I don’t know how I went all of these years without reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I knew before even turning the first page that I would love the story about to be revealed to me. Anything about a monster or a beast draws my attention, particularly if the so-called monster is misunderstood. There is some kind of psychological allure to them, perhaps because they are shunned by society and made outcasts in spite of whatever beauty lies inside of them. More often than not, such a rejection destroys that inner beauty, and they become exactly what society expects them to be: a monster.
One thing I have noticed after sharing discussions on the class forum is that I have a different take about why the creation of the monster is so horrific. Just about everyone says that Victor rejected his own creation after realizing the horrendous sin he had committed, that he had overstepped his boundary into God’s realm, and that only God has the power to create life. I don’t believe in the Christian God, and I don’t believe in sin. I think this opened me to the idea that Victor was so horrified of his creation because it removed all the magic from life, rendering it to a complex but utterly scientific process. Of course it could then be argued that because the creature became a murderer, a sinner, that its existence is proof that God’s hand is required to make a person good. On the other hand, I think if someone had befriended the creature, he could have remained innocent and quite possibly could have lived out a normal life.
Ha! Guess you could say I’m an optimistic heathen. Isn’t there a circle in Hell for that?
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