SuitabookFrankenstein
Mary Shelley
- Reading
- Read it in manageable sections, pausing to clarify unfamiliar language and track changing viewpoints. After major discoveries or acts of harm, discuss responsibility without assuming that every character’s judgement is reliable.
- Themes
- Scientific ambition and responsibility: Scientific exploration is used to examine power, responsibility and the effects of creation on a wider community. The novel presents scientific ambition as ethically consequential and invites consideration of responsibilities beyond discovery itself.
- Humanity and exclusion: The created being’s physical appearance leads humans to reject it, while its inner development and noble actions are also shown. The novel appears to question whether humanity is recognised through appearance, social acceptance or moral behaviour.
- Harm and moral judgement: The creation kills innocent people, while innocent people also experience violence through the justice system; Victor displays denial and helplessness. The novel presents harm alongside difficult questions about culpability, judgement and the limits of sympathy.
- Worth knowing
- Consider discussing the book beforehand if the reader is particularly affected by dead bodies, dread, strangling, bodily experimentation, bereavement or scenes in which innocent people suffer.