By Ivan Starostenko
In the summer of 1816 on the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva, a company gathered consisting of the poet Percy Shelley, his wife Mary, her stepsister Claire, Lord Byron and his personal physician - John Polidori. They spent evenings telling each other ghost stories. And then Lord Byron suggested everyone to write a horror story as a competition. As a result 19-year-old Mary Shelley surpassed everyone by presenting terrific horror novel “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus”. She was inspired by a nightmare in which she saw a scientist, who created a man, but later renounced him because of his deformation.
The theory of galvanism was widely used during the 19th century as the idea of the resurrection of the dead flesh due to electrical discharges and lightning. And this became the basic idea of the Mary Shelley’s epoch-making novel. As it's reflected in the novel, M. Shelley received large scale knowledge of science from her father, who was always surrounded by the people from the scientific world.
The novel starts with the letters of Captain Walton who intends to explore the North Pole. Having arrived to the Pole, the captain and his crew notice someone's giant footprints in the snow. The crew finds a barely alive frozen man in the snow. His name is Victor Frankenstein. The captain brings him to senses by giving him a shelter on the ship. From this point the story is told on behalf of Frankenstein.
Frankenstein was born in a wealthy family in Geneva. Since his very childhood Victor was absorbed in the exploration of the unknown. He always read the works of famous scientists and dreamt of comprehending the mysteries of human life. His parents adopted young Elizabeth whom Victor married a few years later.
Completely absorbed in the mysteries of life, Frankenstein goes to the university in Ingolstadt, Germany. There he attains the knowledge that he's particularly interested in. But his views are largely at odds with the views of professors. And he decides to comprehend independently what he is interested in. He decides to create a perfect man, endowed with a brilliant mind and a great appearance, resorting with the help of alchemy and galvanism. But, as a result, Frankenstein regretfully realizes that he created a monster endowed with great physical strength. The Creator renounces his Creation. The Monster escapes from the lab.
At first, he, as a child, doesn't know how to talk and does not understand anything, but his intelligence develops very quickly. And over time, his mind, in a way, exceeds the human's. Endowed with a good nature, but terrifying appearance, he doesn't find his place among people.
Persecuted and despised by everybody, the disillusioned monster decides to pay a visit to his creator...
Mary Shelley has endowed the Frankenstein’s Creation with great compassion. The main character is a lonely and detached from people. He just wanted to do good to people, but their prejudices of his terrifying appearance drove his heart filled with anger. This largely reflects the very life of Mary herself: her mother died shortly after her birth, and she had constant conflicts with her stepmother. Mary often left the house, and spent a lot of time by the sea. Eventually Mary felt abandoned and alone. Also when Mary married Percy Shelley and had a child, it did not live even for 2 weeks. She reflected in the Frankenstein’s actions her great wish to bring her dead mother and child back to life. Besides, Shelley wanted to show what may happen to a person who is not able to take responsibility for his creation, leaving it to fend for himself.
These are the components that made the magnificent work of Mary Shelley's immortal classic, which was adapted later countless times, both in theater and cinema. “Frankenstein” is considered to be the first science-fiction novel in history.
In 1910 Thomas Edison’s studio shot the very first film adaptation of "Frankenstein". Charles Ogle, the permanent actor of the studio, played the Monster. Moreover he has created the make-up for his character himself.
