I read Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein for the first time when I was a student. I knew the plot, of course, I had seen Boris Karloff in the 1931 film and Peter Cushing in the Hammer horror series of the 50s and 60s. But these were not 'films of the book'. The book was very different and I was disappointed. There was no mad scientist here, no monster made evil by the brain he was given, no electric storms to provide the life force, and no rioting villagers to burn the creature to death. Instead I was confronted by a multi-layered story – a Gothic thriller, a romance, a social commentary, a cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific experiment, and an exploration of what it means to be human – that has been seen as 'a message for our times' in every period since it was written 200 years ago, so I was intrigued to be asked to take a fresh look at it.
At the heart of the book is the moment when the young student Frankenstein reanimates the collection of body parts that he has fashioned into an enormous man. We are not told how he does this, indeed it is said that it is better that we do not know. The creation of the 'monster', the 'demon', the 'wretch', the 'fiend' – Frankenstein does not give him a name – is described in one short chapter. From the moment he is brought to life, Frankenstein cannot bring himself to look at the hideous thing he has made. He is so disturbed by what he has done that he tries to distance himself from his creation and take no responsibility for the consequences. The creature is abandoned, cast out to make his own way in the world. Eventually, Frankenstein is brought to realise that his creation will destroy him, his family and his friends, as he seeks revenge for being left on his own, without companionship and without empathy, condemned to a life of loneliness and the vilification of others.
The demon is at first an empty shell. He breathes, sees, hears and moves, but the brain he has been given brought with it no language and no memories, and his hands have no skills. However, he seems to be remarkably intelligent. Over a very few months he first learns how to survive and then, by secretly watching the De Lacey family, who are kind, loving and generous in the face of misfortune, discovers what it means to be human. In a short time he is able to think, read and converse, but even though he can now express himself as well as any man and through his reading – he finds some books in an abandoned portmanteau in the woods – has developed a deep understanding of the human condition, his repulsive appearance so shocks the De Laceys when he reveals himself to them that he is forced to flee into the mountains.
The monster tracks down Frankenstein, in the process causing the death of two of his family circle, and, confronting him, demands that he make him a female companion. Frankenstein agrees at first but in the end is unable to do so for fear of the consequences. The monster wreaks a terrible revenge. By the time they both die in the frozen north, Frankenstein has lost his best friend, his wife and his father and the monster has been left to mourn the loss of his creator, 'the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men'.
Frankenstein is a horrifying story, and while it is clearly a significant precursor to our modern science fiction and horror genres, it is also an examination of some profound questions about our responsibilities to each other and to the world in which we live. Shelley asked us to think carefully about what we are risking when we venture into the unknown and to cherish what we have. We are now witnessing the creation of machines designed to learn by watching us. We have been warned. It was not by chance that one of the books that the monster finds in that abandoned portmanteau in the woods was 'Paradise Lost'.
Oliver Essame is SOF Web Designer and Technical Consultant. It is hoped that this 'Revisiting' will be the first of a new regular feature. Readers are invited to submit to the Editor a 'Revisiting' (700 words) of a novel, poem or other literary work that has been important to them.