Title: Frankenstein

By - Mary Shelley

Genre: - Novel

Sub-genre: - Science Fiction // Horror // Fantasy

Nationality: - British

Time Period: - 19th Century

First and Last Read by Dr. Rearick - Spring 1986 // March. 1997

Rated: -

Location: - Rearick Home and Office and on our J-drive

Comments: Here's another one of those books of which everyone knows the name and the event it describes, but which very very few ever get around to reading.  The book itself belongs strongly to the 19th century, but very early in the 19th century which is why in the time section I waver between the two decades.  The fact is that this work is a Romantic work which is in some ways very different from the Victorian tastes which dominate the rest of the 19th century.   This is especially true of Dracula, the novel which often comes to readers' minds next, even though the second work comes out nearly 100 years later.
 

Frankenstein has been often called the "first science fiction novel." Unfortunately it is so intensely connected with the horror sub-genre that many readers (me included) come with a lot of misdirecting presumptions about the book's nature. I suppose I am also influenced by the author's own comments about not really being that concerned about the scientific accuracy of her work.

About the "Introduction" written by  Mary Shelley for Frankenstein:

In her introduction Mary Shelley makes a number of interesting comments about her authorial intent. Especially interesting is her defense that certain artistic expression are only possible in the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction (although she would have had no idea what I was talking about if she heard me speak of such sub-genres).  She begins by first separating her narrative from mere stories of enchantment (sort of playing to her audience's prejudices); then after noting that her  story is unusually interesting because of its subject, Shelley makes the claim that such stories as hers offer a special insight into the human condition:

The event on which the interest of the story depends is exempt from the disadvantages of a mere tale of spectres or enchantment. It was recommended by the novelty of the situations which it develops; and, however impossible as a physical fact, affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield. (Preface)

Like anyone working in a new genre Shelley tries to tie herself down with textual precedents that to her are privileged.

I have thus endeavoured to preserve the truth of the elementary principles of human nature, while I have not scrupled to innovate upon their combinations. The Iliad, the tragic poetry of Greece- Shakespeare, in the Tempest/and Midsummer Night's Dream- and most especially Milton, in Paradise Lost, conform to this rule; and the most humble novelist, who seeks to confer or receive amusement from his labours, may, without presumption, apply to prose fiction a licence, or rather a rule, from the adoption of which so many exquisite combinations of human feeling have resulted in the highest specimens of poetry. (Preface)

The opinions which naturally spring from the and situation of the hero are by no means to be conceived as existing always in my own conviction; nor is any inference justly to be drawn from the following pages as prejudicing any philosophical doctrine of whatever kind. (Preface)

Why was it that the romantics were so fond of frozen wastelands? Much of this reminds me so much of Coleridge

This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. (Letter 1)

There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible its broad disc just skirting the horizon, and diffusing a perpetual splendour. There -- for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators -- there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions and features may be without example, as the phenomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent forever. (Letter 1)

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. (Letter 1)

Finally we meet Frankenstein: what a mess.

I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness, but there are moments when, if anyone performs an act of kindness towards him, or does him any the most trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with a beam of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equalled. But he is generally melancholy and despairing; and sometimes he gnashes his teeth, as if impatient of the weight of woes that oppresses him.

He tells his tale.  Again there are romantic concepts such as the involvement with the poor.  Ironically, however, in the case of Elizabeth there is also this aristocratic racism which assumes that one can spot a person of truly high birth by just looking at his or her features.  Interesting that a young woman, the author Mary Shelley, who scorned her social expectations should still have so much of the English snob in her.
 

• Another point that to me clearly sets this off as a young person's story is the constant exultation of young aspirations.
• The drive to do good.
• The driving search for knowledge.
• The creation of the creature and Frankenstein's failure as a parent.

Reversals: As I have noted in so many horror stories (those of Stoker and Lovecraft) there is a reversal of Christian expectations.  Not only of course does a man do what women were created to do--bring life into this world--but a human attempts what God up till now only has done: animate a sentinel being onto this planet.

Interesting how singularly uninteresting the moment of creation is in the novel when it is probably the one scene most moderns know even if they have never seen the movie.
 

IT WAS on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

Later in the story his arrogance is again bothering me.  When Justine is wrongly accused of the murder of his brother, Frankenstein feels her sorrow but maintains that no one could understand the suffering HE was going through since he was actually the cause of all these tragedies.  GET A GRIP!  The girl is about to be hanged, and he's talking about the dismal state of his soul!  I also find his excuse that no one would believe him that his own creature was the killer unacceptable.  A plausible story. it seems to me, could have been created.    Is Mary Shelley meaning to alienate me from Frankenstein, her story's hero?

Noteworthy the role of nature both on Frankenstein and his creation.  This is again a "romantic" concept.

Interesting that the creature speaks to Frankenstein in an archaic English dialect as we Christians do when we are speaking to our Lord God.