Frankenstein

Rating:
Summary: Nice
Review: man, dis book was off the hook up in this beezy. man, i was scary sometimes. i was nice. you should read dis piece because it was nice.

Rating:
Summary: A Moving Story!
Review: As a high school student in an honors lit class we had to read this book as a required reading. I was expecting it to be cheesy (sort of like those movies and for it to have a very simple plot line), well I was wrong. Mary Shelly was only around 19 when she wrote this story and it was for a contest. I wonder if she even realized how amazing Frankenstine actually is!

The story takes you on a nearly suspenseful journey that will have you questioning your true feeling on what is called the "monster". Sometimes Frankenstine's monster seems to be good with true feelings and well, other times the "monster" becomes the source of disaster for everything he holds dear. During the story the inventor also makes a woman "monster" for his somewhat demented invention but all is not well and the woman's pieces are scattered throughout the ocean. This is when the wrath of the "monster" is felt and the "monster" runs then off to cause disaster. From then on Frankenstine trys to stop his invention before it's too late (and this is when the beginning of the story picks up---you will understand what I'm saying if you read the book :)

The story is excellent and there is not a boring part in it! Shelly builds up the suspence slowly and torments the readers with a veriety of conflicting emotions. It is the basis of todays horror, mystery, and thrillers. It is a must read for ANYONE who enjoys a GREAT book----read it and I promise you will NOT forget it!

Rating:
Summary: A prototype of Romantic horror
Review: It's surprising how little this grim, melodramatic novel has in common with many of the horror movies it inspired. The theory that it's a warning of science and technology going awry is, I think, an overstatement of its prophetic capacity. Mary Shelley's novel does not appear to have much of an interest in science per se, and is less about creation than it is about the relationship between the creator and the created.

The novel's structure is indirect for reasons that become apparent at its end. An English sea captain named Walton is writing letters to his sister, telling her about a man his ship has rescued from an abandoned ice floe on a polar expedition. The man's name is Victor Frankenstein, and he commences to tell Walton his Long Story...

Intensely interested in science as a boy growing up in Geneva, Victor fulfilled his studies at a university and hoped to make some earth-shattering scientific breakthrough. He decides that a fascinating project would be to find a way to re-animate the dead. Collecting body parts from charnel houses and assembling them into a gigantic golem, he manages to bring this thing to life (refusing to disclose the scientific method). Fearful and regretful of the powerful outcome of his experiment, he is relieved when the monster walks mutely and mindlessly out of his apartment, never to return. Oddly enough, over the next two years, he is not concerned with where the monster has gone or what it is doing.

When his youngest brother, William, is murdered, Victor suspects his monster; vacationing in the Alps a few months later, he comes across the monster, who not only has learned to talk but has become quite eloquent. The monster tells Victor that his many efforts to befriend people and enter into society have been spurned due to his frightening appearance, and his resulting loneliness and anger incited him to kill. He insists that Victor, as his creator, has an obligation to provide him with a female companion, and demands that he make one for him. However, Victor is unwilling to add to the population of violent creatures, and the monster takes his revenge out on even more of Victor's loved ones. Distraught to the point of insanity, Victor turns vigilante and pursues the monster all over the world, swearing to destroy it once and for all.

"Frankenstein" is an allegorical tale of creation and examines a creator's responsibility and accountability for his creation's deeds or misdeeds. In this regard, Victor is essentially an irresponsible creator. He is not concerned with his monster's whereabouts until after one of his siblings is murdered; he could have taken responsibility for his creature immediately upon creation, but shortsightedly chose not to. The monster, on the other hand, was essentially a good creature until human society made him miserable and vengeful; in terms of his emotions, his intelligence, and his vindictiveness, he's ironically the most "human" character in the novel. Both man and monster are culpable, but the former is less excusable.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Horrors
Review: I read this book when I was a senior in high school, and loved it. I couldn't put it down. The way that Shelly paints the characters is intreging and you do wonder if the monster or Frankinstine is the bad guy. I loved this book and put it on my top 10 list.

Rating:
Summary: Golly it's good.
Review: It least I think so. I especially liked the dance scene at the end. And the monster's poetry is just awesome. "Evil, be though my God"! Awesome. You should read this book if you are thinking about creating life. Or if you are tired of Stephen King, like who wouldn't be? Or if you read *Dracula* and you thought, "That's it? No sex?"

That's my advice anyway.

Rating:
Summary: A great STORY
Review: This book is a great read. The main character is not the monster, but the scientist Victor Frankenstein who creates him. The story is told from his point of view, and reads wonderfully. It's a bit like a journal, beginning with a line something like 'I was born in..', and truly can be called a 'story'. It is not what I expected, not as scary as I thought it would be, and the monster is very different to the typical image most people have of him. Although, however, the author leaves a lot about his features to the imagination. The story takes place in Switzerland, England, the Arctic, and other places around Europe. Mary Shelley paints a beautiful canvas through her descriptions of mountains, rivers, the sky and sea, the sun and the moon, castles, towns and villages, relating human emotions to them. In different parts of the story, both Victor and the monster spend days and weeks in isolation to dwell on their troubles. Nature plays a role and has an effect on their thoughts and emotions. The monster often sees the sun, the shade of the trees, and songs of the birds as his only companions.

The monster torments Victor by murdering those close to him. The author leaves you to decide on these events, and sometimes you sympathise with the monster, sometimes you cannot accept any excuse for his misdeeds. The victims are as innocent as can be and poor Victor has to bear so much grief, but the monster is alone and repulsed by the whole of mankind. Both creator and creation suffer. I won't dwell on the themes of these points as I'm sure other reviewers can do better, I'll just say the book is wonderful. Read it if you like good stories with a nice unhurried pace, and if you don't mind getting a little depressed. And, even if you do mind, read it anyway, it's such a short book.

Rating:
Summary: Frankenstein
Review: According to Hollywood, Frankenstein is a mean, gory character who kills randomly out of pleasure. Although this may be exciting, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is by no means anything like this. Instead, Mary Shelly's novel depicts a more human and compassionate side of the Being. I loved this book so much. It introduced so many new ideas that make you think, such as the idea on how far you can actually take science and technology without interfering with life and death. I liked how she described the being as a human instead of a monster, but also left out some description so you can picture him in your own way. My favorite scene in the book is the turning point, when the Being is rejected by his neighbors. This shows why he started to kill and have no feelings for human nature. Mary Shelly's style of writing is interesting. Although it's a bit slow at times, the novel was for the most part, exciting. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Romantic writing and also has a great imagination.

Rating:
Summary: It's not just a story.....
Review: Can't sleep at night? Need something to rest your brain? Well, if you're looking for a nice, soothing book to read, I would not recommend Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. You may think, "Oh, it's just a story, it won't scare me." Yeah, you think that now, but wait until you read it. This story is so freaky, it even scared me....and it takes a lot to freak me out. Everything about it-the creation of the demon, the creature's killing spree, everything-was just plain creepy. It was a good book, yes-but it was also just plain odd. So when you're reaching for a book before taking a little nap, I wouldn't recommend reaching for Frankenstein-unless, of course, you like being challenged and having a lot on your mind before bed.

Rating:
Summary: Shelley created a helluva character in the monster
Review: The monster is the most interesting, well-developed character in the whole book. The monster doesn't even join the plot for several chapters but still, he is the center to all the themes of the book and the plot. The novel is pretty much only about the monster, and to a lesser degree, Frankenstein.

The creature and Frankenstein each do terrible things, but I find the creature to be more forgivable and more worthy of compassion. Frankenstein brought his problems upon himself, whereas the monster's problems were thrust upon him. He tried so hard. In the face of rejection and utter loneliness, the monster kept trying and trying to make friends. For being the way his creator made him, his creator abandons him; for chopping much- needed firewood for an impoverished family he is screamed at and abandoned; for saving a girl from drowning he is shot. Just when he feels he can't take any more humiliation and feels he will punish society, he gives it another try. Eventually, he snaps. He makes a transistion from an angelic creature to a monster.

The monster is "eight feet tall and proportionally large." He can survive in harshly cold climates and subsist on coarse food. Even though Victor is well aware of the physical toughness and superiority of the monster, he decides to hunt this creature down. In the epic showdown between the monster and Victor, the monster wins hands down. In this sense, Victor's first name is ironic. In the ending, the monster finally achieves what he sets out to do. His original goal of peace was shattered but he managed to achieve the alternative goal of asserting himself with revenge and tormenting Victor to his death. He didn't kill Victor; he let him kill himself hunting him. It's not exactly a victory for the monster, but he maintained and decided to exercise what personal power he could. He succeeded in not "taking it" and standing up for himself. Throughout the novel, although he changes drastically in demeanor, he remains dynamic. From his creation he set out to explore his world and learn to read. Then he worked on the plan to become a part of the family in the woods. After his goals of peace and love had definitely, hopelessly failed, he redirects his drive in a new direction. He's always working on something; he always has a plan. His determination and perseverence have been corrupted, not defeated. It is this unstoppable drive that characterizes the monster as dynamic.

Rating:
Summary: Psychoanaysis in Frankenstein
Review: Frankenstein contains themes relating to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis. Freud placed a high value on interpreting dreams for psychological insight. Right after Victor brought his creation to life and realized he made an abomination, the scientist raced to his bedroom and finally fell into a troubled sleep, but awakened "disturbed by the wildest dreams." He dreamt that he saw his fiance Elizabeth and as he kissed her he beheld the corpse of his mother in his arms. He delayed his marriage to Elizabeth to create the monster, and passively allowed the monster to kill her on their wedding night. Victor's troubles began in college when his mother died and he rebelled against his father by reading books that he forbade Victor to read. Psychoanalysis might determine of Victor that he inwardly struggles with the "Oedipus Conflict" in which, as Freud established, children develop their first sexual desire for their parent of the opposite sex and therefore have hostility towards the other parent.

Freud also contended that anxiety arises from "libido", or repressed sexual and aggessive desires. Indeed, Victor's anxiety of the monster on his wedding night is parallel with his anticipation of marriage to Elizabeth. As stated earlier, Victor even postponed his marriage to create the monster which would later kill his bride on their untried marriage bed. Freud said that each person has an aspect of themself, which he called the "Id", that contains antisocial desires which we repress and as libidinal forces, constantly seek expression in distorted, concealed ways. Freudians might say that the monster symbolizes the Id of Frankenstein, that hidden aspect of himself which violently desires to destroy all that he loves. The monster's ugliness fits well with representing this ugly aspect of Victor. The monster and Frankenstein are bound together as one. When Victor finally dies, the monster, too dies. The two hated each other passionately and each made it his life to end the life of the other. Freud said that "forgetting" is often motivated by a subconscious desire to repress some painful memory; but all that we repress seeks expression in all sorts of symptoms. After Victor abandoned the monster, he acted in such oblivion to his creation. But, like painful memories repressed, the monster would reappear very ugly in Victor's life and ardently express his fury. Victor tried to repress and control the monster only to find the monster controls him. Similar themes arise in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."