The Gothic Aspects of Frankenstein and the differences between pop culture and the novel.
As we have discussed in class, a key part of the Gothic genre is that the antagonistic force has some allure to it. The "evil" is not truly evil because it needs to be seductive to both the main character and the reader. Mary Shelley did an excellent job with this in her piece, Frankenstein.
In Frankenstein, we learn the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein: a young scientist who while at school learns what it is that makes a being alive, and uses that knowledge to animate a monster of his own creation. The knowledge that Dr. Frankenstein discovers is cleverly disguised in the book, making it mysterious, all-powerful, and most importantly, alluring. This is only the first instance of the allure of the evil. We then get to learn Frankenstein's monster's story and the reader finds him almost pitiful. Frankenstein's monster is essentially an abandoned child, who is extremely lonely because there is no other being on earth like him, and outcast for his appearance. The reader can sympathize with the monster at first, and then he burns down a house, kills a child, then frames it on beautiful Justine because she probably would not have sex with him. (Despite that Frankenstein's monster continues his sympathetic allure, the anger at women for not being attracted to him ruins the sympathy for me.) And finally, at the end of the novel when we see Dr. Frankenstein's demise, his monster shows remorse for his actions. He tells Walton that he plans to light himself on fire to make sure no one else suffers from his actions. We hear a bit of the monster's perspective, and learn that he feels his neglect has skewed his opinion of right and wrong. That he never learned to handle his emotions. He again appears sympathetic despite ruining Dr. Frankenstein's life. Shelley's ability to make the reader sympathize with a monster is the main aspect that makes this story gothic.
Something interesting that kept grabbing my attention while reading Frankenstein is how different the pop culture image and the novel are. Before reading Shelley's novel, when I thought of Dr. Frankenstein I saw an old, mad scientist, digging up graves and harnessing electricity. I saw a blundering, murderous monster, who was pitiful because he was not intelligent enough to communicate. I saw a town with pitchforks and torches chasing after the 8-foot beast. I thought that the Dr. Frankenstein pop culture created, was the real Frankenstein. When I read the novel, all I could keep wondering was why did movies dumb this story down so much? Why did the monster have to be unintelligent? Why did Dr. Frankenstein have to be old and devote his life to this project? Where did the lightning come from? It is upsetting to see that such an iconic novel has been given such an inaccurate reputation.
In Frankenstein, we learn the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein: a young scientist who while at school learns what it is that makes a being alive, and uses that knowledge to animate a monster of his own creation. The knowledge that Dr. Frankenstein discovers is cleverly disguised in the book, making it mysterious, all-powerful, and most importantly, alluring. This is only the first instance of the allure of the evil. We then get to learn Frankenstein's monster's story and the reader finds him almost pitiful. Frankenstein's monster is essentially an abandoned child, who is extremely lonely because there is no other being on earth like him, and outcast for his appearance. The reader can sympathize with the monster at first, and then he burns down a house, kills a child, then frames it on beautiful Justine because she probably would not have sex with him. (Despite that Frankenstein's monster continues his sympathetic allure, the anger at women for not being attracted to him ruins the sympathy for me.) And finally, at the end of the novel when we see Dr. Frankenstein's demise, his monster shows remorse for his actions. He tells Walton that he plans to light himself on fire to make sure no one else suffers from his actions. We hear a bit of the monster's perspective, and learn that he feels his neglect has skewed his opinion of right and wrong. That he never learned to handle his emotions. He again appears sympathetic despite ruining Dr. Frankenstein's life. Shelley's ability to make the reader sympathize with a monster is the main aspect that makes this story gothic.
Something interesting that kept grabbing my attention while reading Frankenstein is how different the pop culture image and the novel are. Before reading Shelley's novel, when I thought of Dr. Frankenstein I saw an old, mad scientist, digging up graves and harnessing electricity. I saw a blundering, murderous monster, who was pitiful because he was not intelligent enough to communicate. I saw a town with pitchforks and torches chasing after the 8-foot beast. I thought that the Dr. Frankenstein pop culture created, was the real Frankenstein. When I read the novel, all I could keep wondering was why did movies dumb this story down so much? Why did the monster have to be unintelligent? Why did Dr. Frankenstein have to be old and devote his life to this project? Where did the lightning come from? It is upsetting to see that such an iconic novel has been given such an inaccurate reputation.
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