Throughout history there were books that innovated story telling for ages to come, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein was one of them. Frankenstein is a story most people know about a scientist making a monster that just wants to be loved. The book is hailed as an innovation in the horror genre; never before had monsters been represented in a sympathetic manor. While it is innovated it does have problems which is why it is a subject for a Bad Book Report.
Volume 1:
The edition of Frankenstein I’ve read has the first fourth of the book comprised of the history of the novel. I didn’t bother reading all of it, but the little I did read told me that the book was actually critically panned when it first came out. Anyway on to the story; the book starts with few letters from a sailor R. Walton to his sister Mrs Saville. Most of what we learn from these letters is back story that would no doubt be pointless, and the fact that Walton can’t find a friend as intellectual as he is. In the fourth letter something finally happens that moves along the plot. The ship that Walton is a sailor on, is sailing through the arctic when they found a man on a sledge drawn by dogs. They take the man in there ship because he’s freezing and starving. We learn that while the man lives on the ship Walton figures out that this man was the friend he was looking for. At the end of the letter the stranger sits down with Walton to tell his back story and why he’s here.
Okay for those of you who are wondering; yes this stranger is Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein, but the problem is that the book doesn’t tell us this until a few chapters in. Which when I would think of a character telling his life story I would think it would start with him telling us his name. The funny thing is that his name is not even said in a reveal of any kind it was just said in a regular conversation.
Anyway since it’s no longer letters but a character telling a story now the chapters are called chapters instead of letters. Frankenstein starts off by telling us how his parents met. Yes, Frankenstein is really starting from the beginning. Okay so the next four chapters tell us his whole life story up until this point. We learn about his siblings including his adoptive sister Elizabeth (who for some reason is called his cousin Elizabeth), his childhood friends, the death of his mother, and the fact that he found a fascination for science. The character back story goes on for four and a half chapters. After that Frankenstein then decides he wants to reanimate life into dead tissue, and then he creates a monster. That last sentence pretty much summed up the creation of Frankenstein’s monster.The book goes into minimal buildup or detail into the monster’s creation. Which is ironic because the book spent so much time telling the back stories of Frankenstein and Walton, yet the creation of the monster it self seems rushed. When I read it I thought maybe I skipped a couple of pages, but no I didn’t.
After Frankenstein created the monster he runs out of his apartment (yes he created it in his apartment) where he runs into his childhood friend Henry. Henry tells Victor that his family is worried about him because he doesn’t write. Victor then takes Henry to his apartment. Victor fears that his monster is still in his apartment, but it turns out that the monster left. Victor then has a breakdown so his friend Henry takes care of his illness. While Victor is being taken care of, he starts sending letters to his family. He learns that his sister, duh… I mean cousin Elizabeth is doing fine but his father is getting older and weaker. A couple of years later he gets a letter telling him that his younger brother William has been murdered.
Frankenstein immediately went to his hometown and it ends up that a family friend named Justine ( Justine is a girl so I think her name is pronounced Jus-Teen and not Jus-Tin) has been arrested for William’s murdered. Why they arrest her is that they find a picture of William’s mother in Justine’s dress, but Victor knows right away that Justine is innocent and the real killer is the monster of his creation. I know that it’s only natural to blame yourself for a family member’s death but I do have to say that the chances of the monster killed William are very low. First of all how would the monster know where you live to get revenge on you? I mean you probably had records of where you lived in your apartment but how would a monster know to read papers and get revenge on your family. Plus the monster probably would be illiterate for being just born so he can’t read on where you live. Even if he does know where you live; how would he know that William was your brother. Even if you kept a painting of him, William's appearance would be different since Victor hasn’t seen him in 6 years.
Justine is then held on trial which to be honest, it wouldn’t be hard to prove that Justine was innocent. First; she had no motive to kill one of her friends. Second; William was strangled to death, seeing that Justine and William were around the same age it would be hard for Justine to overtake William unless Justine was extremely strong and William was a complete pansy (It was the 1800’s, but still). Third; it ended up that Frankenstein’s Monster did kill William, so I would think that there would be big hand marks on William’s neck, any competent investigator would just see that Justine’s hands are a lot smaller then the markings on William’s neck (assuming that the 7 foot tall monster’s hands are larger then the girl in her mid teen’s hands). But courts in those days completely sucked because Justine is convicted and executed.
Victor, knowing that Justine is innocent, goes off to find the real killer (meaning his monster). It doesn’t take long for Victor to find his monster. When Victor confronts his monster, his monster says that he doesn’t want to fight and has a story to tell. The book then goes into its second volume.
Volume 2:
The volume starts with Frankenstein’s Monster escaping Victor’s apartment and getting some clothing. He walks around and learns that he isn’t liked very much, so he heads to the woods.
He finds a cottage owned by a French family. He makes a hovel for himself and spends the next few months listening to them speaking, by doing this he learns how to speak for himself. Wait! How does the family not notice that there’s a 7 foot tall monster listening in on them. Also, the fact that the monster learns to speak just by listening to the family speak is very absurd. Learning the words and attaching the words to meaning are two completely different things. Plus, the monster (who is narrating this volume) seems to have surprisingly good diction for learning how to speak by listening to people. We also learn that the monster learned how to read by just listening to the family. Yes, because all French families have everyday conversations about the alphabet, and how to connect the letter to words, and connect the words to the meaning. Oh my God! There’s just so many plot holes!
After that onslaught of plot holes we get an entire chapter dedicated to the back story of the French Family. This chapter becomes entirely pointless, because in the next chapter the monster attempts to become a member of the family, and of course terrifies them.
Frankenstein’s Monster then ran off until he finds a little girl drowning in the river. The monster jumps in and save her, but her father immediately grabs her in his arms and runs off. The monster runs after them trying to prove that he is good, but the father shoots the monster.Wait, how can the father shoot the monster with a rifle if he’s carrying the little girl. The book never says that he dropped the little girl and its hard to believe that he would drop his daughter. The father then immediately runs off (Did he take his little girl with him? I don’t know).
The monster is wounded, but soon heals. The monster decides to head off to his creator’s hometown. The book says that the monster know where his creator’s hometown is, because he read where Victor lived in Victor’s apartment, which is impossible because the monster didn’t learn how to read until after he left Victor’s apartment ( Plot Hole #27).
When Frankenstein’s monster arrives in the town he finds a boy. The monster thinks that this child has lived on this earth not long enough to be prejudiced, so he grabs the child. Then the child says “Hideous Monster! Let me go. My papa is a syndic- he is M. Frankenstein- he will punish you. You dare not keep me.”
Wait so the child is William? But William was in his teens, yet the book describes a little boy by saying that the child has all the sportiveness of infancy and lived too short a time to be prejudiced. Nobody would think that a teen would be two young to be prejudiced. Also nobody would say someone’s name with replacing their first name with an initial. People do that while writing but not speaking. The funny thing is that William’s father’s name starts with an A and not an M. Is M a title?
After William declares that he is a Frankenstein, the monster strangles him to death. He then takes a picture of William’s mother which was on William, and hides out in a barn where he find Justine sleeping. He then slips a picture of William’s mother into Justine's dress. The monster then runs off and his narration ends.
Frankenstein just sits there staring at his monster, furious at the fact that the monster did commit the murders. The monster requests that he should build him a bride, if he doe this then the monster and his bride would stop harming humans and leave to South America. How does monster even know about South America? Did the French Family have a conversation about it? Getting to South America should also be a real pain seeing that you can’t get their without going on a boat which would have prejudiced humans on it. The Monster tells Frankenstein that if he doesn’t do this then he would harm his loved ones. Then Frankenstein leaves to do the monster’s bidding. Here we leave Volume 2 and enter the third and final volume.
Volume 3:
Frankenstein returns to his hometown to get his father’s consent to go to England. It then ends up that Frankenstein is going to marry Elizabeth after Frankenstein finish his task, wait what! He’s marrying Elizabeth? When did they ever foreshadow him marrying Elizabeth? Sure they it was said that Victor loved her during his back story, but when did he propose? Maybe he did after William's murder, but that would be the worst timing for a proposal. Not to mention that he hasn’t seen Elizabeth for 6 years so just seeing her now and proposing to her is a bit strange. Last but definitely not least, Elizabeth is practically Frankenstein’s sister! I know that their not blood related, but marrying someone who was raised by the same parents as you is pretty sick.
Frankenstein then goes to England and Sweden to get equipment and learn more so he can create a bride for his monster, while going into every single little detail on how beautiful the country is. After the travel guide, Frankenstein obtains a laboratory and starts assembling the bride. He then ponders what he’s doing; thinking that he doesn’t want to release another monster in the world, and maybe the bride would be worse then the first monster. He then has a spazz attack and rips up the body. It ends up that the monster had been following him, and isn’t happy that he went back on his promise. The monster the says “I will be with you on your wedding night,” the monster then runs off.
Frankenstein is frightened at this remark, but he decides to sail back home (he was on a island near Sweden at the time). Frankenstein soon lands on a dock where he greeted by some rude Scottish men who say that he’s committed a crime. He is then arrested and tried for the murder. The trial goes on with witnesses going reciting the account of finding the dead body and somebody sailing away. The funny thing is that during the trial they actually mention the finger marks on the victim’s neck. I would think that if they would just compare the markings on the neck to Frankenstein’s hands then they would see that he didn’t murder the person, but trails back then didn’t really know anything about decisive evidence. The trial decides that they should show the body to Frankenstein to see how he reacts. Yes, because cold hearted killers react when they see the bodies of their victims. They show him body and he sees that it is Henry who is the victim. Frankenstein then reacts in Germen to the body (which is his native language), and speaking Germen is enough to convince the Scottish that he’s the killer and they arrest him.
A few months go by in prison and then Victor gets a visit from his father who bails him out of prison. Victor’s father then gives Victor a letter from Elizabeth. The letter starts with her saying that they are practically brother and sister ( oh good she finally came to her senses), but it ends with Elizabeth asking if Victor loves another and that’s the reason he’s depressed. One thing I found weird was the Elizabeth says the she’s been getting news about him from her uncle. Does she mean some Uncle of Victor’s or does he mean Victor’s father who is technically her father but could called her uncle because she is referred to as Victor’s Cousin (It’s so confusing).
Victor then sails back to his hometown with his father and tells Elizabeth that he still loves her and they get married (the joining of the two families: Frankenstein and Frankenstein).
Victor and Elizabeth then sails to an island as a happily married couple/siblings. Victor remembers his monster’s promise so he keeps on his guard carrying a knife and a pistol (wait if you think about why didn’t Victor take a weapon to confront the monster earlier?). While Victor is patrolling the hallways he hears a scream from Elizabeth. He runs and finds out that she was strangled and the monster is running off(Evil Being! How dare he stop Victor from fornicating with his sister!).
Victor then returns to his father to tell him of the bad news. His father is saddened at the news and dies ten days later of an illness. Victor then goes to captain of the police force and tells him the entire story of the monster. The captain replies by saying “I don’t believe your story, there’s just too many plot holes.” Okay fine he didn’t actually say that, he actually believed Victor’s story but doesn’t want to risk his men on attacking a dangerous monster. Victor now on a quest of vengeance, the goes off in search of the monster, up until the part where he was founded by Walton.
The last few chapters are letters from Walton to his sister. The funny thing is that speaks his sister in a very romantic way. Does he feel about his sister the same way Victor felt about Elizabeth? I’ve got a feeling that its worse because their probably blood related! Was making love to your sister not frowned upon back then?
The only groundbreaking thing that happens is that Victor actually dies. After the death we find the monster looming over Victor’s coffin. The monster gives a big speech which I think is suppose to make us feel bad about him. The only thing I feel is relief that this novel is over and I can go and read something better.
To be fair this book isn’t horrible like the last book I’ve done a bad book report on (Breaking Dawn). Its innovative, well written, and not too boring. But behind the innovation I just see a story filled with plot holes and discontinuity.
By the way if you read all of this article, then I say thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment