Mary Shelley
Synopsis:
Victor Frankenstein has always been fascinated by science, and when he is old enough to attend a university, he quickly blossoms into one of the brightest students. Frankenstein develops new scientific apparatus and makes important discoveries in numerous fields, but he is not satisfied by these developments. Instead, Frankenstein devotes himself with discovering the nature of life. After years of devoting himself to the study of anatomy and physiology, Frankenstein discovers the secret of creating life. However, not concerning himself with the results, Frankenstein refuses to rest until he endows the spark of life into an inanimate body. A body that becomes a monster...
My Thoughts:
The media gets almost everything about Frankenstein wrong. First of all, Frankenstein isn't the monster. Frankenstein is the scientists. The monster sadly does not have a name. Poor Monster. Also, the monster is not slow, is not green, isn't stupid, and doesn't have bolts sticking out of its body. It is actually faster, stronger, and more agile than humans, is almost normal colored though has a slight yellow tint, is very smart, and in general looks relatively like a human. He even wants to be compassionate, but isn't allowed to due to humans' judgmental nature. Really, the story isn't a horror novel at all. If anything, its a tragedy. And while much of the book is sad, I did still enjoy it. The language in the book is very sophisticated without being unreadable. Instead it just helps to enlarge my vocabulary. I will admit that some parts of the book had very lengthy descriptions of events that had no real value to the overall story, but in general, I very much enjoyed it. It shows many faults in humanity, which seeing as it was for my English class, was very helpful for writing a paper. Beyond just the confines of an English classroom, it does teach some valuable lessons; however, I won't go in to all of those here.
Questions for Thought:
1. Who do you think is the "bad guy" in the story?
2. Is Frankenstein morally justified in making a life? If not, are there circumstances that would make it justifiable?
3. If you knew the secret of bestowing life into an inanimate body, would you use it? What would you create?
4. Were you Frankenstein, would you have created your monster a female companion?
Please leave your comments and answers!
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1 comment:
1) The "bad guy" is anyone repulsed by the Monster simply for being ugly. As long as he showers and uses deodorant, who cares what he looks like? He can't control that.
2) Yes, only because his experiments themselves didn't hurt anybody. He didn't intend to cause pain, nor use pain or violence as a means to an end. It went awry, but that's no reason to reprimand the scientist. If anything, judging the scientist for "going too far" would disincentivize other scientists from attempting to answer difficult questions, going against the very nature of what science is.
3) I'd absolutely use such a power. It's often hard for me to wake up and get going in the morning; I feel like this power would be useful for jump-starting my day, transforming me from inanimate object into a productive member of society.
4) I'd have made him a cat. I love cats, and assume the Monster would too. They're the solution to loneliness, in my arrogant opinion.
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