3.5

It was fun to analyze the themes in this book like science vs religion, where the mc uses science to actualize their God like ambitions. But much like a human, crumbles under the weight of responsibility over their creation.

Another theme I enjoyed was absorption vs reflection and how it ties in with science and sociology or academic intelligence vs social intelligence. I found it astounding how even though Victor Frankenstein achieved something as great as creating life, he lacked the intelligence to reflect on the ramifications of his actions. And he continued to do so throughout the book. He has pushed the bounds of science and has become glorious but he doesn’t know what to do with his creation. He runs away from it, doesn’t want it to exist anymore, it makes him miserable. Throughout the book he is so self absorbed he doesn’t really think of how his actions can affect others. He aggravated and antagonizes his creation, thinking that the wrath it will wreak will only affect him. As his family and friends are killed and suffer the consequences one by one, he doesn’t ever get better at thinking about others. He never lets his actions be influenced by thoughts like ‘if I do this then maybe he will kill (insert family/friend)’.
Even when he laments to Elizabeth about the secret he is going to tell her the day after the wedding, he talks about how she’ll see how much pain he is in, and wonder how he can ever live. Everything is centered around him.
His own creation ends up becoming like him when he laments to the sailor that his creator didn’t suffer like he suffered. He truly is the child of Frankenstein, but I would say their similarities are due to nurture.

The lack of control over your creation is kind of like how parents feel a lack of control over their children but it mostly reminds me of how scientists today push the boundaries of science and can create astounding things, but they do not get to dictate how their creations will be used. It is those who have power in the political world, who keep their minds focused on how the inventions and scientific discoveries can affect the society at every point, who get to decide how it will be used. So you can have brilliant minds with brilliant hopes of creating glorious things, being used as weapons for glorious destruction, to create glorious wars and wreak glorious despair.

On a side note I found it the portrayal of Safie and her Dad a bit odd, not because of the Dad having villainous intentions but of the implied Islam vs Christianity theme behind the interactions between Safie, her Dad and Felix. When sayin Safie could find success, freedom etc in the Christian world and would be subjected to returning to a harem upon her return to the Islamic world, I found it a bit odd for a 19 year old Mary Shelley to be the omniscient voice behind this. Even if there were cases where women like Safie were in similar situations, the voice behind this being a white woman, leaves me with worries that the portrayal wasn’t done out of actual knowledge of these experiences from interactions with the people who had lived them, or with compassion, but more so stereotypes, and second-hand accounts of ‘the Arabians’ from other people.

Other than that this was quite a melodramatic philosophical read and whilst it seemed to drag a bit at the end, I really enjoyed analyzing it.

Throughout the book, I too kept thinking what a shame it was that I wasn’t there to meet the creature of Frankenstein in his first few years of life and that I too could ‘fix him’.