Frankenstein Journal Two

Chapters 9 – 12

            In chapters nine and ten, Mary Shelley uses a tremendous amount of imagery (more so than any other chapter thus far). I totally disagree with this. Granted Shelley wrote Frankenstein during a time when diction was at a high level and sentence structure was very complex and wordy, yet is all that miniscule detail really necessary? I realize she is trying to allow the reader to visualize the environment that surrounds Victor and his family members, but I think she could have done this more concisely.

I remained in a recess of the rock, gazing on this wonderful and stupendous scene. The sea, or rather the vast river of ice, wound among its dependent mountains, whose aerial summits hung over its recesses. Their icy and glittering peaks shown in the sunlight over the clouds. (Shelley 80)

I find the above quote to be extremely ridiculous in the way it goes on and on about the sights Victor is seeing. I can’t really talk on the behalf of others, but I can say that when I stumble upon sections of Frankenstein like the previous example I usually just skim over them.

            Another aspect of these two chapters that I criticize Shelley on is the way in which she portrays the monster when Victor runs into him at the summit. My main issue has to do with why the creature is able to talk so fluently and eloquently. Shouldn’t he be speaking gibberish or some other language unknown to the rest of man? If Shelley really wanted to succeed in creating something heinous and evil, she would have had him not speaking Victor’s language. However, that is just my own personal opinion.

Chapters 13 – 16

            This section of Frankenstein really made me consider if Shelley intended for the creature to be symbolic of a child learning basic concepts as it grows up. I feel like the creature thoroughly enjoys living in the hovel next to the cottage. My main reason in supporting this would be the fact that having a family live next to him, whom he can actually see and watch, allows him to pretend as though he’s a part of something. They, without knowing it, are serving as his parents. Victor is really supposed to be the adult figure or rather the “parent” in his life, but he leaves the creature at the sight of it attaining life. There’s really no other way to explain his actions other than the fact that he basically gets cold feet. Therefore, the creature learns all of the things he needs to know either by himself or by watching the De Lacey family. He learns how to speak French eloquently and fluently (thus explaining how he is able to communicate with Victor). In addition, he discovers how wonderful and mighty man can be, but also how destructive and awful they can be. The De Lacey family, in an odd way, shows how the previous is true. Victor, after some time, feels so comfortable with these people and considers them his family. He just wants to be accepted, and I think Shelley does an excellent job at allowing the reader to feel pity for the monster (even if it’s just for a split second) when his hopes of being accepted by the family are shot down once they discover who he is.

Chapters 17 – 18

            In chapter seventeen we learn that the monster wants Victor to make a female companion for him so he isn’t lonely anymore. If Victor cooperates, the monster will end his killing streak. However, if he fails to cooperate, the monster will continue his killing streak with blood thirsty vengeance. Before I found out what Victor’s decision was I truly hoped that he would choose not to abide to the monster’s wishes. Indeed, this sounds completely messed up, but I really want to read about actual horror stories. Thus far, in my opinion, this book has been rambling on about nonsense. If Victor doesn’t do what the monster says maybe the storyline will become more interesting and “juicier.”

            In my first journal entry I discussed how I didn’t really envision Frankenstein to be all that frightening. Nonetheless, my predictions have been correct so far (as I mentioned in the previous paragraph). Yet, after reading chapter 18 and discovering that Victor refuses to listen to the monster, I realized that my predictions could be incorrect and I literally became ecstatic. So many thoughts continued to pump into my head. Maybe I was wrong about Shelley and her writing style. Maybe the monster will go out and kill. Maybe the book will actually become SCARY. I’m not quite sure if I’m correct in any of my thinking because I haven’t read ahead, but I sincerely hope that I’m right about something. Perhaps, the monster doesn’t plan on killing random people. In fact, I actually think he’ll end up destroying Victor’s family (including Victor), and hence demonstrate to his creator the feeling of isolation.