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A review by lilacerie
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it🏔️🌌”
Frankenstein is a sweeping, gothic delight that provides interesting insight into human nature + the depth of human cruelty. I honestly found myself able to discuss it at length with lots of people around me because the themes presented are so engaging. It depicts what it means to be Othered through the creature and is an exploration of the conflict between all-consuming individualistic pursuits of greatness and the human need for community, connection and love. Victor’s rejection of community is what ultimately led to his downfall and that same lack of love and care is what he cursed his Creature child to. What I found particularly poignont and painful is Victor’s positioning as a failed parent and the Creature’s as his scorned child. It was so heart-wrenching and beautifully executed. I thought I enjoyed the sections centered on Victor, but when I first read from the Creature's perspective, I was utterly swept away. Reading about him lumbering through the forest awkwardly with the senses of a confused child cut deep and the depth of loneliness experienced by his character is rendered in dazzling clarity in Shelley's atmospheric prose. Something that stuck with me is the solace both characters found in the natural world, and I felt a pang of heartbreak thinking about how both father and cursed son wandered through the world with only the moon and the mountains for company.
This is one of my favourite books but I’m knocking off a star for the deeply orientalist portray of Safie sometimes called ‘The Arabian’ like she’s a sought after breed of horse and her father who is only referred to as ‘the Turk’, ‘the treacherous Turk’ or ‘the unfortunate Muhammadan’. I’d recommend reading Sauleha Kamal’s
‘ Muslim Women and the Victim/Seductress Binary in Frankenstein and “Alastor” ’ for more on this. As a Muslim woman, this subplot left a bad taste in my mouth but I don’t expect much from Mary Shelley considering that she’s an upper class, white Victorian woman whose mother was literally Mary Wollstonecraft (Wollstonecraft’s ideas of women’s liberation in relation to 'Eastern women' have racist, orientalist underpinnings).
Frankenstein is a sweeping, gothic delight that provides interesting insight into human nature + the depth of human cruelty. I honestly found myself able to discuss it at length with lots of people around me because the themes presented are so engaging. It depicts what it means to be Othered through the creature and is an exploration of the conflict between all-consuming individualistic pursuits of greatness and the human need for community, connection and love. Victor’s rejection of community is what ultimately led to his downfall and that same lack of love and care is what he cursed his Creature child to. What I found particularly poignont and painful is Victor’s positioning as a failed parent and the Creature’s as his scorned child. It was so heart-wrenching and beautifully executed. I thought I enjoyed the sections centered on Victor, but when I first read from the Creature's perspective, I was utterly swept away. Reading about him lumbering through the forest awkwardly with the senses of a confused child cut deep and the depth of loneliness experienced by his character is rendered in dazzling clarity in Shelley's atmospheric prose. Something that stuck with me is the solace both characters found in the natural world, and I felt a pang of heartbreak thinking about how both father and cursed son wandered through the world with only the moon and the mountains for company.
This is one of my favourite books but I’m knocking off a star for the deeply orientalist portray of Safie sometimes called ‘The Arabian’ like she’s a sought after breed of horse and her father who is only referred to as ‘the Turk’, ‘the treacherous Turk’ or ‘the unfortunate Muhammadan’. I’d recommend reading Sauleha Kamal’s
‘ Muslim Women and the Victim/Seductress Binary in Frankenstein and “Alastor” ’ for more on this. As a Muslim woman, this subplot left a bad taste in my mouth but I don’t expect much from Mary Shelley considering that she’s an upper class, white Victorian woman whose mother was literally Mary Wollstonecraft (Wollstonecraft’s ideas of women’s liberation in relation to 'Eastern women' have racist, orientalist underpinnings).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Murder, and Abandonment