From this nightmare she now had the basis of her story and went on to complete it. At the time it was published in I8I8 people saw the world differently to how people do now and there was far more propaganda about the issues that are covered in the book. People were also far more religious and had very strong beliefs. The story would have been looked on in an entirely different light it was the sort of story that would make you too scared to sleep and sent a chill up your spine, but now it doesn’t have the same effect as people are far more highly educated and separate fact from fiction.
There are many moral themes in the book hidden amongst the depths of Mary Shelley’s writing. The book covers many issues of morals and the monster is the focus of these. The thing that primarily stands out is the issue of prejudice, nowadays we as a society see people every day who have physical disabilities and a vast majority of people treat them as equals as we over the years have learnt to accept them into society. When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein people with disabilities or abnormalities were classed as “freaks” and were rejected and made outcasts or put in a freak show to be stared and laughed at for example “the elephant man”.
In the novel Mary Shelley also tackles the scientific side of the many separate issues. She also makes clear to the reader the consequences of “playing god”. At the time the book was written there were many medical advances beginning to come to light, as medical science and biology were becoming more commonly understood, but cutting up bodies was still frowned upon by some, of course there were many different opinions on whether science was being taken too far that is where Mary Shelley got her idea for Victor’s professors at Ingolstadt university, Professor Krempe the traditional scientist and Professor Waldman the experimentalist. Obviously there were only a small number of bodies available to be dissected in the name of science and grave robbing became quite a frequent thing.
Before he created the monster Victor did a lot of things in preparation. He spent a lot of time at charnel houses and in graveyards selecting immaculate body parts for his creation, but towards the end of the preparation he begins to regret spending so much time on the creation
“Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living
animal to animate lifeless clay?”
He had become so wrapped up in it that he has denied himself a life of his own in order to bring life to dead matter.
“For this I had deprived myself of rest and health”
During his time spent on creating his monster he practically loses all contact with his family and the only friend he speaks to is Henry Clerval I think that the fact that he lost touch with his family just reiterates the issue of just how wrapped up in it he was.
When the monster is finally brought to life the scene that Mary Shelley sets is one of great atmosphere and you are eager of what is coming next and yet almost expectant of what is going to happen
“It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the
accomplishment of my toils”
As soon as the monster is created Mary Shelley wants you to dislike it she shows this through Victor’s words
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care
I had endeavoured to form?”
She uses the word “catastrophe” to show that straight away Victor regrets what he has done although his regrets have been building for some time the reader is not shown the extent of his doubts until the monster is animated.
“…now I had finished the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.”
She also uses some strong contrasts to describe the monster “lustrous” hair and “shrivelled complexion”, I think that this is intended to portray both the good and the bad side of the monsters personality. Victor is so disgusted with what he has done that he just leaves him there in the hope that he will perish and neglects his responsibility, as, in effect he is the creations father since he brought him into the world so he should take care of him as he has no idea of his abilities, he is unaware of whether he is able to talk or walk but he doesn’t care as far as he’s concerned he isn’t liable for him.
When the monster tells his story he excites our sympathy when he tells of how he read Victor’s lab notes and they revealed that he was just an unwanted experiment. As he continues his story the reader comes to realise that the creature wasn’t evil from the beginning and he proves this by saving the young girl from drowning. The reason that he ended up that way was because he was rejected from society because of his physical appearance and the increasing loneliness and isolation drives him to become bitter and cruel and so building his anger and impelling him to take revenge on his creator. But he doesn’t until Victor turns down his request for a female companion. In some ways the reader is meant to pity the monster because after all he must be leading a very lonely life nobody will speak to him because of his appearance and there is nobody else like him. But Victor refuses him happiness despite the monster’s threats towards himself, his family and his friends.
Mary Shelley intended the creatures actions to shock or even horrify the readers at the time it was written but nowadays it takes a lot more to shock readers as there is far more controversial material available to read and to see in the form of films.
The way that Victor speaks to the creature is crucial to the story and the terms of abuse that he uses to refer to him are meant to make the reader feel his disgust towards the creature. He uses words such as daemon, wretch and fiend to insult the thing that he created. He used these terms towards the monster before he killed and perhaps his aggression towards him is part of the reason that the monster felt he needed to have revenge on his creator.
When Victor is telling his story to Robert Walton the way that he describes the creature causes him to feel the same way as Victor about him as Victor is telling the story from his point of view, because obviously he cant see any reasoning for the monsters point of view and he wants Robert Walton to feel sorry for him.
I think that by the end the reader is supposed to view the creature from both points of view the good side of him and the bad side. Was Mary Shelley simply writing of the nightmare she had on lake Geneva or was she writing about the fears she had about childbirth. Frankenstein can be viewed in many ways for example a reflection of Mary’s fears of having a deformed child or a child she couldn’t love or a indication of her worries of scientific research going too far.
