Analysing Mary Shelley`s novel `Frankenstein`

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Analyzing Mary Shelly 's Novel `Frankenstein

Introduction "In the last 20 , 30 years , [Frankenstein has] been claimed by a whole generation of academics and scholars as a seminal piece of literature of that time . [It 's] something which now , post-Freud , they feel reveals so many observations about family life , and incest , father-and-son relationships , and husband and wife relationships . [Frankenstein] speaks loudly to people , partly because it 's so elusive . There 's no definitive interpretation of it - it 's certainly more than just a monster story

(Kenneth Branagh , director of `Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein , as quoted in Reelviews .net . Online Article , 1994

Throughout the course of more than thirty different adaptations sequels , spoofs , and spin-offs , the name of Frankenstein has now come to be recognized as one of the world 's most celebrated monsters . However the original novel , as conceived and written by Mary Shelley , was more reflective of a gothic melodrama rather than a mere horror story , and is filled with passion , tension , and the fundamental nature of all human beings - a complicated mixture of both good and evil (Reelviews .net Online Article , 1994

This essay will be critically reviewing Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein through considering

some of the historical elements pertaining to the novel 's creation while also considering the type of love relationships that occur throughout the novel . Some reflection will also be given to the cultural , social , and religious views of the era , including the way in which women were perceived within society , through which an attempt will be made to analyze the current trends and prevailing attitudes that are portrayed throughout this classic tale of human desires and relationships

The Man Who Played God

Set within Europe during the 1790 's , Frankenstein begins with a series of letters written by Captain Robert Walton , while aboard a ship that was exploring the North Pole , to his sister Margaret Saville . He tells her of a man , called Victor Frankenstein , who had been found upon the ice that had entrapped their ship and who revealed , upon his partial recovery , the most amazing and unbelievable story surrounding his life

Born in Geneva , Switzerland , Victor Frankenstein was the eldest son of an affluent family . He was raised with two younger brothers and an orphan girl , Elizabeth , with whom he forged a close relationship . It was following the premature death of his mother that Frankenstein , who was fascinated by natural philosophy , chemistry , electricity and mathematics , decided to attend university in Germany , where this fascination became an obsession . There , after four years of intensive studying , which was almost fanatical , [he] became . capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter (Shelley ,

.52 . It was however , against his initial feelings of doubt that Frankenstein actually decided to create a human life - thus taking on a God-like role - only to discover that his experiment was both hideous and destructive The unfortunate consequence of this , which was to Victor 's consternation , was that the being that he produced for the betterment of...