Frankenstein

I thought it was very interesting the multiple letters leading up to the main story, the most interesting being that of the ship voyage in the arctic told by Walton. The story is about a group of men sailing through the arctic, avoiding ice, battling the frigid weather, and fighting for survival. Earlier in the letter, they saw a man dogsledding when he floated towards their ship. He was in bad condition as only one of the dogs survived, but the man was still clinging onto life. They brought I’m onboard, and tried to warm him up, succeeding over a few days, and getting him to talk. When I first began to read this letter, I was confused as to what this even has to do with the story of Frankenstein. As we discussed in class, the man’s name is Victor Frankenstein, and this is actually how the story beings. The first chapter in narrated by Victor, telling his background and where he came from. He expresses great interest in a girl names Caroline who “possessed a mind of an uncommon mould” (p. 88). It was hard trying to figure out who is narrating here and connecting it to the letters, but after it was clarified, it began to all make sense. My favorite annotation was not as relevant to the story but I found it interesting. It is annotation 22 and it is about the origin of the term “genius.” It originated in the 18th century, and usually was used in context of science, or divine spirit. I guess since science wasn’t the biggest I the 1700’s, scientists were seen as gods or understanders of spirit. I read the introduction to the 1831 edition, but did not get much out of it. I do see the quote “Everything must have a beginning…and that beginning must be linked to something before” (p. 334). Possibly this other edition more linear, and easier to understand? I’m not exactly sure about this and would like an answer.

Further analyzing the complexity of the start of this story, if a reader was not exposed to the origins of Victor Frankenstein there would be a very different perspective. They would have the same general understanding, but not understand that this entire story is a story, inside of a story. Victor grew up with very high praise and privilege as his father, Alphonse, was very well known in the community for his “integrity and…attention to public business” (p.86). (not exactly sure what this means but some sort of businessman? looked up upon in the community?) Alphonse also tries to teach Victor about science and philosophy, but Victor doesn’t understand it very well, and beings to hate the discipline. “I became disgusted with the science of natural philosophy” (p.96). Caroline is brought up and I thought at first that Caroline was Victor’s age, but with clarification I understood that Caroline is actually Victor’s mother and married Alphonse, Victor is the child. Elizabeth is the one that is the same age as Victor. We learn that Elizabeth is actually an orphan and adopts her into the family. In chapter two, we learn that they ended up growing up together and Victor would go to University. We really see how high up in the social class that the family is as not many people had the opportunity to go to University, or were even literate back then. In chapter three we see Victor begins to like science again after studying it in college and the story seems to continue to unravel as the “sciencey” aspect of Victor begins to develop more and more as he grows up. He becomes so fascinated in his studies that he has nearly abandoned everything that he has known. Elizabeth, his friends and family back at home, and even some aspects of his new life in college. I’m thinking that the trauma he has had with the passing of his mother at the same time of going to college and learning about life and death is causing him to have this strange fixation with the creation of life. I think it is interesting this trend of “fixation” as psychologist Sigmund Freud lived nearly 60 years after this book was written. Speaking of which, this book seems very ahead of its time. Being basically the first piece of horror literature, one of the first science fiction stories, and having a very complex storyline and character development, it is very unique for being written 200 years ago. The concept of Frankenstein seems so much more recent than it actually is. Something that isn’t so recent, is the use of In Media Res, or starting in the middle of a story. I learned about this in high school while reading the Epic Poem “The Odyssey.” My favorite example of In Media Res is “Star Wars” (my favorite movie trilogy) which is basically The Odyssey in the future. Victor completes his creation, but it horrifies him, as if all the bottled up emotions about his mother came out at once. I wonder if he will ever see Elizabeth again.

I want to ask the author if there would be the same overall impact on the reader if it wasn’t so complicated. Obviously the story was written in 1818, and language back then was different, along with storytelling techniques, etc. A better question would be: If there was a Frankenstein written today, would it have a better impact on readers like myself (high school/college). Would we even be reading the 1818 edition? I like the idea of In Media Res, as it has been a tactic used in many of the worlds greatest pieces of literature in order to provoke the reader to ask questions, and connect everything back to itself in the end. I am excited to see where this story goes as I have not read it before.