The Real Monster in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein Essay -- Who is the Tr

Frankenstein is a classic horror novel, alone with a current of air of many othergenres. Written by Mary Shelley, it was a novel which mixed manyexciting elements, such as horror, drama and romance. The storyfollows a young doctor named Victor Frankenstein, who has an obsessionto reincarnate the dead, but his attempts at this fail horribly, andVictor finds himself in deep peril, as the heller stalks himthroughout the world. I aim to investigate the issue, however, of whois the true monster in Frankenstein. The monster or Frankensteinhimself?Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein, was a highly intellectualand creative woman, one of the elite group writers in Britain. Herinspiration for Frankenstein was taken from several things. The planitself for Frankenstein was taken from a dream, but her theories of life sentence and explanation of the human anatomy came from noted scientists,philosophers and alchemists from Europe. This spawned the seed of themonster of Frankenstein, an int ellectual creature, a lover of music,poetry and other such sophisticated occupancies. The basis of thewhole story in itself, however, is a result of a dish the dirt to the countryand place where the actual book was based in itself. In the summer of1816, nineteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her lover, thepoet Percy Shelley (whom she married later that year), visited thepoet Lord Byron at his villa beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland.Normally, poor weather conditions would entreat them to go into thehouse, where they would often entertain each other with a volume ofghost stories Lord Byron held in his possession. . One curiouslystormy evening, Byron challenged his guests to each write onethemselves. Marys story, inspired by... ... the monster withless than basic human emotions he spurned it, and hoped never to seeit again. This is an extremely supreme decision. It is evidentthat Frankenstein did not realize that, even though his specimen wasdefective on the outside, it w as still a living, breathing, thinkingbeing. A being which needed love, tending and tutoring. In his misguidedand blind attempts to cheat death, Frankenstein has in fact broughtdeath on others, which is a despicable act. Some may argue thatFrankenstein had no choice, but I believe that is inaccurate. He had achoice. He could have stayed, tutored the monster, and tutor it as anequal, in matters of logic and science, and given it as normal a lifeas it could have. Or, he could have chosen the path that he did, thatpath Mary Shelley laid out for this book, one which inevitably led topain and chaos.