Frankenstein Blog (9/10/2020)

 Frankenstein

    Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's seminal work that inspired horror and science fiction novels to come. Opening with letters from Walton, a ship captain searching for a northwest passage who discovers first traces of a large creature, and then an emaciated man adrift on the ice. Walton was curious and questioned the stranger after he settled on the ship, and he told Walton that his name was Victor Frankenstein. After becoming acquainted with each other, Victor tells Walton about his life and why he came so far north. Victor lost his mother at an early age, but as he grew older he became more and more enamored by the natural sciences. Eventually going to college to become a natural philosopher, he began to study what was considered to be "forbidden knowledge", including what he claims to be some essential truth or property of life. A property which gave him the ability to reanimate dead flesh and create new life; he completed his creature after months of isolation, an action he immediately regretted and would come to regret for most of the novel. Victor's friends come back into his life, and for some time it seems he is coming out of this fog of disconnect which his search for knowledge created. But when he visits his home to see childhood love, one of his own family is found murdered. Victor suspects the monster but does not want to reveal what he had unleashed upon his own, especially when his late brother's wife is implicated in the crime. The monster confronts him in time and relays experiences in the world that have caused him existential torment: seeing his own reflection, being rejected and chased off by other people, and coming to find a biting loneliness to his miserable existence. He demands his creator create another creature, a bride for him, and promises to never trouble humanity again in exchange. Victor begrudgingly accepts, but after journeying to Scotland with his friend to create it, he has the realization that they may have offspring and create "a race of devils." Victor destroys the creation before it can be finished, and the Monster then kills his friend and wife out of vengeance. Victor dedicates the remainder of his life to the extermination of the creature, and journeys north to the ice sheets where Walton discovered him. Mere days of completing his tale, Walton finds Victor dead with his creature towering and weeping above him. The creature attempts to solidify its life and experience to Walton, explaining how his suffering was greater than the person who forced existence upon him. The creature leaves the ship, and resolves to end his suffering.

    I found the differing perspectives shed light on different aspects of the characters that would otherwise get left out of the story if only a single character's perspective was shown. Walton's search for knowledge in the form of the northwest passage would have seemed less meaningful without the context given by Victor and his own search for knowledge. Moreover, the disconnection experienced by Victor as a result of his search would have less bite without the Monster to provide a personification of disconnection and the price of forbidden knowledge.

Do these differing perspectives enhance the story? Would each character be as well-rounded without them?