Book Report: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

An insane doctor in a stained, white lab coat stands before his worktable, on which is laid the gargantuan body of a hideous monster. He cackles madly as he pulls a lever down, and the grisly beast jolts and rises to stand on two green feet with bad toenails. The monster stares stupidly at the doctor for a moment, then utters three fateful words: "I. Kill. You." He beats the doctor over the head with a chair in less time than it takes to say, "unethical medical experimentation," and breaks a window to reach the outside world, where he will murder as many people as possible.

This is not Mary Shelley’s story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature. There are three major differences between the modern stereotype and the original novel: the Creature’s appearance, nature, and the character of Victor. 

Big. Green. Smelly. Not the Creature. Shelley never referred to him as green. He is probably grayish, if he isn’t a human skin tone, since he was crafted out of pillaged pieces of dead people. The Creature is tall, strong, and mighty; he is larger and hardier than humans. Cold does not affect him, and he skims over rough terrain without difficulty. He has a good head of hair, full and black, which contrasts with his mangled face and makes it worse. He has gray eyes, but they are not blank. They hold intelligence and understanding. 

Yes, Frankenstein’s creature was intelligent. At first, he knew nothing, and acted solely on emotion and instinct. But gradually, his mind developed. He learned to speak by eavesdropping and learned to read by listening to a human girl’s lessons.  He read classic works and studied deep concepts and philosophies, all without humans noticing. After murdering a little boy, Victor’s brother, because he refused to be friends with him, he reasoned that all his uglier attributes were caused by loneliness. If mankind did not scorn him upon sight, then he wouldn’t be tempted to be violent. He fervently believes that nothing is his fault and spoke in lengthy and complex language on the subject. Certainly, he's not the stupid, one-sentence speaking moron we thought. 

Victor Frankenstein isn’t who we thought he was, either. He was very smart and went to college to study various sciences at seventeen years of age. He loved his family and obeyed his parents. He created the Creature during his college years, before he was a doctor. In fact, Victor never appears as a doctor in the whole book. Although he relished the creation process with an insane obsession, he did not laugh when the beast opened its eyes. He didn’t cry “it’s alive!” either.  Victor realized he had made a very big mistake he moment the Creature began to breathe, and that mistake cast a shadow over the rest of his life. 

In the end, I’m glad I read Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus. Although I was skeptical at first of Shelley's dark, immoral life (she ran away with a married man, drove his wife to suicide, and had three illegitimate children), I soon realized that I could still enjoy and get something out of her work. She truly had a talent for writing fiction, and was a well-read, deep-thinking woman. Therefore, I believe that more people ought to know the story the way she intended.