"Beware ; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."
First Impressions
This book was the main reason why I wanted to start this blog. When I finished reading this book it became apparent to me that there are so many different layers to this story. It really did stay in my head for some time.
The story is written in a way where you see the bad stuff coming before it happens. And it only seems to get worse from there. When the monster first gets out, you know that it won't be the last you hear from it.
What Surprised Me
But then, something very strange happens. For a few chapters, the monster takes over the narrative and talks about his experience and how he's seen the world and how the world has treated him. And I actually felt sad for him. The loneliness that he describes, feeling so far removed from everything but wanting so badly to be a part of it. All of the misfortune that befalls on him can be traced back to his creator, to Frankenstein. So you can sort of see where he's coming from when he decided to seek his revenge. That is, in my opinion, the best kind of villain. One where you can actually understand their motives. I think there is something to be said about the fact that maybe the monster was never the villain at all.
Spoiler Alert
I'm going to be talking a little bit about how the story ends. So if you don't want to read about the ending, skip this part and go to my Final Thoughts below.
At the end of the book the whole story comes full circle. We realize we're back with the person on the boat who is actually listening to Frankenstein's story and has decided to write it down. Frankenstein tells him that he's basically been hunting for his monster for years and it keeps taunting him and baiting him into keeping up the chase. When Frankenstein eventually passes away on the boat and the monster comes and says his last goodbyes, I realized something very odd and very sad. All the monster wanted was a friend. A connection to the human world. And in the final moments when we see him, we realize that, by doing all these grieves things that he inflicted on Frankenstein, he had created a companion of some sort. He knew someone was always around and when he felt like he would be abandoned again, he teased him into taking up the chase once again. In the end, the maker he so hated, was the only relationship he had. And ultimately the only one he seemed to care about or crave. It spoke of revenge, of love and hate of loneliness and desperation,.... It really stuck with me. The tragedy of it. Of someone wanting a connection so badly that he took the only one he could get.
Final Thoughts
This book stayed with me for a while after I'd finished it. The many different ways in which you can look at it and the many different perspective it lends itself to, means you're not finished when you form your first opinion. I felt like my opinion of the characters constantly changing, as was my view on how everything had unfolded. This was another first read of a classic. Unlike reading Hamlet, which I found hard to get through because the way it was written (sorry English majors out there) this one was from a more recent time. Even though the writing was still older, I could understand it and could see what it was trying to say.
The fact that I thought about this book for so long is proof that the older English used was not a barrier for me this time. I really enjoyed reading this book and everything that it made me think and rethink about. I would actually read it again to see what new insights and what new theories I could get from it.
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