Frankenstein

A detailed Summary of Frankenstein

The term "human" is usually associated with acts of kindness, thoughtfulness and sympathy. Being human can sometimes even require risking one's own life in order to help someone in danger.

In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley examines the question of what it means to be human by exploring the difference between a real human being and an artificially created man. Frankenstein contains a number of scenes where the artificial creature behaves in a way that is normally reserved for humans and, similarly, scenes where various humans behave in "inhuman" ways.

In the process of creating the "monster" Victor Frankenstein becomes a monster himself. According to Anne K. Mellor "[...] Frankenstein's passion for his scientific research is a displacement of normal emotions and healthy human relationships. [...] He [Frankenstein] becomes oblivious to the world around him, to his family and friends, even to his own health" (107).

During his experiment Victor definitely does not act like a normal human being, as he distances himself from the people that care about him. He states that at this point he "[...] seemed, to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit [for the pursuit of creating life f

Throughout the novel Victor's creature manages to show greater humanity than his creator does. The monster shows more desire for friendship and more readiness to risk his own life to save the life of another person. Although the creature does things, which are horrifying, he is much less monstrous than Frankenstein, who acts with indifference to society and with hatred towards his creation. Even though Victor has lived within society, and is expected to have certain moral standards, he fails to demonstrate them by rejecting his creature and refusing to accept his parental responsibility for him. Therefore, actions, not appearance, reveal if one is truly a monster, and Victor Frankenstein's selfishness and lack of compassion and responsibility definitely place him in that category. Also, throughout the novel, society, which is supposed to be good, acts inhumanly by wrongly treating the monster on the assumption that he actually is a monster. They scorn, attack, and shun the monster just because of his outward appearance. I think that our society still contains lots of people who sometimes, just like a man with a gun, act with the lack of tolerance and violently towards those who are "different". Besides, there are a lot of people in our society who seem to have the same mentality of Frankenstein, and can do just about whatever they want to with little regard for consequences.

Not only does the monster want to make friends with people, but he also wants Frankenstein to create a female for him, ''[...] with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being" (144). Like a human being he wants to love and be loved, both in the sense that he wants to have friends, and in the sense that he wants to have someone with whom he can spend the rest of his life. However, Frankenstein agrees to do it, but then at the last minute breaks his promise, and the monster brutally wreaks revenge on his creator by killing Frankenstein's friend Henry and wife Elizabeth.

The creation's supplying of wood and helping the poor family indicates his kindness. He feels obligated to help the family in some way, partly because he is using their house as a shelter, but also, their kindness to one another inspires him to emulate such behaviour. He even stops stealing their food because he sees that it ca

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Approximate Word count = 1564
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English