A review by theoliveprincess
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Well. This was way less exciting than I expected. Even the exciting parts just kind of happened before there was time to react. But, considering the source and era I'm going to leave the boring parts alone.
Where did we get the modern day myth and description of Frankenstein? Through the movies? How did they get everything so grossly wrong? Penny Dreadful did a better job of depicting Frankenstein's creature (and their feelings toward each other) than the movies did. The PD version, so much more like the fiend in Frankenstein's tale, is intelligent, wrathful, strong, curious, and deeply, deeply, hurt. I believe what struck me more than anything else in this tale was his early childish faith and hope in everything, and his heartbreaking pain to have his every good act thrown back into his face simply because of his appearance. I can't really blame him for his actions once he realized what had happened to him.
I have always despised the person of Dr. Frankenstein as a selfish, spoiled person with no real sense of compassion or care, except as it pertained to his own existence. You would think that someone who was smart enough to CREATE LIFE would have had a clue, or a better sense of responsibility than to just weakly run away from something he created. Who can blame the monster for his course of action? This of course requires a longer discussion, but I'm out of time so that was my two cents' worth.
Where did we get the modern day myth and description of Frankenstein? Through the movies? How did they get everything so grossly wrong? Penny Dreadful did a better job of depicting Frankenstein's creature (and their feelings toward each other) than the movies did. The PD version, so much more like the fiend in Frankenstein's tale, is intelligent, wrathful, strong, curious, and deeply, deeply, hurt. I believe what struck me more than anything else in this tale was his early childish faith and hope in everything, and his heartbreaking pain to have his every good act thrown back into his face simply because of his appearance. I can't really blame him for his actions once he realized what had happened to him.
I have always despised the person of Dr. Frankenstein as a selfish, spoiled person with no real sense of compassion or care, except as it pertained to his own existence. You would think that someone who was smart enough to CREATE LIFE would have had a clue, or a better sense of responsibility than to just weakly run away from something he created. Who can blame the monster for his course of action? This of course requires a longer discussion, but I'm out of time so that was my two cents' worth.