Stephen Cook
Cline
ENG 102
13 October 2011
Essay #3 - Frankenstein rough draft
The story of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly is one that has stood out very strongly as being a very unique and original tale. Even close to 200 years after it was written it is being used as means for education. This tells me that it is viewed as being a very important piece in literary history. I personally didn’t enjoy the story that much. This could have been because I was slightly familiar with the story of Frankenstein before reading the actual book. I generally enjoy stories much more the first time I experience them. I can imagine though, that if reading this book was the first time I’d heard of Frankenstein and the story of his creature, it would have been one that drew the reader in with suspense and somewhat of a psychological thrill.
I found the setting of the story to be peculiar. Why would a young girl write such a story of fiction with the voice of an older, seemingly lonely man? The use of the letters to the man’s sister in the beginning was an interesting and effective way of introducing the characters and the beginning of the plot. The events in this story are vulgar and imaginative. The ideas that make up this story of fiction must have originated in the mind of a truly troubled individual. The thought of a creature being made out of old body parts is one most absurd and grotesque.
If I was to make an assumption of the meaning of this story in relation to the author it would be that the author, Mary Shelly, viewed herself as a troubled individual. I think Frankensteins creature is an example of the self image of the author. By the time Frankenstein was completed, Mary had already lost her mother (shortly after her birth), her prematurely born first child, and her sister to suicide. ((Reference the chronology)) She had experienced so much death by such a young age. This had to affect the way she viewed the idea of death. She could possibly placed some of the blame for these deaths on herself, resulting in the need to express these feelings through creating a character such as Victor’s creature that doesn’t fit in its surroundings and causes the death of others. She makes sure to show that the creature does in fact have emotions and love for his creator, even after causing his death.
Even considering the awful events in the story created by Mary Shelly, there is a sense of amazement experienced by the reader in regards to the level of creativity and original imagination it took to write such a story. Even though the story is a sad and somewhat depressing one, there is a subtle idea that the writer enjoyed writing the story. It probably wasn’t even a happy sort of enjoyment, but one that helped her cope with the events that took place in her own life.
In Percy Bysshe Shelly’s response to the novel, He claims that it is a strong source of powerful and profound emotion. “The elementary feelings of the human mind are exposed to view: and those who are accustomed to reason deeply on their origin and tendency will, perhaps, be the only persons who can sympathize, to the full extent, in the interest of the actions which are their result.” (pg. 185) I strongly agree with these statements made by Percy Bysshe Shelly. Even those emotions felt by the author become present. In this response he also makes a claim that the moral of the story is, “Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked.” This is a statement that I disagree with. There are many examples of how poorly treated persons have gone on to do great things and be good people. I do think that if a person is treated badly, they are more likely to be “wicked”, but in my opinion, this idea is present in this story so that the reader is able to sympathize with the so called evil character. If we can partially begin to justify the actions of those evil characters and start to excuse their actions by blaming those actions on the treatment received from others, this will make us feel sorry for the character; drastically affecting the readers view of the character.
In the anonymous response taken from Knights Quarterly on pg. 197, there is an interesting analysis. “Frankenstein is, I think, the best instance of natural passions applied to supernatural events that I ever met with.” I find the idea very strange that Mary Shelly, at such a young age, would imagine the creation of such a being. In recent film there are themes of clones and artificial beings. I don’t know what it was like during the time it was written, but I can’t think of any reasons for a girl to consider the strange spiritual theme involved in creating such a creature. I found the reference to darwin stating that such an event isn’t completely impossible very interesting. I suppose when the story was written, science could’ve suggested such possibilities. Either way, once again I’m forced to wonder about what she was feeling and contemplating while this story was being written. ...
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Works cited (incomplete)
1) Frankenstein, Mary Shelly
2) Norton Critical Edition
3) response by percy shelly
4) anonymous response from Knights Quarterly
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