Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

Avenues used to represent pop culture include video games, computer gaming systems, entertainment, fashion and language. One outstanding future of pop culture is its antagonism to mainstream culture. Movies showing violence and other immoral acts are abhorred by the religious community and indeed parents and guardians.

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Plot summary of Frankenstein

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, who wrote the Frankenstein novel, writes of a man named Robert Walton, who writes four letters to his sister in England. Robert describes his journey across the cold deserts of northern Europe as he encounters people riding dog-pulled sledges. He is constantly on the move to discover a new world and fancy about its people. On one occasion, he encounters a man in pain but seeks to befriend him because of his thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind (Shelley 20). The man was a total stranger but he endured all the peril of confining in him as he quickly told him the story of his life (Shelley 20). This is one of many vivid descriptions that Shelley gives in the novel.

Many adventure films and Disney animations are produced based on the natural features mentioned in this narration like the Alps and deep snowy valleys. However, the novel is about a heroic character equal to the mythical Prometheus. The reader would expect the man rescued by Robert, who turns out to be Victor, to conquer his turmoil without the input of a stranger, an ordinary human being on an adventurous journey.

Frankenstein monster

The monster in Frankenstein is created by a college student called Victor. The whole process of creation takes place in a lab in the university by use of human cadavers. All the parts of the body are joined by the use of electronics and chemistry. This is an example of scientific discovery. The creator describes his model as “having yellow skin scarcely covering the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness” (Shelley 58). However, the creature turns out to be a fierce monster “with dull yellow eyes protruding from watery sockets. Its skin is yellow, cheeks are wrinkled and it makes convulsive movements on the floor” (Shelley 59).

Frankenstein in pop culture

Horror movie producers and video game directors usually use the above features in doing their work. It's the image of the monster that Shelley describes that attracts such producers and motivates them to bring the written work into visual presentation. Contemporary movies, video games and other fictional genres need more than what Shelley describes in order to be more interesting. She writes that despite the ugly nature of the creature, it had empathy as depicted by its act of saving a drowning girl. Although horror and monster movies could be based on the novel, some episodes like this are skipped or modified in making the movies gross.

Conclusion

The plot of the novel right from the letters up to the final chapter is superbly made. All the Frankenstein characters are clearly explained. In addition, the themes in Frankenstein are interesting. The above characteristics make the book a subject of stage performance. Actually, the book has been performed in different theaters across the world.

In performing the book on stage, the length of the story poses a challenge when performing. Therefore, regardless of how well the story is developed, performing it on stage takes a lot of time and can only be performed in short episodes that complicates the whole process.

Work cited

Shelley, M. Frankenstein. Dover Thrift Editions, 1818.