第五名
姓  名 王祥瑜 學  校 國立臺南家齊高級中等學校 年  級 二 年 十 班

 

 

Frankenstein

Speaking of Frankenstein, what comes to most people’s or even my mind is a square-headed monster with scars and x-shaped stitches all over its face and bolts through its neck. Nonetheless, being confused by most people, Frankenstein is actually the scientist who created the grotesque creature, which wasn’t given a name but was referred to as “The Creature”. In the following review of Mary Shelley’s work, Frankenstein, I will summarize the book’s contents and survey its motifs.

Victor Frankenstein, the eldest son in a loving family, had studied hard to know the secrets of life and wanted to create life himself. With years of study, he finally reached his goal of giving life to a dead body; however, the outcome wasn’t what he expected when he created something that appeared horrible and frightening like a monster. The Creature’s appearance struck fear into Victor’s heart, causing Victor to flee from him. After being abandoned by his creator, the Creature went on an ‘adventure’ to seek friendship and a place he belongs to, but wherever he went, when people saw his monstrous appearance, they paniced and started to hurt him by throwing stones or shooting at him, so soon the Creature found out that everything didn’t and wouldn’t work the way he wanted, which is to be loved. “My heart was made for love, like a man's heart,” said the Creature. Love is so essential to us mankind that we can’t live without it, and so can’t the Creature.

With the intense hatred for his creator, Victor, the one who left him behind, the Creature decided to take revenge on him and make Frankenstein’s life as miserable as his. He did this by killing all those who Victor loved and cared for. He finally drove Victor mad and left him with only one purpose left in life-that is, kill the Creature for revenge. Yet, Victor never succeeded and died, once again leaving the Creature alone in the world.

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind,” said Mahatma Gandhi. What drives the plot of the book is in fact the endless cycle of retribution between Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. After the Creature realized that his existence wasn’t accepted by anyone and was all alone, he started to point his finger at the one who created him, thus there was no love for his creator, just payback. From this point of view, I discovered that the Creature is quite similar to mankind, since as humans, we also seek revenge for the ones who did wrong to us to let them feel the pain we suffered. Although most of us are taught what to do and what not to do, so won’t become as extreme as the Creature, we can still relate to his suffering. A saying goes,“Weak people revenge, strong people forgive, and intelligent people ignore.”If I were the Creature, I will choose to be a strong person because making Victor’s life a living hell isn’t going to bring me happiness. Instead, I would travel around the world til I find a place I belong to and I believe there will be one because when one door shuts, another opens. Tolerance is indispensable for us and also for the Creature.

The story Frankenstein also made me understand what it means by stating that‘Science can be taken too far’. Because of Victor’s curiosity and insistence in testing the limit of science, the Creature, who shouldn’t be brought to life in the beginning, and people who cared about Victor, suffer great pain. Thinking of modern science, has it gone too far now? For example, scientists have recently been working on cloning, which has sparked fierce controversy. Though cloning human beings could bring great advantages, it could also be described as an act of human arrogance or an act of trying to be God, which is what Victor attempted to be in the beginning. Once it has succeeded, it could not be undone since it’s not as simple as a genie going back in the bottle but much more complex. Therefore, it’s essential for the scientists or even us to learn from Victor and to be careful of what we wish for.

Often called as the first science-fiction story, Frankenstein is a classic gothic novel that attracted me with its dramatic story line and its profound moral. I’m pleased of the lessons I learned from it.