The Real Monster in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein Essay -- Who is the Tr

Frankenstein is a classic horror novel, but with a twist of many other genres. Written by Mary Shelley, it was a novel which mixed many exciting elements, such as horror, drama and romance. The story follows a young doctor named Victor Frankenstein, who has an obsession to reincarnate the dead, but his attempts at this fail horribly, and Victor finds himself in deep peril, as the monster stalks him throughout the world. I aim to investigate the issue, however, of who is the true monster in Frankenstein. The monster or Frankenstein himself? Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein, was a highly intellectual and creative woman, one of the elite writers in Britain. Her inspiration for Frankenstein was taken from several things. The plan itself for Frankenstein was taken from a dream, but her theories of life and explanation of the human anatomy came from noted scientists, philosophers and alchemists from Europe. This spawned the seed of the monster of Frankenstein, an intellectual creature, a lover of music, poetry and other such sophisticated occupancies. The basis of the whole story in itself, however, is a result of a visit to the country and place where the actual book was based in itself. In the summer of 1816, nineteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her lover, the poet Percy Shelley (whom she married later that year), visited the poet Lord Byron at his villa beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Normally, poor weather conditions would entreat them to go into the house, where they would often entertain each other with a volume of ghost stories Lord Byron held in his possession. . One particularly stormy evening, Byron challenged his guests to each write one themselves. Mary's story, inspired by... ... the monster with less than basic human emotions; he spurned it, and hoped never to see it again. This is an extremely irresponsible decision. It is evident that Frankenstein did not realize that, even though his â€Å"specimen† was defective on the outside, it was still a living, breathing, thinking being. A being which needed love, care and tutoring. In his misguided and blind attempts to cheat death, Frankenstein has in fact brought death on others, which is a despicable act. Some may argue that Frankenstein had no choice, but I believe that is inaccurate. He had a choice. He could have stayed, tutored the monster, and tutor it as an equal, in matters of logic and science, and given it as normal a life as it could have. Or, he could have chosen the path that he did, that path Mary Shelley laid out for this book, one which inevitably led to pain and chaos.