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Frankenstein- review

Lingua Inglese (Università degli Studi di Torino)

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FRANKENSTEIN-BOOK REVIEW

1. TITLE: Frankenstein

2. AUTHOR: Mary Shelley

3. COPYRIGHT DATE: 1985;1992;2003

4. GENRE: Gothic science fiction

5. HISTORICAL, CULTURAL, SOCIAL BACKGROUND:

Frankenstein is part of the gothic fiction, a narrative genre that takes place during the second
half of the 18th century.
This age was full of innovation and change at the European level and also outside.
Between the various important events the most significant historical facts were the
American Revolution and the French Revolution. The first was carried out from 1775 to
1783 and was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the thirteen North
American colonies, who claimed their independence from the mother country. This conflict
led the thirteen colonies to achieve their independence and to approve, in 1789, the United
States Constitution.
The French Revolution broke out, instead, in France between 1789 and 1799.
Founded on three principles, liberty, equality and fraternity, brought, among many changes,
the abolition of absolute monarchy, the proclamation of the republic with the abolition of the
so-called Ancient Regime and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen that is
the base of the modern constitutions.
Social background is ruled by The Enlightenment, a social, political, cultural and
philosophical movement that took place in Europe during the 18th century and that had, as
its fundamental principles, liberty, reason, progress, tolerance and fraternity.
At the end of the Eighteenth century it developed in Germany another artistic, cultural,
musical and literary movement, the Romanticism, which had, among the main themes,
eroticism, individualism, subjectivism and the negation of Enlightenment reason.
Finally, regarding the social context, in this period it was very important the Industrial
Revolution, a process of economic development or industrialization of the society that
began in England in the late Eighteenth century and that led the society to be from an
agricultural-crafts-commercial system to a modern industrial system composed by
innovative technological machines. However, despite these innovations, the conditions of
women and children, being exploited in the work of the factory, did not change.

6. NARRATION:
Frankenstein is written in first person and, so, by a point of view more introspective.
In the book there are two main narrators: the first, in the part of the book in which are
reported the letters that a mariner writes to his sister, is the mariner himself, Robert Walton,
and the second is Victor Frankenstein that tells the story of the monster.
Than we can find other two narrators, Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein, that,
through their letters to Victor, recount pieces of the story.
Finally also The Monster tells his story in first person.

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7. SETTING:
The setting of the letters is the Artic, while the story told by Victor is set in different places.
At first it is set in Geneva, in Switzerland, that is the hometown of Victor, than in Inglostadt,
in upper Bavaria, where Victor frequents the University and later creates the monster, in the
valley of Chamounix, in France, where Victor meets the monster again, in Great Britain and
finally in the North Pole, where he meets Robert Walton.

8. MAIN CHARACTERS:
Victor: son of Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort, is born in Naples but he grows
up in Genevese.
Closed and introverted, he can not relate to his classmates, except with Henry Clerval with
whom he will tighten a strong and sincere friendship.
Growing up, Victor, thanks to a book by Cornelius Agrippa, becomes interested in natural
philosophy, but when he discovers that his myths, on which he based all his knowledge, are
not truthful, he decides to devote himself to the study of mathematics and science attached
to her.
Taken by a relentless thirst for knowledge, after the death of his mother, he decides to go to
the University of Ingolstadt, where he resumes his studies of natural philosophy and can
become an expert. He wants to give life to a creature entirely inanimate but the achievement
of this objective requires to Victor hours and hours of hard work and insulation so that he
becomes ill.
When his work is finished, Victor understands that he has created nothing but a monstrous
heap of muscles and limbs and when he realizes that the monster is a vicious murderer he
feels into himself a great and strong remorse. He is then destroyed by a sharp pain when the
monster kills, during the wedding night, the cousin and wife of Victor, Elizabeth.
Finally, he dies in the North Pole, after meeting Robert Walton.

The monster: created in Ingolstadt by Victor, it has a "gigantic stature; That is to say, about
eight feet in height, and proportionably large" ,yellow eyes, the skin, yellow and wrinkled,
barely covers the muscles and arteries , the hair is black and shiny, and it has white teeth and
black and straight lips.
It is abandoned by its creator shortly after being "born" because of its shapeless looks.
Just created, it is not familiar with the word and it is terrified of fire.
Despite its scary appearance it just wants a normal life among the people, but this is not
enough and people around it, frightened, reject it constantly.
Angry because no one wants it, it decides to take revenge with the human race from its
creator. To hurt Victor it kills at first his brother William, than Justine and finally his friend
Clerval and to put an end to the murders it asks its creator to create another creature who
can keep company to it. Frankenstein, fearing that two monsters can procreate, decides not
to do so and, so, the monster kills Elizabeth, the wife of Victor.

Robert Walton: he is eighteen and English and, after losing his father prematurely, was
raised with his sister by his uncle.
He is passionate since his first years of life about exploration and, despite the ban of his
uncle, he decides to follow his dream and to reach the North Pole, where no one has ever
been. He is a generous man and we can notice that when he takes care, after meeting him, of
Victor.

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Henry Clerval: only true friend of Victor and son of a Genoese merchant, is described by
Victor as a talented guy, with a lot of imagination and fond of books of chivalry and
adventure. When he was young his dream was to be remembered by history. He is tender,
kind and caring, especially towards his friend Victor, who receives his care when he is sick.
He will study ancient languages at the University of Ingolstadt and then he will be killed by
the monster.

Elizabeth Lavenza: prematurely adopted by the Frankenstein family, grows up in Genevese

and falls in love with his cousin Victor. Her appearance is slim and she has a clear
complexion, golden hair, blue and sweet eyes and almost angelic features.
Victor describes her as a "beautiful and adored companion", a gentle, tender and sweet girl
that, by her love, helps him and his friend Clerval to perform good deeds. Grown up, she is
able to obtain the consent of his uncle to marry his cousin, but, during the night of the
wedding, she is killed by the monster.

9. PLOT AND SUBPLOT:

The book begins with four letters written by Captain Robert Walton that tells his sister his
journey to the sea around the North Pole and his meeting with Victor Frankenstein.
The second part of the book is focused on this last one.
Born in Naples, he spends his life in Genevese. He lives a happy childhood with his parents
Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort, his cousin Elizabeth and his brothers William
and Ernest. He has since childhood a passion for natural philosophy and he becomes friend
of a boy named Henry Clerval. After his mother's death, he moves to the University of
Ingolstadt to deepen his knowledge. His greatest wish is to be able to challenge the
superstition and the religion, to change the knowledge of life (and death) that has humanity
and to give life to inanimate matter. He decides to create a fully equipped being with life
and human form, but the creature that he creates proves to be as surprising as monstrous and
away from the original project. Being that Victor creates is nothing but a set of human limbs
caught in cemeteries but soon the creature moves away from the rough of his body to know
the kindness to others, but unfortunately this kindness is given only by it that is constantly
turned away by everybody because of its appearance.
The creature says that it met the family De Lacey, a very kind family and that it wanted to
be part of that family but when it showed itself to them, only the blind man received it while
it is rejected by all the other.
So it decided to take revenge on all humanity starting from his creator so it killed the brother
of Frankenstein. To end this chain of murders the monster asks Victor to create another
being that can stay with it. But after a few attempts he gives up because he fears that the two
monsters could procreate.
So the creature promises Victor to be present in his wedding night with his cousin Elizabeth
Lavenza. The creature holds the promise and, after killing his friend Clerval, it also kills
Victor’s lover.
After the news of the death of Elizabeth, Victor’s father, pained, dies. Victor decides to take
revenge and follows the monster until the North Pole, where he meets Captain Walton.
At this point begins the story of Walton that recounts the death of his friend Victor and his
request for revenge. He says he found the monster crying near the body of Victor and saying

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that all that had happened was fault of the people and especially of its creator who hadn’t
accepted it for his look.

10. MESSAGE OF THE BOOK:

In my opinion, there are two messages of the book. The first is tightly related to the man's
assiduous desire for knowledge that sometimes can go against him. The second, to whom I
am more linked, is a criticism to the human world, to its habit to always judge a book by its
cover, to stop to appearances and, above all, to not understand the consequences of its
actions, but, rather, blame the man that it rejected or offended if he does something bad to it.
The creature didn't want to revenge on the humanity when it was created: it just wanted to
be part of the society, a society that it had learned to love through the De Lacey family.
At least in two steps of the book, when the monster tells its story, we can see the kindness
and the sense of civilization of the creature: the first when, feeling guilty for stealing
supplies to the De Lacey family, it collects the wood for them and the second when it saves
the child's life.
In all the two cases the result is an even more intense isolation. So I'm asking myself if it is
really its fault, if it is really the wrong one or if maybe it is the same humanity, a humanity
that makes progress in science and increasingly setbacks regarding the sensitivity of the
soul.
So I carry a sentence that Mr. (I stress "Mr.") Monster said: “Was there no injustice in this?
Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?”
He just wanted to be loved for his inner qualities but unfortunately, at least in my opinion,
humanity as rich in extraordinary qualities is not at all perfect and till today not ready to
overcome appearances, to look really and only inside people.

11. CRITICAL SOURCES:

When it was published, some critics accused Mery Shelley of not writing the book by
herself.
In fact, living in a male chauvinist society, they believed that masterpiece couldn't have been
written by a woman, so they claimed that Frankenstein was the result of the Mary's husband
and father's work.

12. SHARE A QUOTE OR TWO FROM THE BOOKA ND EXPLAIN:

13. REASONS FOR THE CHOICE:
“How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who
believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to be greater than his nature
will allow.”
I chose this sentence because, as well as it sums up the meaning of the message Victor wants
to give, it also summarizes a debate that is now open and known.
There are, in fact, a lot of people that believe that knowledge is so beautiful, but also very
harmful to humans.
Knowledge shows man his shortcomings and those of humanity, the brutality of which they
were capable characters in the past and in the present and, so, it makes the man more
miserable.

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I believe that knowledge is the most beautiful treasure that a person can find, but I also think
that the price to pay for this treasure is very large.
I think Victor was disappointed by the sciences as he could be from a love gone wrong: he
was in love with knowledge and it has turned against him.
Regarding this sentence I would like to add another closely related: “A human being in
perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion
or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility”
To achieve his wish, Victor ended up getting sick, isolating himself to almost go crazy.
So is it right to follow a wish even when it robs us of our health?
He tells us that this is not right, but I think that when a person really wants, so hauntingly,
something even if it is wrong, it is a too big impulse to be stopped.

13. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE COVER?: the cover of my book portrays the face of
the monster and I can see the seams and the pitons that hold the pieces together.
He has a frightening expression that doesn't refer to anything good.
I don't like the cover so much because it seems that it wants to represent the monster for
what it is not, but I also think that it could be a sort of provocation for the reader.

14. PERSONAL OPINIONS: when I began this book I wasn't very convinced;
I thought that, because of the genre of the book, I wouldn't like the story.
However I had to change my mind because thanks to the narration, that is very careful to all
the details, I could immerse myself into the story very soon.
So, I sincerely recommend it to every kind of reader because, as the book teaches, you never
have to stop at appearances.

Chiara Gigante

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