Resumo de Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley?s Frankenstein is both an enjoyable read and an important novel even though it was written by an amateur. Shelley created Frankenstein in a rather off hand way. She was vacationing with a group of friends (including her lover, Percy Bysshe Shelley and also Lord Byron) in Switzerland during the summer of 1816. They created a contest to see who could compose the best ghost story. Mary Shelley was the only one to complete her manuscript, resulting in the birth of Frankenstein. The original book was published in 1818.
Shelly begins her tale from the point of view of the captain of a ship who finds Victor Frankenstein, the scientist, floating on an ice flow and takes him aboard his ship. The narration naturally shifts to the point of view of Frankenstein here. He relates the story of his youth, his education, and the making of his monster. During this discourse, Shelley switches to the point of view of the monster and back again to Frankenstein. Shelly finishes the tale in the voice of the ship?s captain. Despite the triple narrators, there is no confusion as to who is telling the story and the transitions between points of view are smooth.
The story is entertaining, if not predictable at points. The narration progresses despite the fact that Shelly tells and not shows from time to time. However, the characters are rather flat. They cry, but their tears appear superficial. The only one who shows real emotion is the monster (anger, rage, sadness, love). Furthermore, the reader must use his/her imagination to come up with visages for the characters, as there is very little description. Shelley doesn?t even bother to name the monster although he appears to be the most real character. Meanwhile, Shelley goes into detail about the landscape of the novel, perhaps as a show of her knowledge of travel.
Overall, the novel is easily comprehended and compact enough so the reader does not get bored. It is an important novel, not necessarily for its literary merit, but for its impact on the literary community; a woman wrote it, from the point of view of a man (actually two men and one monster) in a genre not familiar with female authors. It also defined the Gothic novel and launched the foundation for the modern horror story.
When one reads Frankenstein, one needs to set aside the stereotypes and fantasies of Frankenstein portrayed in movies. It is ironic that in the movie versions, Frankenstein is often the name associated with the monster and not the creator of the monster. Another major difference between the novel and some of the screen versions is that the monster does not start off wanting to harm people in the novel. In fact he wants to help people.
The monster tries to befriend humans. They simply look at him and mistreat him by throwing things at him and chasing him away. It is due to this mistreatment that he begins to act out in anger. His anger is directed, and rightly so, toward his creator, Frankenstein.
Frankenstein is the true villain in the story. He is the villain because he did not take responsibility for his creation. He also would not admit to his family and friends that he created the monster or even that it existed. Instead of employing their help, he allowed his family and friends to suffer and die.
Critics have extensively theorized the writing of Frankenstein. Some of the criticism concentrates on the portrayal of the women in Frankenstein; the comparison of Frankenstein with the story of creation and with Paradise Lost; who the real villain is; and the level of accuracy and reliability of the story. While discussion is beneficial, the reader should keep in mind Shelley?s intention; she simply wanted to write a ghost/horror story. To this she was successful.

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