Frankenstein By Mary Shelley Analysis

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus is an exquisite formulation of science, nature, horror, philosophy, mythology all at once. It is seen as a history of resurrection and a story of creation, and the turn of events, that takes place due to that, it eventually leaving the readers with a towering amount of questions. Frankenstein was first published in 1818 i.e., 200 years ago yet we can not seem to get away from its story and ideas. It has been adopted into various plays, books, comics and movies.

The novel opens with a series of letters which Robert Walton writes to his sister. The novel provides the reader with multiple perspectives and gives them the liberty to sympathise them with the one they want. Frankenstein is deeply infused with the elements of the Gothic novel and Romantic Movement. This movement was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the scientific rationalization of nature in the Age of Enlightenment. The novel is subtitled ‘ the Modern Prometheus’ and from the beginning draws attention to the ancient Greek myth of Titan who created humankind out of mud and clay and then dared to steal fire from the gods for the benefit of creation, only to be punished by Zeus.

Some critics see the story as, in some sense sabotaging the elements of nature and what happens when human beings overstep, while others see it as a celebration of ambition and superhuman efforts. However, giving a read to the novel through a Biblical perspective, one would relate ‘the creature’ to Adam and Victor Frankenstein to God and the creature of the being. The title page also carries an epigraph from Milton’s Paradise Lost, another text appropriated by the Romantics. Also one could find the monster reading the same text when abandoned by the scientist and later blaming Frankenstein for its creature “I ought to be thy Adam; but I am the fallen angel”.

Mary Shelley gained the idea of resurrection from a scientific phenomenon called ‘galvanism’, which was quite popular back then. The scientist Galvani even became famous for conducting the experiments with electricity, which showed that electrical impulses could animate the muscles of dead creatures like legs of a deceased frog.

Frankenstein is a remarkable novel forged out of an 18-year-old girl. With a well-planned and balanced plot and perfectly sketched characters, no doubt it has made its way through the subsequent course of time. This novel strikes a deep impression in the minds of the readers and providing them with the liberty of choosing to be sympathetic to the character they want to. It leaves the readers with several but one ultimate question of ‘who at the end of it was more humane: Victor or the monster?’