The first time that I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was during my senior year of high school as part of the AP English course. Before that I only knew the Hollywood story of Frankenstein that James Whale popularized in the 1930s. So I was pleasantly surprised when I read it and found out it was hardly like the film at all. I definitely enjoy the novel more, although the Frankenstein movie with Robert De Niro as the monster is a good one that follows along with the novel pretty well.

So it's been a few years since I've read it, so I re-read it for class. When I finished, all I could think was, "Man, that's just as messed up as I remember." There are many morbid twists in the plot of the story, and I'm constantly feeling sorry for the monster, especially during those chapters that are entirely narrated by the monster when he's on his own. I always get irritated when people incorrectly call the monster “Frankenstein,” since the real monster of the novel is Frankenstein, Victor to be exact, not his creation. Victor is the father figure in the book, and the creature more of a newborn child. When the monster approaches Victor in the book, which is much like the first steps of a child to its parent, he flees the apartment, completely abandoning the creature. I felt this was very irresponsible of him, and portrayed his selfish character. What I don’t understand is how what he has done just suddenly dawns on him. He called the creature ugly, yet what did he expect when he used pieces of different corpses to assemble him?

Well, although I enjoy the novel more than the film, I’ve never been much of a Frankenstein fan. The Wolfman is more of what floats my boat, personally :)

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