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A review by noah_vayman
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley
4.0
Such a thoughtful and thought-provoking work. The story was exquisitely written and very well-crafted. It is perhaps implausible the extent to which histories were repeated between characters verbatim, and the fact that they were told in such great depth, as scenes, in the first place. But it was an effective choice and one that can be moved past.
The crux of what I am left with are two questions: what does it mean to be human and what are or should be the limits of our creation? Frankenstein's monster was not biologically human, but in spirit and mind he very much seemed to be. It was his rejection by humanity that made him so base. Should he have been created? If he could have been treated humanely, then perhaps yes. In order for this to occur, Frankenstein would have needed to play a much more active role in his "monster's" upbringing.
For me, this is not so much a cautionary tale about hubris, but of the failure to step into one's responsibility. Frankenstein was not a god, but he should not have created a living creature only to run away from it like a child. It is so cool he figured out how to create life. He needed to be so much more mature before he created it though. We have immense power as a species, and it is not for us to shy away from, nor to treat lightly.
Edit: I was not aware of the feminist interpretation(s) of the novel, but I love the idea that it is essentially about what happens when a man is so afraid of female sexuality that he tries to create a child without a woman.
The crux of what I am left with are two questions: what does it mean to be human and what are or should be the limits of our creation? Frankenstein's monster was not biologically human, but in spirit and mind he very much seemed to be. It was his rejection by humanity that made him so base. Should he have been created? If he could have been treated humanely, then perhaps yes. In order for this to occur, Frankenstein would have needed to play a much more active role in his "monster's" upbringing.
For me, this is not so much a cautionary tale about hubris, but of the failure to step into one's responsibility. Frankenstein was not a god, but he should not have created a living creature only to run away from it like a child. It is so cool he figured out how to create life. He needed to be so much more mature before he created it though. We have immense power as a species, and it is not for us to shy away from, nor to treat lightly.
Edit: I was not aware of the feminist interpretation(s) of the novel, but I love the idea that it is essentially about what happens when a man is so afraid of female sexuality that he tries to create a child without a woman.