Frankenstein || Mary Shelley

This is my first time reading this class; at the age of 22! Before even deciding to buy the book, a few biases have already grown within me - I imagined it having little content and reflection. I actually thought it was just a physically haunting tale of description and fright. But I was wrong. The book really took a lot of important issues at hand: It made you think a lot about consciousness (what is needed to be added to the material body to create it), you think about the objectivity of human beings (how the unobvious culture and environment we live in actually "looks" like from an alien being)m you also think about existence (purpose and reason). These topics really linger themselves inside the reader's mind when the book is being ingested. This did not disappoint at all. And I really do admire the way the narration is done, it made me think of Dostoevsky. This must be the theme I am highly interested in.

COMMENTS

Plot: Very interesting and nicely compiled. The early pages consists of the letters and thoughts of a different character also talking about a lone sailor he's found in shore: Frankenstein. And after that we are to know Frankenstein's story, also his creation's. This type of technique allows the reader to explore different accounts credibly and in a sound manner. The story line was very interesting yet it does not focus there. Like I said above, the main content is the discussions the book raises.

Characters: All of them brought an element of Dostoevesky which, being a fan of, I highly admired. You really get to empathize with them, especially Frankenstein's monster's lament. It is far too classical and emotional which brings me near to keeping the character as one of my favorites. They spoke with great charater and narration which always impress me.

Imagery: Very above average. Mary Shelley writes poetry with her narrration. The way she communicates narration are just above par as she has a way of allowing the surroundings to be part of one's self.

Reflections: They are very much present when they are needed. This allows the reader to really take their account to a personal level with allows connection. I did enjoy Frankenstein's reflection before and after having created the monster, and even when he was in search for it. The reflections were really rational and passionate. And how can I not talk about the monster's own secluded point of view. They were just classical. Very sentimental and passionate as well. One of my favorites.

Writing Style: Like I said, Mary Shelley writes in that level same as Dostoevsky's (or vice versa). She does allow a room for the reader to reflect and think about such matters present in the book. Also, the narration is very creative and poetic in a way which never makes the book boring. It is hard to turn down as each chapter ends as if tugging a rope towards the next chapter. Very nicely written; a classic for a reason.

Quotables:

I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death and to induce me to commence his laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on a expedition of discovery up his native river.

-          Frankenstein, 14. Mary Shelley.

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                ‘Several changes of day and night passed, and the orb of night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my sensations from each other. I gradually saw plainly the clear stream that supplied me with drink and the trees that shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes. I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me, and to perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me. Sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds but was unable. Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again.

-          Frankenstein, 99. Mary Shelley.

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As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me which led me to consider the effects of what I was doing. Three years before, I was engaged in the same manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man and hide himself in deserts, but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other; the creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form? She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species.

-          Frankenstein, 160. Mary Shelley.

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Reference: Shelley, Mary. 1818. Frankenstein. England: Penguin Books.