Frankenstein Book Review Lawson White

Frankenstein Book Review – Lawson White

Frankenstein is a novel written by Mary Shelley, which was published in 1818. The book is considered a gothic horror novel, and is one of the first gothic horror novels to be written. This book would be considered this genre because in the 19th century it would have brought fear to many. The story is written in first person as a series of letters from an explorer to his sister. Although the story is told via a sailor in the North Pole through the letters, the events of the story happen all over Europe, from Geneva to the Alps to France, England, and Scotland, as well as the university at Ingolstadt. The book is written in typical 19th century English, and although at times it can be a little difficult

He starts his life as an 8 foot tall giant, with a mind of a newborn. The monster is angry at his creator Frankenstein so he kills his younger brother for revenge; however the monster is not an evil being. In fact, the monster is actually gentle and kind natured, but is just confused. We see how Mary has portrayed the monster to be real through emotion. When the monster is seeking a friend, he states "Here then I retreated, and lay down happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man." (Chapter 11). Its quotes like this that shows the reader that the monster has feelings. This makes the reader not only feel sorry for the monster, but it also portrays him to be

The message is simple, we should not play with nature, in other words, man should not play God. I believe that she was not only trying to get this message out to the general public, but also to the sciences of her time. During that time science knowledge was expanding and she wanted to remind people that we should not mess with nature, as the outcome will only be bad. With science knowledge still expanding even today, we should be reminded by this book not to play around with things, such as nature, that we are not designed to. An example of this might be in areas such as genetic engineering where there is great debate about the benefits versus the dangers of such sciences that seem to 'play God'.

Because this book is a gothic horror novel, the mood of this book is dark, dramatic and dull. Mary Shelly has done a great job of creating the feeling to go along with the book. Mary creates suspense by leaving things unknown. For example, we knew that that the monster has been created, however we did not know where it was, which created suspense. Mary Shelly does this many times throughout the book, which creates a struggle for the reader to put the book