Frankenstein

"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow" Mary Shelly (Frankenstein)

There are so many preconceived, media invoked and fed beliefs and now culture driven ideals about "Frankenstein". Mary Shelly's original creation has been so twisted over the years that one could argue the original message has been long lost. If the original text, that which she wrote at only 18 years of age in 1818 had been lost one would never know the inner beauty that the monster originally held. Beauty that was stripped, re-molded, and ruined beyond repair by human contact.

Victor Frankenstein was a scientist yearning to play god and create new life from inanimate matter (not necessarily dead body parts) - yes Frankenstein was the human. How interesting it is that we have taken the name of the god-like creator - that which created the hell to ensue both for the monster and for the victims of his insatiable pain and changed it to be that which we fear.

After completion of his work, Frankenstein is horrified and disgusted and flees. The monster is left to its own accord, and knowing that his creator has fled he attempts alternate human contact with disastrous results.

After a number of painful scenarios play through the monster goes into hiding.

"Here then I retreated, and lay down, happy to have found shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man".

From his hiding the monster watches a loving family from afar for a long period of time. From behind his cover, he learns love, happiness, compassion and empathy through the unknowing family that become his subjects of knowledge. When the monster becomes akin to the family and decides to present himself - knowing how loving and caring they are to each other - he steps out into the open with hopeful confidence.

"I imagined that they would be disgusted, until, by my gentle demeanor and conciliating words, I should first win their favour, and afterwards their love."

Horrified by his appearance not unlike his creator, the loving family, that which had become in his imagination his loving family, flee.

"Everywhere I see bliss, from which I am irrevocably excluded... I was a poor helpless miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but, feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept".

The monster, void of love and acceptance, sets out on a rampage to assert the label he has so unwillingly accepted.

"I will revenge my injuries; If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you curse the hour of your birth".

While death and destruction have become the modern focus behind this work, Frankenstein remains another profound and exemplary work of man's ability to create his own hell through the continual thirst for power. While the monster carries with him a horrific exterior, it is society that creates the rampage and terror that develops within.

Frankenstein truly is a masterpiece. A powerful work written by a ground-breaking writer who arguably changed the course of literature - far more important than the mere hallowe'en or adam's family depiction it has become.