MARY W. SHELLY‘S FRANKENSTEIN

The main characters - Victor Frankenstein and his creation, a monster without name, are the only round characters in this story. It means, that they are described in great detail and their characters are developing as the story goes on. (The others merely represent the types of goodness, benevolence and love.) I will try to describe how the main characters’ natures were developing and what circumstances led to their fall.
The 19th century, in which Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly lived, can be characterized as a period of strong believe in God. People believed that he is the only creator of the world and of the whole mankind. The author of Frankenstein was influenced by this idea too but she was strong enough to use her imagination to interpret it and create this unforgettable story (not only) of human egoism and egotism in which human effort ends in an unexpected end and results in tragedy. I think she believed in the supreme power of God and that nobody else, even human being, could not “play” God because the result could be only disaster. It is not only a simple horror story but also a great picture of humans’ fates, which are absolutely influenced and changed by a mistake of one person.

FRANKENSTEIN IS PLAYING GOD

“For my own part, I begin to love him as a brother, and his constant and deep grief fills me with sympathy and compassion. He must have been a noble creature in his better days, being even now in wreck so attractive and amiable.” In these words is Frankenstein described by the explorer who takes him on the board of the ship, which is captured in the vast plains of ice in "the land of mist and snow”. We can suppose that Frankenstein is physically very sympathetic man and probably nobody who met him or even knew him would say what secret is he now carrying in his mind and that he, not in deed, but in effect, is the true murderer – that he is responsible for death of several people. But this was not his true behavior from the beginning.
“The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.” This sentence fully
expresses the feelings Frankenstein has in his early childhood and which become the reason of his later misery and loneliness. He is a special young man with a special aim. He wants to unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation. His dream is to create a being, stronger and better than a man is.