Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: A Reader Response Analysis

Frankenstein; the story created by Mary Shelley is a story within a story. The edition gives an introductory account of why and how the infamous tale was created. As Shelley sat alone night after night trying to come up with this blood curdling ghost story, she dreamed the novel into being and wrote a piece spattered with themes about isolation, ambition and destruction. The start of the novel includes a series of letters numbered I thru IV. It is within these pages that the story unfolds into the first story. A lonely sea captain tells the tale as it is described to him by a stranger to his sister in England. The story captures the attention of the reader at first glance with the ironic chance meeting of strangers and the incredible ambition that lead to the creation of monsters and the meeting of two strangers on the cold and icy Pacific.

As we are first introduced to Robert Walton in chapter 1, we learn that he is an ambitious sea captain determined with blind ambition to discover a channel to the North Pole by way of the Pacific Ocean. His determination is guided by ambitions of glory and recognition at the expense of his life. Although he is head strong and has a full crew surrounding him on his quest, he is lonely. He wonders why out of the entire world, he can not find a friend after his own heart. As he toils the ocean, he writes his feelings of loneliness, despair and even momentary happiness in the letters to his sister Mary. Being on the ocean with nothing around but water and ice and loneliness in his heart, Walton longs for the conversation of another similar to himself. This longing is only dulled by the letters he writes to his native land of England and by the dangerous passion for recognition which he will soon find is not worth the isolation and self depravation.

As Mary Shelley joins Walton with another lonely and ambition driven stranger, our minds are introduced to a second tale of deadly ambition and isolation. The stranger soon provides comfort to Walton as he regains strength and is able to communicate and discuss matters of the mind and of the heart. We soon find out that the lonely stranger is Victor Frankenstein a scientist from Geneva on a mission of destruction. After hearing where the sea captain was headed and why, he relates to the drive and determination fueled by hopes of fame by his fellow man. The goal of his new found friend frenzied the mind of Victor as he knew all so well what this type of ambition and determination could do to a person both physically and mentally. To Victor, it lead to isolation and sadness so deadly that one could find himself on the ship of a lonely sea captain waging destruction upon the ambitious dream that once guided a life so valuable. Because of the years of knowledge Victor had on such a subject, he began to recount his life's story in hopes of dissuading Walton from his present course of damnation.

In his youth Frankenstein remembered his happy childhood and native lands. He spoke about the tight connection he held with his family and the way they loved and cared for one another and others that were poverty stricken. He chronologically gave a biographical sketch of his life as a student thirsty for knowledge and fame. He recalled his unyielding quest to discover the elixir of life. Once he moved away from his caregivers in search for greater scientific knowledge, he cut himself off from all of his former loves. He became consumed with obtaining and creating life. He remembered the death of his mother and the love he held for her. It was because of her death and removal from the land of the living that he gained a deeper thirst for science and longed to become the first ever to defeat death by becoming the creator of life. In this sense, Frankenstein was abandoning moral values and taking on new and mysterious curiosities of the unknown and unforeseen destruction of life. His constant work left him frail, tired, alone and unhealthy. Frankenstein's first mistake was in thinking that by giving life, he would be invincible and gain immortality. According to the Bible, no man can give life, only God, the creator of all things both good and evil. As he detailed his experiments to Walton, he remembered how he to, had cut off all ties to the human race in pursuit of his dream. He thought of the many lonely years of isolation and turmoil he endured to make his dream a reality. He also remembered the night his success was marked by the beating heart of a vision of horrifically terrifying disaster. All of his work had resulted into this successful demonic tragedy. So hideous was the creature that is was unworthy of love, protection or guidance that a true father would give. Immediately Victor fled his work and without success tried to forget his creation.

Left abandoned, the monster Frankenstein had created was left to fend for himself by any means necessary. Due to his abhorrent appearance, he was doomed to live alone in misery and isolation. With no knowledge of how to proceed in life, he suffered many hard trials by the hands of normal living beings. Eventually with a prospect for happiness and the love of human companions, the monster reached out to a family of cottagers after learning from watching in secret how to communicate, read and write. Oblivious to his presence, they were his protectors and he was theirs. This discrete and momentary life of family tidings was short lived as the monster could not stand to hide himself from his family any longer. Upon the sight of him, he was beaten, scorned and cursed. As the monster fled the only home he had ever known, he vowed vengeance on his creator and deserter. This once again left him isolated and lonely. A tragic step that produced mischievously evil plots against his persecutors; the human race, but mainly aimed at his creator Victor Frankenstein. The monster was not alone and evil by choice, but it was at the hands of the one so fueled by desire and ambition that he abandoned his creation. The monster had no nurturing father or family to guide his deeds. He had no one to direct his character into a caring, remorseful being with sympathy and compassion for others. He did however as a result of loneliness and rejection contend with a heart beating so cold against those that would despise and alienate him that murder and revenge fueled his goal in life. Years of bitterness and envy marked the monsters character as an unhappy creature that would indefinitely confine him to a prison of hellish remorse for life. Soon the thirst for revenge was partially quenched by the murder of Victor's youngest brother and the blame and judgment being cast upon another innocent companion of the monster's creator.

As Shelley explained in detail the deaths and hanging, and how morbidly sad Victor Frankenstein had become she again gave the character a resolute oath of an ambitious nature. As though Frankenstein had not learned his lesson the first time, he vowed to kill the monster he had created for the deaths of his brother and family friend. As this quest went on, again the father of the oppressed was alone in his thoughts and remembrances. His scientific ambitions in search for the elixir of life were so evil and immoral that he had no one he could share them with that could or would understand now that his embodiment of life had now stolen life from innocent people. With a new found goal, Victor was determined to seek out the monster and destroy it with the very hands that had created it. Ironically now the creator and the creature were foes of a similar nature isolated and each in seek of revenge against the other for his cruelties. Time went on and the destruction of the relations of Frankenstein continued at the hands of the monster. These events tormented Victor and gave him even greater resolve that he should seek out and destroy the demon.

The events the creature had set in motion though they could not be taken back led to complete isolation and the longing once again for a family. He thought that he should ask his maker; giver of tormented and distorted life for a mate fashioned after his own likeness. To be human; and this creature was; is to desire companionship. Perhaps if given the opportunity to show and receive love, the creature would become more human thereby relieving Frankenstein of his fate of a desolate and worthless life. Having never asked his maker for anything, not even life, the creature set out to find Frankenstein again and make his request known. Once joined together, he told of his lonely life set apart from all human contact. He also told of his encounter with the one and only family he had ever known and how badly it had turned out once his face was revealed. He described how his soul was tormented to do sinful deeds due to his isolation and anger. He spoke of the loving relationship between the cottagers with such great envy that he pleaded with his maker to create once again. With vows of separation from all human sight, he continued to beg for companionship. With Victor agreeing to do this one last evil deed in order to rid himself of the reality he had created, they parted once again. They however would be reunited due to the breaking of one promise, leading to the fulfillment of another. The death of Elizabeth; Victor's newly wed. Instilled with stronger vows of revenge, the breaker of promises searched until death for his enemy. In essence, the creature becomes the leader and the creator the follower. He vigorously hunts the monster without regards to anything else just as he had done at the creation. In a sense, the monster got just what he wanted in the final days of Frankenstein; a companion.

Over and over again these two enemies would subject themselves to isolation and deadly ambitions. It was at this point that Walton joined in the story and with amazement and sadness listened as the frail scientist told the last of his accounts of unyielding and terrifying events. Alone and in search of a dream these two strangers met on the cold and icy waters of the pacific destined for destruction due to overzealous ambitions. Upon completion of the tale, Victor Frankenstein finally tasted the bitter sweet prongs of death without ever feeling any amount of success for his ambitious nature and all that he had endured.

Mary Shelley was not content to end her novel at this point. Instead, the monster had to be reunited with his creator, father, and master and vainly give him absolution for his evil gift of life. Gaped mouths and unrelenting eyes watched in almost a sympathetic nature as the monster spoke words of remorse and forgiveness. With the death of Frankenstein, his desire for revenge was over in all of its sour glory. All he really wanted was human kindness, compassion and love. His last vow was that of extinction. He would burn his mortal body and extinguish his being from the earth. In his death, he shall want for nothing more.

Walton taking all of these events into account; like his friend Frankenstein, learned nothing. He was determined to finish his voyage and risk his life as well as those around him for fame and knowledge. The pressure from his fellow crewmen however, probably saved his life and they set course for England. Remorseful at his unsuccessful voyage, Walton was ashamed at his failure but hopeful in finding contentment among his countrymen. This showed that perhaps a lesson was learned by the captain. He realized that blind and obsessive ambition was not worth the deadly isolation he had witnessed and felt.