Frankenstein 3

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Within the dismal and disgusting charnel-houses, Frankenstein receives "a light so brilliant and wondrous" that sets his mind in motion (Shelley 31). He explains that there, among the decomposing forms of men, a light went on. Within the chamber Frankenstein inexplicably realized the amazingly simple way to animate inanimate objects. Frankenstein, however, refuses to reveal this information, as if the singularly educated Robert Walton were to understand any bit of Frankenstein's probably extremely complicated method of creating his own 8 feet tall, yellow monster. If you cannot tell from the sarcasm, i indicate that one can clearly see around Shelley's strategy of covering up the omission of Frankenstein's methods by simply stating that Frankenstein does not wish to tell. Although it is quite obvious, it is very smart of her not to try her hand at theorizing such an incredibly impossible and complex possibility, for when one does that with little scientific background, many can gain sights around it. That, in turn, leads to bad science fiction. She omits the specifics of the finding, because, honestly, it is not very important and then she continues on with the real story.

Having little background on this story, other than what pop culture has taught me, I was very astonished by the true creation story. I was very much expecting the gigantic foreboding mansion/castle in which Frankenstein and his hunchbacked accomplice Igor crank the green monster to the top of the building thus ensuing the great lighting bolt followed by the maniacal laugh and trademark, "It's Alive!". However, the real creation is much more subtle. In fact, if one were simply skimming the pages with his or her eyes and not fully digesting the information, they could altogether skip the infamous scene. For it only takes up a few lines and ends with Frankenstein growing cold-feet and running away. How's that for a mad scientist?