The Legacy of Frankenstein: A Journey Through Literature and Morality

What is the evolution of the science fiction novel?

The science fiction novel is one of the most diffused and most liked generes in literature. We have examples of this genre from Greek literature up to that of our times, for example in the II century a.C. Lucian of Samosata wrote “True History” and in Arabia, in the X century, we have one of the most science fiction novel liked by children, “One Thousand and One Nights”. Nowadays one of the gratest and most diffused works of world literature is Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

The story of Frankenstein

Having been first written in between 1816 and 1817 when Shelley was only 19, it was published for the first time only one year after, in the 1818 and it was issued anonymously; the name of the writer appears on the second edition, published in the 1823. The first full version of Frankenstein was translated in Italian in 1952 and was published the same year.
The first edition’s criticisms are unfair, but the second edition was more successful and the criticisms were positive, also because it was discovered that the author of the book was a woman. Nowadays is one of the most knowed novels and it’s also a best seller; also the name “Frankenstein” is commonly used: in medicine is used to indicate something negative. From the book were produced several films and plays, the first film adaptation goes back to 1910, when Edison Studios produced a silent film called/named as the book.

Setting and plot

This book is set in the entire Europe durin the ‘800, in fact the narration begins in Russia, then move to Geneva, where the events surrounding Victor Frankenstein, the main character, and the Monster are chronicled. The setting switches often, but the majority is set in Europe.

The story begins with a man, Captain Walton, who’s traveling to the North Pole, tat find a man lies dying on a floe; the man is Victor Frankenstein, the main character of the novel, a Swiss scientist. He was born and lived in Geneva; after his mother died giving birth to his brother William, Victor went to a medical school in Ingolstadt, where he created an human creature, consisting of parts of corpses. The creature causes terror springs from the scientist, who rejects him, who flees into the forest, where he learned to speak and read. But it was discovered and sent away, and thanks to the diary of Victor, who had stolen before fleeing, reach Geneva and kills Victor's brother. After that the monster asked Victor to build a partner for him, but Victor refuses, and tries to escape from the creature by marrying Elizabeth, her sister. But during the wedding night the monster kills the woman. Victor take back lo life his wife, but the woman, quarrel between the two men, committed suicide. After, the monster flees to the North Pole and the scientist was following him with the intent to kill him, and at the end both die.

Themes and moral lessons

This novel shows which are the concerns of technological development and how the different (who’s not equal to the others) causes fear and terror in who view him. Also the writer wants to teach a moral lesson on which actions may be reasonable and which not. So the book make you think if the technological development is a good thing or not and if what you do is right.
But the book doesn’t only have good strenghts, in facts there were also some weakness; the first may be the length, in fact the book has 339 pages, another one may be the thoughts of the main caracters, that sometimens are twisted.

On the whole, the book is a worth reading and I think it can be recommended to people aged 15 and over, because it has a really good moral lesson, that can make you wonder a lot about the development and about whatever you do.