this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
74 points (100.0% liked)
Books
5385 readers
859 users here now
A community for all things related to Books.
Rules
- Be Nice. No personal attacks or hate speech.
- No spam. All posts should be related to books.
Official Bingo Posts:
Related Communities
Community icon by IconsBox (from freepik.com)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I "reread" this a couple of years ago, only to discover I was reading it for the first time. Though the letter writing framing is a personal annoyance, the author drops out of that narrative style pretty quickly. Some other stuff may seem like tropes, but keep in mind that Shelley pioneered many of those tropes.
minor spoilers below.
The thing that stuck out to me was that the Monster was truly evil and didn't deserve any sympathy. I know that contradicts the text of the book, but it's true. The monster knows only pain and suffering, but it's solution is to create another to suffer just as he has.
In the Ice cave scene, the monster specifically requests that his "bride" be made hideous so that she'd have no other option than companionship with the monster. The doctor doubts that the "bride" can be so easily controlled. These are the only times in the book where the "bride's" agency is considered.
No, the monster isn't a tragic hero, it's a twisted incel who demands his government girlfriend.