Frankenstein Essay
Due to its application to other fields (namely, psychology), or perhaps due to its relevance (specifically to teenagers), Frankenstein remains on the unspoken “list” of books students must read in their careers, making it fair to say the book maintains status as a “classic”. However, before reaching this point of seeming grandiosity, like most artists in their own time, critics of the time failed to appreciate Mary Shelley’s work. For example, a mere six years after its publication, the Knight’s Quarterly Review expressed fervent disappointment in Frankenstein, and then proceeded to lambaste the novel as well as its author for a poorly written story lacking the necessary “spark”. Although most high schoolers would hastily agree with this review, its baseless accusations prove almost too easy to refute.
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Instead of seeing an impactful, knowledgeable story, he sees one completely devoid of any “imagination” or “passion”. However, the novel’s universal nature reigns to refute these statements. At the tender age of 20, typically a time of emotional learning, she understood the very intricacies of life, allowing her to pen a story about a monster “...even Dante could not have conceived” who yearns for love from his neglecting creator (Shelley 52). In it, she shows the monster’s climb up the hierarchy of needs, as well as its failure to move past his basic needs(safety and physiological) to achieve his psychological needs (love and belonging). Because of this ubiquitous, encapsulating universal theme, her work has spawned myriads upon myriads of (albeit, literarily inaccurate) adaptations. Genius? Perhaps not, but any woman whose work had nearly as much impact as hers did deserves major credit for