Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In 1823, English author Mary Shelley's novel “Frankenstein” or “The modern Prometheus” was published. In the beginning of the book, the reader gets introduced to the explorer Robert Walton who undertakes an expedition to the North Pole. But one day a dramatic turn of events occur as a stranger is helped up onto the ship. Henceforth, Robert's life would never be the same. The stranger reveals a horrible but yet fascinating secret for Robert. He divulges his quest and errands on the North Pole. The stranger declares that he is hunting a creature made by his own hands. A creature so vile and abhorred no man would dare to look into its fierce eyes. The man is the eccentric Victor Frankenstein, the creator of a beast whose only purpose in its miserable life is to kill. Frankenstein exposes himself to Robert but he only gets a glimpse of the scientist's complex personality.

Mary Shelley, the renowned author of Frankenstein, explores the consequences of man and monster chasing ambition blindly. Victor Frankenstein discovered the secret that allowed him to create life. His understanding of how bodies operated and the science of human anatomy enabled him to make this discovery and apply it to the creation of his monster. Walton wished to sail to the arctic because no sailor has ever reached it. The monster was created against his will, his ambition was to avenge his creation as a hideous outcast. These three characters were all driven by the same blind ambition.

Victor goes to England to create the monster’s mate, taking Henry with him. When he is almost done making his second creation, the monster comes to claim her only to find Victor destroying it. The monster vows to take revenge on Victor’s wedding night and goes and immediately kills Henry. Victor is accused and eventually acquitted and returns home where he married Elizabeth, who the monster kills on their wedding night. Victor begins following the monster to get his revenge and had chased him to the North Pole where Walton finds him. He dies while on Walton’s ship and the monster feels responsible for his death. The monster vows to kill himself and then disappears onto the ice.

Rather than just killing Victor, however, the monster decides to kill his loved ones. The death of a potential companion in the world incites the monster to create even more death.

Robert Walton plays an often-overlooked role in this story, although he can be considered the primary narrator. Walton is the captain of a failing expedition to the North Pole who discovers a freezing and lost Victor Frankenstein. Walton nurses Frankenstein back to health, and Frankenstein tells Walton of his misfortune of a life story. The similarities between Frankenstein and Walton are made fairly obvious, as Frankenstein himself points out their somewhat similar pursuits of knowledge and failure to realize their own limits, as well as warns Walton about the consequences of taking an obsession too far, implying that Frankenstein sees a little of himself in the captain.

1. Robert Walton is the captain of a ship on an expedition to the North Pole. He has been keeping in touch with his sister through letters. Not long after the start of his expedition his ship is caught in ice that has formed on the top of the ocean. It is here that he and his crew first meet Victor Frankenstein.

Frankenstein is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque but wise and curious creature in an experiment against nature.

Victor stops to rest in Paris while traveling to Geneva. He receives a letter from Elizabeth, and she asks whether his suffering and his unhappiness is related to their impending marriage. She says if he is in love with someone else, she is willing to leave him go. This reminds Victor of the creature’s threat to be with

Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, writes a letter to his sister, Margaret Saville, in which he says that his crew members recently discovered a man adrift at sea. The man, Victor Frankenstein, offered to tell Walton his story.

In Walton's letters he is writing to his sister about his desire to discover the North Pole. In this way it is similar to Victor’s curiosity with nature, which leads him to create a fiend that he soon disowns. They both venture out to try and attain their goals. Walton heads out on his vessel but then gets stuck in between some ice, while waiting for the ice to free up, his crew discovers Victor Frankenstein and one of his dogs trapped on the ice. Frankenstein refuses to ride in the vessel until Walton tells him he is heading north. Frankenstein starts to recover, he promises to tell Walton his story hoping he will draw something from it, and not make the same mistakes as he did. Frankenstein's story tells about how seeking for knowledge and wisdom can turn around to bite you in the butt. Unlike Frankenstein, Walton did not get to complete his voyage due to the lives of his sailors.

In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor and his creature share many characteristics although they are opposing forces because of their differences. The novel starts out with a series of letters from a man named R. Walton, to his sister. Walton is out travelling the world, when suddenly he stumbles across Victor Frankenstein in the icy seas of the North Pole. Victor is in terrible condition, from being stranded out in the freezing weather. Victor politely asks if he could join Walton on their ship, and he agreed.

Victor's father hopes to take Victor's mind off of his grief by taking the family on a trip. One day while Victor is alone in the mountains, the monster appears to him, tells his story, and begs his creator to make him another creature as a mate. Victor refuses at first, but finally gives in, convinced by the monster's persuasive pleas. After his family returns home, Victor departs on a journey for England to gather information for his creation. He secludes himself on an island and works. One night, the monster appears at his window. Struck by the horrific consequences of his work, Victor destroys the new creation. The monster is enraged and vows that he will be with Victor on his wedding night.

A six foot man created by a montage of flesh and sinew might of been the most terrifying scene that Victor Frankenstein has ever beheld. The monster which is known by many through the well known gothic classic, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, has a lot to teach us about human nature. The monster was created not as a physical representation, but rather as a deep symbol of Victor Frankenstein. The monster really just lives within Victor, and drives him to the extent of doing things that he may never of done himself. Many people can relate to this feeling of being overrun by anger, sadness, greed, etc. The monster being a symbol speaks depths about what it means to be truly human, and what it means to live motivated by impulses.

A monster, to most people, is a creature that causes fear and anxiety by simply saying its name or seeing it. In Frankenstein, there is a visual monster that scares people that look at it. There is someone that is more of a monster than the creation, a monster that causes even the creation fear and anxiety. Victor is the true monster in this book by abandoning the monster at creation which lead to the evil deeds of his creation. Survival and growth in life is based upon relationships and the knowledge of relationships.

The book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, starts out as a series of letters written by Robert Walton to his sister, who is back in England, about the progress of his dangerous mission to the North Pole. Soon, he is trapped by seas full of impassable ice and during that time he stubbles by Victor Frankenstein, who is weakened by the cold. Walton takes him aboard to nurses him back to health and hears the tale of the monster that Victor Frankenstein created.