Frankenstein …. book or film?

[lg325]

I agree. The Captain became so caught in Frankensteins' delusions his mind started to see it also. Being isolated in the ice helped it along.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

the book does not speak of a monster, but of a being

Actually a beautiful being. The Modern Prometheus as the book is sub titled. The monster was not supposed to be ugly.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Yes!

I thought I was the only one who cought onto that. It indeed a novel of a man relating an extended delusion with hallucinations.

It was the movie, in which the monster was very real that throws modern audiences off.

I do have one twist at the end with which you may disagree.

As you know, the story is told by a ship's captain in a letter to a female, his wife or his sister, I can't recall. But the tale is told in Doctor Frankenstein's narration with the Captain's tale a wraparound.

My take is that the reader is supposed to understand, almost from the start, that the tale is of a mentally ill man's hallucinations, and murders while in the personality of his own creation. There are clues in almost every chapter that this is the case.

But at the end, Dr. Frankenstein dies, and then the ship's captain sees the monster, the only one besides Doctor F. who has seen him and lived to tell the tale. So it is supposed to be a surprise ending: Surprise! It was not a delusion, after all.

But, then again, maybe that is supposed to mean that the Captain has become caught up in Frankenstein's delusions.

I'm open to your ideas on that.

This is certainly the plot of Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde.

 

[Zebra]

Actually a beautiful being. The Modern Prometheus as the book is sub titled. The monster was not supposed to be ugly.

in zhe book iz is never the momster …. but the being!

 

[Seymour Flops]

This is certainly the plot of Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde.

Never thought of that. I always thought it was an allegory about an otherwise good person becoming addicted to drugs.

I'll re-read it.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Never thought of that. I always thought it was an allegory about an otherwise good person becoming addicted to drugs.

I'll re-read it.

Ohh. Then it is certainly the plot of Jeckle and Hyde.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Mary Shelley was a mediocre writer who happened on an interesting "science fiction" idea that offered greater potential than she was able to bring to it in her novel. I would rate the Boris Karloff film as the best telling of the story, followed by Young Frankenstein, which was the most edifying.

I agree with that.
Her idea of this story is what propelled it, not the book itself.
It was a fantastic, imaginative idea for a story. Just wasn't told super well.
So it gained such massive success because it was so different than anything ever written.

But if someone such as Dickens or Ainsworth would have written it.... just wow.