Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a novel that is of the genre of science fiction. The setting of Frankenstein takes place in 1816 Europe, mainly England and Switzerland. Frankenstein is written in epistolary form because Frankenstein was said to have been written by Frankenstein himself, Victor Frankenstein himself. The plot of Frankenstein can be divided into three separate parts: 1) Frankenstein’s childhood, 2) Frankenstein’s young adulthood and 3) Frankenstein’s adult life.
Frankenstein is a novel that has a complicated plot due to the amount of characters involved in the story. Frankenstein starts off by being told from Frankenstein’s own perspective but later it is narrated by an outside character Walton who Frankenstein would have been communicating with through letters throughout Frankenstein’s life. Frankenstein starts off Frankenstein’s childhood being informed about Frankenstein’s family, Frankenstein then goes on to study natural philosophy (today known as science) under the tutelage of his best friend Henry Clerval.
Frankenstein forms a bond with Elizabeth Lavenza who Frankenstein eventually falls in love with and becomes engaged to marry; Frankenstein also spends time with his mother during this time. Frankenstein later leaves Geneva where he was studying to go to university in Ingolstadt which is considered today Germany, due to Victor Frankenstein feeling homesick he returns back home when he learns that his mother has died.
Frankenstein meets up with his father after not seeing him for two years; however Frankenstein feels resentment towards his father believing it is William Frankenstein’s fault that Frankenstein’s mother died. Frankenstein goes on to have a good relationship with his father and Frankenstein would visit him often until Frankenstein becomes a young adult where he decides to move out of his family home and live in a university dormitory.
Frankenstein meets up with Henry Clerval who is studying medicine at Ingolstadt but Henry has become sick due to accidental poisoning of the water supply of the town, Frankenstein nurses Henry back to health by allowing him to drink from some of Frankenstein’s blood which was contaminated due to Frankenstein practicing some experimental vivisection on some dogs that ended up dying from it. As expected from Frankenstein he becomes obsessed with life and death which later leads into Frankenstein deciding that he wants to create a living being using science however Frankenstein struggles to give a living being a functioning body.
Frankenstein decides that he will create a female creature, Frankenstein then spends three years gathering the supplies he need for his experiment and Frankenstein starts off by studying different texts in hopes of finding something that Frankenstein could use for his experiment such as looking at the inner workings of animal bodies, Frankenstein also dissects humans and corpses in order to get an idea of how exactly Frankenstein would go about creating life from scratch.
Frankenstein eventually creates life by piecing together parts from different human corpses Frankenstein had collected; Frankenstein’s creation is brought to life due to Walton who was visiting Ingolstadt staying the night and witnessing the birth himself though Walton does not identify himself with any name or title in Frankenstein allowing him to remain as a mystery figure which added suspense to Frankenstein as Frankenstein had no idea what the creature he created looked like.
Frankenstein was overjoyed at his creation and Frankenstein’s happiness would have been shared among those around Frankenstein however Frankenstein quickly comes down from this high due to William Frankenstein visiting Frankenstein and seeing the creature that Frankenstein had created.
Frankenstein sends his creature away so that William Frankenstein could not find out what it is, soon after Mary Shelley decides to use the device of having Walton write letters to Frankenstein about his journey across the North Pole which allowed for events occurring in one part of the novel being able to interact with another part of the novel which ended up making Frankenstein a unique novel for its time period. In Frankenstein, there are different themes such as Appearance vs Reality, Frankenstein’s creature being the main theme that Frankenstein passes down from generation to generation.
Frankenstein’s creature is a grotesque character who due to Frankenstein abandoning it in its early years causes Frankenstein’s creature to become extremely resentful of Frankenstein and Frankenstein would use this as a reason for his creation turning evil however Frankenstein could have prevented what happened by teaching his creation when he was younger or Frankenstein going back to see if his creation turned out okay.
Frankenstein deals with the theme of appearance versus reality. Frankenstein deals with the idea that people are not what they appear to be on the outside, and it shows several examples of this. Frankenstein’s monster is an excellent example of this. Frankenstein’s monster may seem evil at first, but in actuality he is simply trying to explain himself. Frankenstein’s monster wants nothing more than to be accepted for who he is, but every time Frankenstein sees him, Frankenstein runs away in fear causing Frankenstein’s monster to become angrier each time he tries to speak or show kindness towards Frankenstein.
Another example of appearance vs reality in Frankenstein would be Elizabeth Lavenza/Clerval vs Justine Moritz. Unlike Frankenstein who ran away when his monster tried to talk to him, Elizabeth Lavenza/Clerval tried to communicate with Frankenstein’s monster.
Frankenstein’s monster took a liking towards Elizabeth Lavenza/Clerval, and Frankenstein did not see how his monster could have any good in him due to Frankenstein being more focused on the outside appearance of Frankenstein’s monster being evil rather than going straight to the source of Frankenstein’s monster. Justine Moritz was executed for a crime her girlfriend committed. Frankenstein saw Justine as a victim who was punished for no reason while everyone else thought she had committed the crime.
In conclusion, Mary Shelley uses Frankenstein to show that people are often not what they appear to be from their exterior or from other people’s perspective. Everyone judges a book by its cover, Frankenstein shows that this isn’t always accurate.
