victor, the monster planned to kill not him, but his wife, a promise, Victor quickly learns, that the monster was unwilling to break.
Having experienced enough grief, Victor surrenders the rest of his life to finding the monster and putting an end to the rain of terror he unintentionally released on the world.
Victor chases his creation further and further north, almost catching up to him, but losing him when the ice breaks beneath them. Victor then meets Walton, with his story rejoining with the present time.
In a gripping series of events, Victor gets sicker and sicker, and finally dies. Days after his death, Walton returns to the room where his body lies, surprised to spot the monster crying over his creator. The monster tells Walton that he can end his suffering, now that his creator has died. Telling Walton, “Polluted by crimes, and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death?” the monster vanishes out of the window and is lost in darkness.
An intense story exploring the danger of the pursuit of knowledge, secrecy, alienation, and ambition, among other things, it’s hard to believe Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at just 19 years old. Although Shelley may have been young, the darkness she conveys in her writing is undeniably powerful.
Written over 200 years ago in 1817, it’s not difficult to understand why Shelley’s famous novel is still taught and beloved today. Although there have been many modern adaptations of the story, there is no greater telling of Frankenstein than the one Mary Shelley wrote herself, a book that has been, and continues to be, timeless.
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