Book of the Week

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Recommended by George Singellos

Frankenstein is at heart a story that tackles many moral and philosophical ideas as well as expressing its take on those issues through the revelations of Victor Frankenstein, from his desire to his disgust, the reaction of the townspeople and the consequences they have for his creation. 

On the surface, the novel is a dramatic and thrilling horror story, filled with tragedy, murder and despair, all of which make it both exciting and chilling when reading.


Shelley's novel was originally created during the summer she, her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, his friend Lord Byron and his physician John Polidori spent staying in a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva in 1816. 1816 was, famously, the 'year without a summer', and the group whiled away the unseasonably rainy evenings competing to see who could make up the best ghost story.

After realising its potential, Mary Shelley decided to flesh out her creation, and use it as a way of exploring many moral issues which had arisen with the discovery and acceptance of modern science at the start of the century.  For example, the novel addresses and raises questions such as whether or not it is right to raise or re-animate an organism; how we treat organisms with apparent sentience; the consequences of treating something different as a monster, and many other contemporary concepts. 

In addition, Shelley was addressing in her novel a topic that fascinated the people of her time as much as today: how to create life where none is present, and whether or not this is something we should do.  As a result, the novel leaves the reader with more questions and answers than before they started reading it.

Shelley's novel is in many ways different to any typical horror book: it does not set up a definite protagonist, nor does it create a pure antagonist - rather, the townspeople transform Frankenstein's creation into their own antagonist and outcast.  This means that in the novel, every character serves as a kind of protagonist - the scientist, his creation and the townspeople themselves - ensuring that Shelley gives the reader a nuanced version of events, allowing the reader to see the story from everyone's side, including Frankenstein's monster himself, making the characters easy to relate to.

The novel opens with a vital prologue, which describes the influences which shaped and moulded the mind of young Victor Frankenstein, helping to humanise him.  It describes his life with his family until his first years at university, his interests and his passions.  Through this prologue we are given his motives, his flaws and his pain and after seeing all of these it is hard not to empathise with him. His utter desire and devotion to complete his task has in many ways resulted in a lack of a sense of responsibility and consequence: his solitude from the world is what does not allow him to perceive the backlash of the townspeople, and is inevitably what leads to his downfall as well as the downfall of those around him.

All in all, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is at the surface a chilling story, which evokes an interest in the reader, and a willingness and need to read on.  It is a humane and realistic tragedy, but also a book that poses both questions and answers.