The Creation: Science Without Ethics Victor Frankenstein is a scientist. He is brilliant. He is also irresponsible. He creates life without thinking about the consequences. He is repulsed by his creation. He abandons it. The creature is alone. It is not born evil. It becomes evil. It says, “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.” Victor is the real monster. He created life. He refused to take responsibility. Shelley was warning against science without ethics. The warning is still relevant.
The Creature: The Monster as Victim The creature is the novel’s most sympathetic character. He is intelligent. He learns to speak by listening to the De Lacey family. He reads “Paradise Lost,” “Plutarch’s Lives,” and “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” He wants to be loved. He is rejected. He kills. He is not evil. He is desperate. He asks Victor to create a female companion for him. Victor agrees. Victor destroys her. The creature vows revenge. He kills Victor’s wife, Elizabeth. He kills Victor’s best friend, Henry. He kills Victor’s brother, William. He is a monster. He is also a victim.
The Frame: The Arctic Wasteland The novel is framed by letters from Robert Walton, an Arctic explorer. He rescues Victor. Victor tells his story. Walton writes it down. The frame creates distance. It also creates sympathy. Walton is like Victor. He is ambitious. He wants to discover the secrets of nature. He learns from Victor’s mistake. He turns back. He saves his crew. The Arctic is a wasteland. It is a place of death. It is also a place of confession.
The Ending: The Creature Mourns Victor dies. Walton finds the creature mourning over his body. The creature says that Victor was his creator. He says that he has suffered. He says that he will kill himself. He leaps from the ship into the darkness. He is gone. The ending is ambiguous. Does the creature die? Does he live? Shelley does not say. The reader is left with the creature’s last words: “I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct.” The reader pities him.
Conclusion: “Frankenstein” is the first science fiction novel because it asks the question: what if? What if we could create life? What if we could play God? Shelley answered: it would be a disaster. She was right. The novel is a warning. It is also a tragedy. Victor and the creature are both doomed. They are both alone. They are both us.
