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Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818) is considered to be one of the greatest Gothic Romantic novel and the first science fiction novel. Mary Shelley wrote it when she was nineteen years old.
Victor Frankenstein is a very good scientist. He invents how to create life. He makes a living creature in his laboratory. The creature is a monster, so Victor rejects him. The monster escapes and learns how to speak, read and write. When people see him, they escape or hurt him. The monster becomes evil. He wants to find its creator. He kills Victor's brother, William. The monster meets Victor and asks him to create another human being, because he wants a wife. Victor agrees. He goes to England and looks for a place to work. He goes to the Orkney Islands and almost creates Frankestein's wife. One day he refuses to continue his work and the monster is very angry. He kills Victor's friend, Henry. He kills also his wife, Elizabeth on their wedding night. Victor now wants revenge. He follows the monster as far as the North Pole. Victor is rescued by a ship and tells Captain Walton his story. Then he dies. The monster realises his creator is dead and wants to die. He tells Walton he will kill himself and disappears in the darkness.
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN:. he is young, clever and interested in scientific subjects. He lives in Geneva. Victor Frankenstein is the main character of this tragic story, and tells is life through the letters written by R.Walton, the captain of a shipment. Frankenstein since he was adolescent was a very curious boy and was interestend in natural philosophy and the causes of the origin of life.Victor has a brother, William, but loves particulary Elizabeth, his adoptive cousin, who often helps him during h is experiments. When he is seventeen he goes to Ingolstadt University. Here studies a lot and he decides to begin a very ambition experiment: he wants to give life to the inert matter. But during the creation of his project, he doesn't realize what he is making. Only the night in which his creature becomes alive Frankenstein realizes his big mistake: he has created a monster. And in front of it he decides to run away trying to forget his unsuccesfull work. But his choise to abandon his work is really wrong, and leads the monster to kill almost all the members of his family. The ending is tragic: in fact only the death of both the monster and Frankenstein will put an end to these tragic events.
MONSTER: He is ugly, has problems with coordination of movements, he has difficulty in speaking. The monster has a main role in the story. All the story turns around the tragic events that his rage causes: he is the result of Frankenstein's unsuccessful experiment, who didn't respect nature's laws. When the monster opens his eyes he is like a human being at the moment of his birth and he feels himself refused when he sees his creator running away horrified. The monster, at first, shows a sensible and generous heart, but the loathing he inspires in everyone, the lack of love and the big sense of loneliness will drive him to commit a lot of crimes, to take revenge on Frankenstein, the cause of his misfortunes.The character of the monster is extremely dramatic, because he is a victim, at first of the manipulation of human life for scientific purposes, then of human superficiality due to prejudice, and of the indifference towards his feelings. We can say that maybe the real monster of the novel is not Frankenstein's creature but the society in which he lives.
WALTON: Robert Walton is the captain of a shipment to the North Pole. The novel begins with some letters that the captain sends to his sister Margaret Saville, telling her his moods during the adventure. Margaret will receive a lot of letters containing the unlucky events of Frankenstein and his moster. The readers can identify themselves with Walton because he, like us, listen to the story told by Frankenstein and does not speak. Walton recognizes himself in the ambitious spirit of Frankenstein. In fact both of them want to realize a dream that many people retain impossible.
HENRY: brave, romantic and clever, generous, gentle, sensible. He's Victor's best friend. Like Frankenstein he likes the study of the Sciences. When Victor falls ill Henry arrives in Ingolstadt and takes care of him. Henry's death is tragic: the monster kills him.
ELIZABETH: nice, gentle, beautiful, sweet ,romantic. She is Victor's adoptive cousin and will become his wife.She loves Frankenstein but she is worried about Victor's project. The monster kills her on her wedding night.
JUSTINE: She is a young girl, very gentle and pretty. She lives in Victor's house. She is accused of William's murder, and although innocent, she will be executed. She is the second victim of the monster.
WILLIAM: He is Victor's brother, he is the first victim of the monster.
Geneva, Ingolstadt, Laboratory,Chamonix, St.Petersburgh, Archangel, Belrive, Germany and England,North Pole.