Book Report- Frankenstein.

Over the Christmas holidays I read the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, first published in 1818. Frankenstein is a book told mainly from the perspective of the scientist Victor Frankenstein, who spent two years struggling to create a perfect humanoid and to give life to it. Unfortunately, the experiment produced an abomination, and the horrified scientist fled from his hideous creation. Over time, the confused and vengeful aberration destroys Victor’s entire life.

The language used in Frankenstein is advanced and descriptive, and helps to portray the setting perfectly. The entire story is told from three perspectives, and all in a first person view, so the readers can understand the motives and feelings of each character. The book is also known as ‘The Modern Prometheus’- as Prometheus going against the natural order and gods to create mankind parallels Victor Frankenstein’s creation- and both end with the creators being tormented by their actions.

Frankenstein is an extremely Gothic book, which is shown by many Gothic themes running throughout the tale. Death is a very prominent theme, with many of the characters dying along the course of the story, each one impacting heavily on Frankenstein and his conscience, eventually causing him to lose his sanity- madness being another Gothic theme.

I would recommend Frankenstein as a novel both to people who have read Gothic books before and to people who have not. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

By Patrick Creek 9TAM.

I am enjoying reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein even though our copy has very small print. It was a story I thought I knew but that was mainly from hammy horror films and other cultural references. The book is much more nuanced than I expected and beautifully written. The sympathetic characters make the unfolding events all the more tragic.

I am interested in the theme of the ethics of science which is still very relevant today and although the book is nearly 200 years old and we can’t yet create a human in a laboratory, we have created weapons which could destroy all human life , something I feel was probably not intentional for most of the scientists involved! So I see it as a cautionary tale of good intentions gone bad.

Be careful what you wish for.

Claire Creek (Patrick’s Mum)