Literary Essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

• What is Frankenstein’s main interest?
• What makes the novel still popular today?


   Frankenstein is the story of a man whose ambition conducts him to seek for supernatural powers. In his attempt to reach a God-like level, he acts basically for his own interest and wants to see his name glorified by humanity. Power and Glory—two of much-discussed human ambitions—are his primary aims. To achieve this goal, he makes an extensive use of knowledge and science. The whole scientific knowledge he acquires through his research and his experiments will lead him to desolation, loneliness and will result in a complete failure.

  The two following main themes are in my opinion the novel’s principal interest: on the one hand, the so-called ‘myth of the modern Prometheus,’ with Victor being pictured as the one who steals the fire form the Gods; and on the other hand, the problem of science, of scientific knowledge: can science find solutions to all human problems? Is it only a matter of time, or are there clear borders that cannot be trespassed? I will discuss both themes, pointing out what still makes them popular today and explaining how they relate to Frankenstein.


  First, let’s talk about Prometheus. Prometheus is so closely related to Victor that it’s even the subtitle of the novel: The Modern Prometheus. Prometheus stole fire from the Gods to give it to humanity; he was cursed by Zeus and made to endure an eternal torture. As far as Victor is concerned, his own glory was basically a goal for him. With his mother’s death and his strong feeling that this death was unjust, Victor finds a way to achieve his goal, namely: create a new species which would ignore illness and disease, which would be strong and beautiful. He even talks about getting rid of death entirely. With his experiments he finally manages to bestow life to a dead creature: he has taken over God-like powers.

  By trying to create life artificially and to destroy death itself, Victor rises against natural laws, which have been ruling the world for millions of years. He thinks that these laws are not immutable—and indeed he seems to be right, as he successfully creates the monster. But even if he does manage to reach a God-like level or to acquire God-like powers, he doesn’t have any God-like knowledge or experience or responsibility. When he sees his monster—I should say, ‘his creation,’ as there mustn’t be a negative connotation in the word—he is afraid, tries to run away and to forget him. He will never try to care for him not to love him, nor will he feel a strong responsibility towards what we can call his son.

  Victor, like Prometheus, has tried to acquire God-like ‘possessions,’ and like him, he will be punished. The creation of his monster means the destruction of himself, while he gets more and more isolated and lonely. He wanted to rise so high because of his ambition that he got burnt and fell without any hope of rising again. From that point of view, Victor can be compared to Icarus.

  And there is here a point which makes the novel popular even today: there is something universal in Victor’s attempt to reach this God-like level. It is a way of describing the human condition before God, before Mother Nature’s immutable laws, before the unknown. It is a common theme, which has been discussed again and again since the birth of humanity: think of the Babel Tower, for example. Man’s ambition, man’s desire for glory pushes him beyond the ‘human borders;’ and he dramatically fails in trying to rise.

  This still a widely discussed topic nowadays; now that there seems to be fewer and fewer religious people, the debate even acquires a larger importance. That’s what makes Frankenstein’s topics still very up-to-date.

  The other main theme I wanted to discuss is the one of ‘omnipotent science’ before the human condition and before Mother Nature’s laws. It was a common belief during the Enlightenment and thereafter to consider science in general as a liberator for mankind. With science, you could master electricity, you could cure disease, you could grow cereals more efficiently. Science seemed to be the solution to all human problems—one had to trust science, it was simply a matter of time. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can also be seen as a warning towards this belief, or towards science and scientific knowledge. We know, as I said in the introduction, that Victor makes an extensive use of science and of his scientific experiments to create his monster. And we know what finally happens to both of them. Science can thus be regarded as the main motor of Victor’s self-destruction.

  No need to say that this problem is most up-to-date now: while we think about molecular genetics, about biotechnology, about artificial intelligence, we should ask ourselves a question: up to where can science guide us? In many scientific domains today, if we do master the technology, we have no idea about the concept lying behind (I’m precisely thinking about genetics). Frankenstein deals with this topic ans it probably owns a great part of its popularity today to this.


  As a conclusion, I will say that Frankenstein, first published in 1818, is a true classic novel, for it deals with a lot of subjects, some of which are universal—the problem od human condition for example—while some other are still most up-to-date today, like the problem of omnipotent science, it will be interesting to read what critiques will say in two hundred years about such topics.