9/15/16 Response 2- (Briana Estrada)
Mary Shelley’s interpretation of Victor Frankenstein is one of the greatest works of literature let alone what we know as gothic literature. Shelley gives us the readers a clear imagination of who the real Frankenstein was, where he came from, what he endured as a young child to essentially mold him into the character who we thought we knew all about. The way Mary Shelley chooses to use the narration of Robert Walton in the letters he is writing from England in beginning if the novel;I thought this was brilliant because it shows Walton in a way wants to live through the character of Victor Frankenstein.
The story of Victor Frankenstein becomes so relatable towards other gothic works of literature, so as the concept of the “lonely child” like we see in Frankenstein and other text we will be looking at in this course. Also another common theme/idea of how women are treated as a sort of a possession, for instance when Feankenstein’s parents basically buy a little girl named Elizabeth for mainly Victor’s companionship; very similar to The castle of Otranto how Isabella is being viewed as a property to Manfred the king. A lot of the major and reacurring ideas are being present in this text also, the ideas of ‘queer’ amongst family and the common idea of incest .
Overall I really enjoy reading the real story of Frankenstein, because just what I think when I hear the name Fankenstein is completely different than what we viewed as just a unfriendly ‘monster’; but after reading about his childhood, there’s a new light on how we interpret this now relatable character.
I can honestly say I have felt the same way reading this book, naturally when we think of Frankenstein we think of this big green monster with a mad scientist, who terrorizes villagers and is chased away by the townspeople. The way Mary Shelley writes the book its almost of if this story can be realistic but we know its not. Just knowing the actual story of who Frankenstein was and how he came about is the most interesting part of the novel. Even looking at the narration of the story and how each protagonist gets a chance to explain how they feel and their side of the story. For so many years I had always assumed that Frankenstein was this monster who had no thought process and no conscious, but after reading the and realizing that this was actually an intelligent cerature with feeling and emotions was the most interesting part of the entire story for me.