Why pop culture is wrong about Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of those stories that can truly be considered immortal. Everyone knows something about the story of Frankenstein even if you’ve never read the original book. It’s been adapted in some many ways since before even the silent era of film and if you ask any trick or treater what the top three Halloween monsters are they’re liable to say vampires, Frankenstein and werewolves.

This pop culture saturation is a double-edged sword. The story of Frankenstein has endured for two centuries but the image of its hero Victor in the minds of most people is one of the archetypical mad scientist in a castle on the hill drunk on his own power and delusions of grandeur and that’s the complete opposite of Mary Shelley’s hero.

The Victor of the book is a young man enchanted by the possibilities that science and learning can offer him. He becomes seduced by just how far he can push both himself and the human condition, resulting in creating the infamous creature.

He does not create the creature in pursuit of fame, glory or in some misguided attempt to control a new form of life. Rather, Victor just wants to test the limits of knowledge and skill and what better or more gruelling test could there be than creating life?