August Group Read: Frankenstein

[Michael]

Yeah I see what you mean Dan. I think it was probably the writing style that kept me distant from the characters more than anything. I'm pleased to have read it though. :)

[Theresa]

The thing I found most fascinating about this story was the way it dealt with the concept of 'otherness' or 'alienation' in the context of different relationships.

First, we have the relationship between the narrator and his sister. We never hear the voice of the sister, but from the letters of the narrator, we can see there is an intimacy there and she helps the narrator keep part of his identity rooted in the outside, civilized world he came from. Second, we have a paired relationship between the narrator and Frankenstein, the new friend that the narrator longed for. We also see how Frankenstein functions in the context of his relationship with his cousin. We see how the monster learns about life from observing the relationships between the couple in the hut. The primary relationship within the story, is, of course, the relationship between Frankenstein and his creation - his monstor/demon.

SPOILER ALERT
Ultimately the demon (I prefer to think of him as a demon than a monster because of the psychological connotations) cannot exist outside the context of his relationship (the only relationship he has)with his creator, Victor Frankenstein. The same may be true of Frankenstein, despite that he has other relationships apart from the one with his creation, having created this life, and put it out there in the world, he can't seem to ever disown or disentangle himself from it and he doesn't know how to come to terms with it - to acknowledge his responsibility to it, and to acknowledge the suffering that this other being experiences on account of its alienation from others. The monster is alienated from others and as well, it is alienated from its creator.

The book also fascinates me because the author's mother, Mary Wollstoncraft, was one of the first feminists (she may have been the very first). Mary Wollstoncraft's views on woman's rights: ""Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to its body, and, roaming round its guilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison". In her work "Vindication of the Rights of Women" she claimed that girls were raised to become weak and depraved creatures, so that they could function 'better' within the context of relationships with men, by having their identities defined within the context of those relationships (my words, not hers). Shelly's mother doesn't go so far as to discuss 'otherness' in the way that Simone DeBeauvoir does in "The Second Sex", but as I read Frankenstein, the concept of 'otherness' is certainly on my mind. The concept of the Other was on my mind in the first pages, where we see the narrator project onto his sister as if she were a silent blank page (which of course, she is, in the context of writer writing a story, but not in the context a person writing a letter to someone he has a one on one relationship with). the concept of the Other was also on my mind in various other places in the book, particularly in the way the creation was demonized by its creator.

my two cents...

[kXnPunk]

A very cool one. Didn't remember much of it as it's been a looong time so it was very nice to revisit it. What a great book. :)

[Dan]

Theresa wrote: "The thing I found most fascinating about this story was the way it dealt with the concept of 'otherness' or 'alienation' in the context of different relationships.

First, we have the relationship..."

I never knew that about Mary Shelley's mother, very interesting. I like your point on the relationships tying people together in this story as well as the role of alienation.(Spoilers ahead) Frankenstein literally alienates everyone he knows in the course of this book. Even though he alienated his creation they are still bonded, like you said, this is really shown at the end when Frankenstein passes trying to find his creation (his Demon) and the creation himself pledges to kill himself now that Frankenstein is dead.

The Edison Film Company's Frankenstein actually reveals at the end that Frankenstein and his creation are on and the same. It makes for an interesting and thoughtful interpetation of Shelley's story.

[Jim]

An interesting article about the history of the real experiments that inspired Frankenstein.

https://www.popsci.com/frankenstein-r...