FRANKENSTEIN (The Monster)

Author: Mary W. Shelley
Publisher: Grove Press
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
Features: The book of Frankenstein, which grew out of the famous ghost-story sessions with Byron and Percy Bysshe, is widely regarded as the first modern work of science fiction as well as one of the more compelling Romantic novels, and its importance in the tradition of the Gothic is greater still. The story of Frankenstein's monster has also inspired over 50 films. By stitching together body parts from various corpses, Victor Frankenstein, the key role of the novel, assembles a “monster” that he brings to life with electricity. The result is so horrific that he feels home in terror, abandoning the monster to survive on its own in an uncaring and hostile world. As Society enters the twenty-first century, with opportunities for human cloning within our reach, the questions raised by this timeless novel seem more pertinent than ever: What are the consequences of creating artificial life? What are scientists' responsibilities toward their work? And what happens if they go too far? In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley offers harrowing answers to these questions and a chilling tale that has endured for more than a century. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), this novel starts with a series of letters. Inspired by occult philosophy and the teaching of his mentor, Waldman, the exhausted Victor Frankenstein, the key role of the novel, builds a creature in the semblance of a man and gives it life. Its body is assembled from parts which Frankenstein has stolen from butchers' shops, dissecting rooms, and charnel-houses. The creature is repeatedly rejected by those whose see it, but the monster proves intelligent, and later highly articulate. Receiving no love, it becomes embittered. Frankenstein deserts his creation, who disappears. Frankenstein hears that his younger brother has been strangled, but Justine, his family's servant, confesses the murder. However, later the monster tells that he murdered William and framed Justine. Frankenstein then agrees to make a mate for the monster so that it will not bother anyone again. A wave of remorse makes him destroy the female. The lone creature wears revenge. He kills Frankenstein's bride, Elizabeth, on their wedding night. The scientist becomes mad, but recovers and chases the creature across the world. The two confront in the Arctic wastes. Frankenstein dies. The creature describes eloquently to Walton his efforts to seek out beauty and how crime has degraded it beneath the meanest animal. The monster leaps from the ship on an ice-raft, disappearing again in the darkness. This classic gothic novel was first conceived in a storytelling contest between Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley, who imagined what might happen if a scientist created life without considering the consequences. By stitching together body parts from various corpses, Victor Frankenstein assembles a “monster” that he brings to life with electricity. The result is so horrific that he feels home in terror, abandoning the monster to survive on its own in an uncaring and hostile world. As Society enters the twenty-first century, with opportunities for human cloning within our reach, the questions raised by this timeless novel seem more pertinent than ever: What are the consequences of creating artificial life? What are scientists' responsibilities toward their work? And what happens if they go too far? In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley offers harrowing answers to these questions—and a chilling tale that has endured for more than a century.