Frankenstein (blog 1)

The first section of the book sets the rest up in an interesting way. First of all you don't start with Frankenstein's point of view. You start on an expedition around the Arctic Ocean or something like that. The first person it mentions is similar to a young Frankenstein (I love that movie) in many ways. There is some interesting irony in this precursor to the story of Frankenstein. Over all I think that the beginning set the stage well for both people who know the story (or at least most of it) and also for those who have never heard of it (although I have no idea who that would be).

I believe that the way the beginning is set up is a good strategy for preparing the reader. First of all it sets the mood of doom and gloom. I don't believe that a ship in the middle of a frozen waste land carrying a half-frozen depressed man could be misconstrued as positive. The situation also brings an important question to the front of your mind. Just how much is knowledge worth, and at what price? "One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, " (page 26). This was said by Robert Walton. He seemed to completely believe this statement but Frankenstein was torn up by the possible path he believed his new friend to be headed down and decided to tell his painful story in order to possibly sway future actions. This section could also bring many other question's to mind, i.e. you could go away from knowledge and instead think of ambition. Ambition leads to obsession which destroys a man.

Robert Walton obviously resembles Frankenstein at a earlier stage in life. His thirst for knowledge drives him. But there are other similarities too. He also has a younger sister that he cares for. His attitude towards life seems about the same. He tracks down what he wants out of life with hardly a glance back. I haven't read all that much about Frankenstein yet but i would assume that you need some pretty hard core determination to raise the dead.

Lastly, I found some irony in the opening section that fits well with the plot line. I can't find the line but Robert Walton says something to the effect of 'I can never take risks when the safety of men is at stake.' to completely explain this you have to know that Walton is a mirror to the past Frankenstein (or at least that's what I think). Frankenstein may have put a high value on human life at one point or possibly though out his life but that didn't reflect too much in his actions. He created his monster who killed people (or at least I think it did otherwise this would not be a very impressive horror story). Even if Frankenstein didn't intend for his monster to do that he is still the one responsible for the loss of human life. If you train a dog to bite and let it loose it's your fault when someone gets bitten.