The Monster in Frankenstein

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein

In 1818, The British Critic, a British literary magazine, assessed Mary Shelley's new novel, Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus. The reviewer wrote:

"We need scarcely say, that these volumes have neither principle, object, nor moral; the horror which abounds in them is too grotesque and bizarre ever to approach near the sublime, and when we did not hurry over the pages in disgust, we sometimes paused to laugh outright; and yet we suspect, that the diseased and wandering imagination, which has stepped out of all legitimate bounds, to frame these disjointed combinations and unnatural adventures, might be disciplined into something better. We heartily wish it were so, for there are occasional symptoms of no common powers of mind, struggling through a mass of absurdity, which well nigh overwhelms them; but it is a sort of absurdity that approaches so often the confines of what is wicked and immoral, that we dare hardly trust ourselves to bestow even this qualified praise. The writer of it is, we understand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel; but if our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should; and we shall therefore dismiss the novel without further comment."

Dismiss the novel? How silly this person would feel now. Today, with our hindsight, it is easy to see why this assessment is so ridiculous. Indeed, the image of the lonely wretch and the misdirected Victor Frankenstein are two of literature's most lasting images. But, upon reading this commentary and realizing how wrong it was, I asked myself one question, "why"? Why is it that the wretch and its creator have remained so indelibly imprinted on our imaginations?

"We need scarcely say, that these volumes have neither principle, object, nor moral..."

Frankenstein was nothing if it wasn't moral. The novel poses numerous philosophical questions. Should man have the power to create? Do we have the right to destroy that which we create? How is evil created? Do we create our own evils? Is society's blind pursuit of science a strength or a weakness? Does this pursuit bring us closer to our virtues and ideals or drag us away from them? These are the questions at...

... middle of paper ...

... These were issues close to her heart.

These are also questions which persist today. We know that people who commit crimes were very often exposed to those crimes when they were children. Child abusers for instance, are almost always victims of abuse themselves. Can strong parenting help prevent violence?

"and we shall therefore dismiss the novel without further comment"

Frankenstein is an story that will last for centuries. It is an ageless parable. Perhaps the reason why it has lasted so long and will continue to do so is that it is truly unanswerable. It asks questions which demand a broad understanding of human nature-- questions which have fascinated us from the beginning and will always do so. It shows the vague almost imperceptible line between good and evil, benevolence and malevolence, victim and criminal. In addition, it prompts us to consider our own existence and our influence over the existence of others. The monster and its creator are effective images because they are both monsters that we, society, created ourselves-- out of our desire to improve and out of our inability to predict.