Written by: Simon Sangat - 22019, Grade XII
Posted on: 23 March, 2022
Frankenstein is a gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in the year 1818. The novel is also known as ‘The modern prometheus’ and it stands on the rating 4 out of 5. This novel contains a lot of difficult words as it is set in the early 1800s. Frankenstein is the most popular novel of Mary Shelley, it is a gothic fiction novel with a hint of romance and science fiction. This novel was set in the early 1800s in different parts of Europe i.e ; Switzerland , France, England , Scotland and the north pole. The characters in this novel are Victor Frankenstein, Henry Clerval, Robert Walton , Elizabeth Lavenza, The Monster , Alphonse Frankenstein , Justine Moritz and Beaufort.
The story starts with 4 letters which were written by Robert Walton to his sister Margaret . Robert is a captain of a ship which is heading towards the north pole. In the letter robert writes
that he and his crew discovered a body in the iceberg and the body was of a man named Victor Frankenstein. Victor shares his story with Robert and in this way the story starts. Victor starts his story from his childhood , he lived in Geneva , Switzerland. His family adopted a girl named Elizabeth and Victor had a younger brother named William. When Victor turned 17 he was planning to go for the university at Ingolstadt. But sadly his mother died due to scarlet fever. After that Victor goes to the university and there his interest starts to grow on the subject of philosophy and science. He started questioning himself, “what is life? , who was the creator of life?What is the secret behind life?.” He tried to find the answer to these questions and tried different ways to create life. Professor Waldman also encouraged Victor’s interest in chemistry. Professor Waldman had a profound influence on Victor Frankenstein because of his extensive knowledge and kind support of Victor in his scientific activities.
Victor worked day and night to complete his passion. He was an ambitious man who devoted himself to the study of science. He read a lot of books by famous scientists and started working on his passion. He collected the bones of the dead and made a creature out of it, he did his experiments on him and made him alive but disappointingly the creature looked horrible and terrifying. As he worked so vigorously he felt ill for months, his friend Henry Clerval took care of him during these tough times. During this he got a letter which said that his younger brother was murdered. Victor believed that the monster he made killed his dear brother. The whole family suspected that the maid , Justine, had killed William. Soon after Justine was sentenced and for all this Victor felt guilty. So to forget this tragedy Vicor went on a vacation.
Suddenly , one day the monster appears in front of him. The monster was not there to hurt Victor but he insisted Victor listen to his story , Victor agreed and the monster then started to recite his melancholy. He mentioned that due to his big terrifying look he was not accepted in the society , everyone was scared of him. Then he went to a cottage where he stayed hidden. He only got out at night so that the people would not see him. He learned the language of humans by observing for a long time. There he learned to read too, he also read a book which he found in the jacket.. He complained that wherever he went everyone judged him by his outer appearance and no one saw his inner kindness and decency. Then the monster requested Victor to make a female companion as he was lonely. Victor denied at first but afterwards he agreed. Then he went to an island , where he started the preparation to make a female monster. One night he realized that he was stepping towards the destruction of human beings. Here he finally realizes the consequences of going against nature and taking science against it. Then he destroyed the female monster. The monster was burning from anger, hatred and the feeling of revenge. He swears that he would come back to take revenge on the night of his wedding.
Soon After , Victor finds out that his good friend Henry was brutally murdered. Victor was so devastated that he felt ill. Then Victor came back home to Geneva and there he married the love of his life , Elizabeth and as the monster promised he killed Elizabeth exactly on the night of their wedding. After the death of Elizabeth Victor’s father died too. Victor was all alone in this world so he decided to take his revenge. He tracked the monster and reached the north pole , in the process of finding the monster due to the cracking of ice Victor was buried underneath, where captain Robert and his crew found him. And Robert was telling all this story to his sister through letters.
In the end Victor dies after completing his story and the monster arrives after Victor’s death and cries beside the dead body. The monster had no purpose in life now his creator was dead so he killed himself too, in this way the story ends.
