弗兰肯斯坦 阅读

Frankenstein

I read this book bacause my roommates in another class with the recommendation of their teacher are lost in the scientific fiction.

Summary:

The story starts with four letters in which a monster tells the author who are exploring in Artic about a story.

Originally, the person is frankenstein, a swiss nobility. He went further study in German, and studied electrochemistry and life and discovered the secret of death. He created a monster but finally the monster became very uglly. Frankenstein was frightened to faint. When he was awake, the monster has disappeared.

At the birth of the monster, he was very enthusiastic about the world. Hiding in the mountains, he learned how to use the fire. He met an old man and a young cuople who secluded in the mountains. He was touched and falled in love the human society. when the young couple went outside to help the old blind man to collect firewood, he stole the books to learn the Arabian and French. After reading The Sorrows of Young Werther and plenty of literature and philosophical masterpiece, he is hungry foe art and love. However strongly hope to change the present situation. So he entered the house again and found the old blind man stay in home alone then he chatted with him. At the same time, the young couple returned back and the boy angrily kicked him out which injured his self-esteem. With calming down, he thought that he would rather find the creator than intercate with others. On sight of his appearance, many people beat and shouted at him, even someone shoot him. He suffered everybody’s hate and fearness. Finally the monster was not kind-heart any more, he attributed all things to his creator.

Since then everything has changed. The monster killed his brother and tried to fame maidservant with it. When Frankenstein arrived at the scene, he found that all things were done by the monster. So he chased after the monster until the Alpes. The monster thought he was unfairly treated, and didn’t get the love from a woman. He asked Frankenstein to creat a woman then thy would go far away from the human society. Frankenstein agreed that.

At the moment of finishing, he hesitated. What trouble would bring to human being if they falled in love and bear new monster. So he destroyed the female monster immediately. The monster was very angry and hopeless for the hunman society and his future, so he killed the friend of Frankenstein and his bride on the wedding, which irrated Frankenstein, they want to killed each other and have been chased till Northern Pole.

The end is that after the creator Frankenstein tlod the author all about the monster, he died. Then from the distance came a big guy, confessing on the dead body of F , then claim that he has took the revenge, turning back towards the ice.

Abstract:

CHAPTER 10

I spent following days romaing through the valley, I stood beside the sources of the Arveiron, which take their rise in a glacier that with slow pace is advancing down from the summit of the hills to barricade…………I retired to rest at night; my slumbers, as it were,waited on and ministered to by the assemblance of grand shapes which I had contemplated during the day. They congregated round me; the unstained snowy mountain top, the glittering pinnacle, the pine woods, and ragged bare ravine, the eagle, soaring amidst the clouds – they all gather around me and bade me be at peace.

Frankenstein, after a series of attack by the nightmare of the monster, thought he can relax himself in the beautiful scenery. The author vividly describes the scene to emphasize Victor’s mood, taking the scene F meets the monster again as a comparison.

CHAPTER 16

CURSED, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the speak of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed and cottage and its inhabtants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery………….

The author use the psychological tactics to show the monster’s detestation to the creator. And in terms of what he has suffered, he thought the world is so unfair. The psychological description lays the groundwork for the following revenge. Feelings:

When Frankenstein’s monster first goes into the world, he is like a child waiting to be loved and appreciated. But the society rejects him because of his horrible appearance. To some extent, he is a symbol of all those who suffer because they are different from others in the society. the “different” members of society include the disabled even the person discriminated because of their skin color, religion, or social status. Only the blind man treat the monster humanly. He judges the monster in a fair way and accepts him. Mary exposed the existence of prejudice and discrimination in the real society by describing the people’s detestation and hostility to the monster.

As a scientist, Victor Frankenstein believes that he has the right to pursue truth and

knowledge. Science, he thinks, has virtually no boundaries. Scientist Victor is a symbol of human creativity. There is a great provocation to the religious theology, as Victor mocked religion openly to play the role as a GOD to create life. It indicates the power of science and technology will inevitably destory old traditions. Victor’s exploration represents the people’s exploration of natural secrets, it also reflect people’s hunger for knowledge, and the love of life. Meanwhile, it also shows Mary’s worry, since the sonsequences of the development of science and technology are unpredictable, it will cause disaster if lose control, just like the tragedy of Frankenstein.

The last I wanna talk about the feminism. During the Victorian era Mary Shelley was living, the images of women like “The Angels in the House” were always emphasize and repeated whether in literature works or in public life. At that time, women were not equal to men in the society. however, Mary Shelly was brave enough t challenge the authority of her father and ran away from home to pursue her own love. Also, in her book, she acted against the “female principle”.

The monster, the result of male arrogance, is the enemy and destroyer of the eternal female priciple. The male, who is the executive power in a patriarchal system, has deprived woman of her most natural fhunction because he is now able to create children without female participation. Mary satirized the male’s ignorance and discrimination on women at that time.