Essay Sample about Frankenstein

When you hear the name Frankenstein, you probably think of a green monster that’s ten-feet-tall with bolts in his neck and staples on his massively square shaped forehead. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but that is not the case at all in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as Frankenstein is actually the creator of the monster. Shocking, right? Frankenstein is a novel that contains many different types of genres which include romance, horror, gothic, and science fiction. This novel is filled with gruesome deaths and details that can be uncomfortable at times and you may want to immediately toss away the novel but as it progresses, it is quite fascinating as to what Victor Frankenstein does to his creation. At the very beginning of the novel, Shelley starts with Walton writing letters to his sister, and this takes up many pages of the novel before Shelley starts introducing readers to Victor Frankenstein. Walton’s letters made me lose slight interest as I was looking forward to jumping right into the creation of the monster but in order to do so, I presume that Shelley’s intentions were for readers to become more familiar with who Walton is as he narrates most of the novel. 

At the beginning of Volume I, Shelley gives us an insight on Frankenstein’s life such as his family history, his love life and who he is. This information is valuable as it helps readers understand who Frankenstein is before diving right into his creation. As a reader, I think Shelley was able to successfully incorporate Frankenstein’s love life into the novel even when so many deaths were happening as a result of his actions. This gives readers a sense of happiness because even through all the dark and twisted murders, there are still times of joy that readers can look forward to. Shelley does a good job of providing both Frankenstein and the creature’s perspective throughout the novel because although Frankenstein sees his creation as a “miserable daemon” who is evil and brutal, we as readers, are able to see the events from the perspective of the creature as well. Even though the creature killed a lot of people, I felt the need to sympathize with him at times because I was able to see how he was “irrevocably excluded”, lonely, and just wanted to be part of a family who would accept him for being different. Shelley effectively describes the gruesome and horrific deaths of Frankenstein’s family members, but I would have liked a better description of how the creature was created and all the steps that Frankenstein had to go through in order to fulfill his scientific curiosity. Shelley could have also included more detail about Frankenstein after his trial of “killing” Henry Clerval as she provides lots of detail during the trial but barely any after the trial is over. This results in some parts of the novel having lots of detail whereas other parts lack detail which makes the novel less engaging. 

Shelley hardly describes the physical features of the creature, and this could be because she wants to keep the creature as a mystery so that readers can use their imaginations to picture the creature’s appearance. Mystery is a key factor and Shelley uses it to keep readers on their toes of who in the Frankenstein family might end up dead next. I would have much preferred the story to be narrated by Frankenstein himself because Walton’s narration may not be as accurate and there may be parts that he has left out or doesn’t know about whereas Frankenstein has experienced everything firsthand.