Ramblings inspired by Frankenstein

While reading, there was one thing that bothered me, which was when Frankenstein passed up the opportunity to absolve Justine of her crime. Though he does attempt to do so after she has been sentenced to death, I felt that his reasoning for not doing so prior to the trial was weak. Even if his story may come off as ridiculous, there is always that saying, “You never know until try.” Frankenstein just rationalized off the entire matter and presumed it would be futile, which I believe might also be contributing to his constant misery since his only defense of Justine was saying he believed in her innocence. In class, when we brought up the idea of Frankenstein being a negligent father figure or creator, it implied that he was obviously not mature or strong enough in some ways to face up to his mistakes. This again is shown in his poor decision to let Justine die a shameful death without even attempting to tell his story. In both cases, Frankenstein shied away from his problems instead of dealing with them head on, going so far as to physically run away from his native town to Chamounix.

Up to this point, Frankenstein has been portrayed as an individual who has lead a wonderful life, complete with a loving, if somewhat disturbingly perfect and unrealistic family. He has had ambition, and a thirst of knowledge that drove him to the top of his university, with his name being praised by all the professors. However, the creature seems to mark the turning point, where Frankenstein’s life begins to slowly unravel, and the utopia that was his life is revealed to be less than perfect. The creature highlights flaws of Frankenstein (such as his lack of responsibility) and has also plunged the quintessential happy family into realms of negative emotions they had seldom encountered before.

One thing I must say though, is that I was just a tad disappointed this novel did not turn out to be the outlandish science fiction novel I had always imagined it to be. Where’s the electricity, bolts, and green skin?!