Week 1 - Frankenstein : Mary Shelley

    After reading the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Robert Walton's letters to his sister frame the story that Victor Frankenstein tells to Walton, and Frankenstein's story surrounds the story that the monster tells, which in turn frames the story of the De Lacey family. Frankenstein is a gothic novel. Although Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is compelling in and of itself, it also functions on a symbolic level or levels, with Frankenstein's monster standing in for the coming of industrialization to Europe, and the death and destruction that the monster wreaks symbolizing the ruination that Shelley feared industrialization would eventually cause. One of the early parts of the book I can recall to was when the monster has taught himself to read and understand language so that he can follow the lives of his "adopted" family, the De Laceys. While the monster wanders the woods, he comes upon a jacket with a notebook and letters that were lost by Victor. From the notes, the monster learns of his creation. He has endured rejection by mankind, but he has not retaliated upon mankind in general for his misfortune. Instead, he has decided to take revenge on his creator's family to avenge the injury and sorrow he endures from others. Frankenstein's creation was bent on revenge against the creator because of the creators pain and sorrows. In the end Frankenstein dies leaving the reader and myself somewhat sad and it was unsettling. Over all good book never was able to read it in High school glad I had the chance to this time around.