Jasmine: WARNING! Dreams of bliss can not be realized :-(

WARNING SPOILERS UP AHEAD! IF YOU HAVEN’T READ FRANKENSTEIN AND YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING DON’T READ THIS!

Ok, I’ve warned you. Nothing more I can do about it. Here it goes. I’m not sure how it’s going to sound. It’s late and my brain is a little foggy. But I had the urge.

“He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in the darkness and the distance.” Alas I with sadness say I have finished Frankenstein. I’ve read the book, I’ve written the essay. There is nothing left there to keep me coming back apart from my own blasted admiration. Mary Shelly is a God, or Goddess , or whatever. She wrote this masterpiece when she was eighteen. Admittedly she did a hell of a lot of editing on it when she turned thirty and it was republished. But it was still written when she was eighteen. I’m eighteen. I can’t even turn out a passable novel much less a masterpiece of these proportions. Though that isn’t to say I haven’t tried.

For a little background on the piece that most of you probably already know. The inspiration here came from a little get away at Lord Byron’s house. Yes the Lord Byron. Yes he’s a vampire. If you don’t believe me talk to Jordan Krummel, she’s got the goods. Any ways she, her husband (who she ran away with while he was still married, his first wife then killed herself), and her stepsister (who was sleeping with Byron and had a child of his), all went to spend a few months with him. But the weather was acting up and they were forced to spend a lot of time indoors. Byron came up with an idea, a sort of competition of sorts, for them to each write a ghost story. Both Byron and Percy (he husband), started to write, but quickly grew bored with it. However she and Polidori, Byron’s physician went on to finish their stories. Polidori wrote The Vampyre. Something I haven’t read but need to. She came up with Frankenstein, a piece inspired by a dream she had sometime after the challenge was made.

Ok, I haven’t seen the movie. But from what I understand the movie presents Frankenstein’s monster as somewhat of an idiot who accidentally kills a girl and is then hunted down by society. I’m probably wrong on a lot of that, but I’m right when I say they got him wrong. The creature is not stupid. He’s more intelligent than most people. He’s also physically more agile, and stronger than humans. Dr. Frankenstein sought to create something better than a human, and if you don’t mind looks, he did. But intellectually, he learns French by watching a family, he reads dante’s inferno, paridise lost, and another book I don’t remember, but haven’t read so I can’t relate to it. The monster is articulate and has more love for humanity than it has for itself… at first.

There is no accidental killing of a girl by the lake. There is a sort of accidental killing of a boy, Frankenstein’s little brother. But no remorse at first, only opportunity. After killing the boy he quickly plants evidence pointing to an innocent who is killed for the crime. Later on he kills first Frankenstein’s best friend. Frankenstein is blamed for the murder and spends several months in prison. He gets sick again. I will express my opinions of his ability to get sick later on. Then when Frankenstein gets married, he kills his wife on his wedding night. Lastly he kills Frankenstein. Then he heads north to kill himself at the top of the world. There is no bumbling fool monster. The monster is most calculated in his murders, and very aware of their affects on people.

As for Frankenstein. He pisses me off. Ok, yeah, he’s amazing. He figured out the secret to life by staring at corpses and thinking about it all. But he’s a weak creature. He gets sick all the time, and takes months to recover. He freaks when the thing he’s been trying to awake actually does awake. He is freaking out, becoming sicker and sicker, because that’s what Frankenstein does when he’s emotional, he gets sick, but does he try and fix what he’s done. No he flees. Weak sauce! Admittedly he does devote his life to revenge, which, while stupid, I can admire… sort of.

Oh, and by the way, THERE IS NO ASSISTANT! Sorry Igor fans.

Anyways I loved the book, and I can’t remember if I have anything else to say about it. Actually I know I do I just can’t remember what that was. Not a good sign. The book’s amazing. I want to read it again. And again. And again. Kind of the way I fell for The Count of Monte Cristo. Hmmm. Maybe I should write an amorous blog about that book. I sort of love that one the most. My thoughts have become scattered. I need sleep. I’m not going to get it. I have to wake up early to edit my essay and then do a whole lot of other homework I didn’t do because I was busy procrastinating. Tough stuff that procrastinating, very time consuming. That is if you’re good at it. I am.

Hmmm. Good night.

Oooh this was Frankenstein studying the dead. But it’s a fine example of how he declined.

“I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed the blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain.”