Well I ended up reading the whole remainder of the book in one feverish sitting and I find myself getting more and more infuriated with the character of Frankenstein. His persistent woe is me attitudes are born are strictly based out of selfishness and fear. The idea that somehow Frankenstein is the victim of some awful secret that no one could possibly understand is insufferably arrogant and selfish and is repeated again in the attitude of Walton towards the end of the book. The last three letters Walton writes portray Frankenstein as some glorious man from an age past whom the world will never understand.
I’m sorry but if being a genius requires you to ignore basic wisdom that would clearly tell you to explain your “crimes” of science to save the people your care about… then I’d rather be a simpleton.
Time and again Frankenstein laments his position when the clear and obvious thing to do is to and clearly telling people the situation in and do whatever can be done to try to save the people who are innocent and yet repeatedly subjected to the judgement Frankenstein deserves.
The final act of his arrogance is to presume that the risk is too great to allow his own creation to not be allowed to have some semblance of solace in a companion. He treats the situation so cut and dry that in his genius the outcome of destruction and mayhem is guaranteed. In the end it is Frankenstein’s guilt that prevents him from doing right by his monster not some vaunted sense of honor.
Pardon me if you disagree but i think Frankenstein is a selfish coward and allows his addiction to his emotional roller coaster to get in the way of doing the right thing. I call it addiction because why else we he continue to go back to the same nonsensical course of action that leads him to melancholy. I would like to know other people’s thoughts on this so I can figure out if I’m right or riding my own personal crazy train over here.
Thanks for reading,
Michael Carroll