#its insane how everything couldve been avoided if victor werent a pussy and didnt procrastinate

[notsp1derman]

a somewhat despairing review of "frankenstein", by mary shelley

[may contain spoilers]

"I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”

Cruelty can be born of love, just as empathy can spring even in the worst pits of hell. So until what point can we judge a creature without knowing its life?

For me, Frankenstein has become more than a classic horror story, more than a cautionary tale about progress without ethics. It's the picture of a wretched creature made in rejection and misery, surprisingly eloquent and gentle despite its origins, but that still didn't bear its own despair and succumbed to hatefulness. It's full of tragedy and bitterness, along with some of the most devastatingly human feelings written beautifully on the pages.

At the same time, life's tribulations don't justify cruelty, at least for me, and that applies as much to Victor as to the Creature. Both commit terrible and selfish acts and do complicated mental gymnastics to validate them, but it's impossible to pick a side; in the end, we all do things to our own benefit sometimes, harming others in turn. Victor had a somewhat noble cause, but was blinded by his ego and distracted by his own self-pity and cowardice. On the other hand, the Creature absolutely can't be blamed for its own cursed existence, but its heinous crimes didn't solve a single thing.

I don't have a single ounce of pity towards Victor; he deserves the hell he paid in the end. But I can't help but sympathize towards the Creature despite its sins. The feeling of not fitting in, of being alienated from society, hits me even though I'm not disfigured or horrifying in appearance. And it's not far-fetched to imagine many who feel this even deeply, in a world obsessed with youth and aesthetic perfection. Yet there are things that will always be unfair, and though we can and should do our best to lessen them and work towards a better future, it is overwhelming and despairing sometimes.

And that is the saddest part: we'll be forever victims of the opinions of others,and things won't just conveniently solve themselves just because they're unfair. Nobody is inherently evil, and that doesn't mean everyone is fruit only of their circumstances, so we are left to chalk it up to the many unfortunate probabilities of living. I believe the answer to the mysteries of one of the world's most famous stories is actually quite simple. Despite everything, in the end it's just human nature.

★★★★☆