“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley

Honestly, I found this classic to be a bit of a disappointment. The various spin-offs and the science fiction culture that has emerged as a result of this story is probably better and more fascinating than the original itself.

Of course there’s the classic misconception: the scientist’s name is Victor Frankenstein, his monster is just a monster. And interestingly, it never says that an electric shock is what causes the monster to come to life. Victor is actually an idiot in my opinion. He creates a monster, then is so horrified by what he created that he flees his apartment and waits for the monster to go away. Nice dude. You really nailed it there. And that’s how literally every single problem begins: because Victor couldn’t take care of a being that he created voluntarily. Or bother making his creature look alright enough to not be horrifying. Or make a creature that isn’t physically superior to him in every way. It’s as though he was trying to create a mess or something.

Then once the monster gets out there and actually hurts someone, his way of dealing with it isn’t to speak up, but to ignore the problem and hope that it goes away. Classic men, am I right? And when the monster tells him that he just wants a companion, Victor refuses and, knowing the consequences of this choice, brings about the deaths of his friends and family. What a weak-ass protagonist, I spent the majority of the book being pissed off at him.

There’s a lot of different aspects of this book to talk about, but I want to focus on what we owe each other. Victor brought the monster into this world, making him a parent in a pretty literal way. He created the monster, he gave him life. And then he dropped him like a hot potato. Does he owe the monster something more?

I think, yeah, he does. If you are raising another creature then you have a responsibility for it. Victor recognizes this towards the end and admits his fault, saying that he should have either raised him right or ended him. While I won’t advocate for destroying naughty children, this seems like pretty clear support for abortion to me. Victor could not teach the monster correctly, and therefore should never have had him in the first place.

Then there’s this question of identity. Victor never gives the monster a name. The monster is then this unknowable mystery beast. Friend? Foe? What? It’s terrifying precisely because anyone who meets him does not know what to categorize him as. And since his companion was never made, the monster is the only one of his kind, a unique specimen. This serves to further alienate him from society that he longs to be a part of.

His appearance figures heavily into that identity as well. Others find the sight of him repulsive, and their reaction to his as a monster is precisely what turns him into one. He starts off loving and compassionate, but when turned away by every human that he meets he becomes a murderer. Because that’s what society expects of him, and he finds it easier to go with the flow of that rather than resist it.

All in all, the monster is a much more compelling character than dumb ol Victor. Taking a look at his character and the results of his abandonment is definitely preferable to watching Victor blame himself and then not do a damn thing about it. Which unfortunately is what most of the book focuses on. Hard to imagine that this book kickstarted so much of the sci-fi that we see today.