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Week1: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 6pt

The book I chose for this week is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, which is a classic horror sci-fi novel that perhaps everyone has heard of. I have seen many characters, including the monster in the movie Frankenstein, with the image of a “stereotypical” Frankenstein monster, but I have never read the original story and did not know how he is depicted in the novel. In the novel, Shelley depicted, “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” As what we have talked about in class, I was also surprised that the monster is not depicted as ugly as the “stereotypical” Frankenstein monster. Shelly added a sense of romance and drama in his appearance. It is probably because her writing style is very well described, the image of the monster in the novel has a combination of beauty and ugliness.


Another thing I was surprised by is the fact that Frankenstein was written by a female author almost two hundred years ago. The plot of the story is easy to understand, but the main point focuses on depicting the atmosphere and expressing the emotion in each character. Somehow, science does not matter that much in the story since it is a sci-fi story, but overall, the story successfully makes the readers reflect on the morality and science behind. By reading her story, it is heartbreaking to see humans creating life but also giving sorrow to the creation. These are the charm of Frankenstein, I can see why this work is so classic and people can put themselves in the story to feel the emotions brought up by the story.

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