Monsters and Autumn Leaves: The Timeless Allure of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The Perfect Book for Your Cozy Fall Evenings
What is Fall if you are not wrapped in your comfy blanket with a creamy cup of coffee and a scary book? And it all gets better if your scary book is beautiful and profound as well!
But what “scary and spooky” book can be exquisite? Glad you asked! Our very own Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!
Frankenstein tells the tale of Dr. Victor Frankenstein who creates a man whom he classifies as a monster because he is pretty ugly — the standard most of us use for monstrosity even today.
However, the story is as much about Frankenstein as it is about his creature and that’s what makes it a profound read, you get to know about the sufferings of an apparently powerful and monstrous creature compared with the misery and torment of his creator. You witness what makes the monster a human although he is guilty of many crimes. And you get to know what makes any one of us a monster in the first place.
What makes Frankenstein alluring for fall is obviously the setting, the plot, the intellectual appeal, and the character of the book. The story starts in,
vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to have no end. (Shelley 11)
And as the plot progresses, there are dark forests, small cottages, spooky mansions, and foggy alleys. There are murders and mysteries around those murders that will keep you on the edge of your seat, always yearning for more!
The scary setting of the book is represented in a beautiful narrative which is surely the best thing about Frankenstein, when Dr. Frankenstein creates his creature he narrates the whole event by saying:
It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmering of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. (Shelley 49)
The reference to a monstrous ugly creature coupled with the beautiful narrative about gloomy rain and dim candles is surely the best thing to read about in Fall.
There is not only the monster and autumn leaves in the book, Mary is not that simple of a writer. She created the sci-fi gothic single-handedly — the best of her era no doubt! She knows how to present the corrosive criticism hidden in the autumnal beauty of the book. Frankenstein thus has all the elements that appeal to the intellect.
The creature is not some cruel monster, he is the epitome of nobility and gentleness. He is the Adam who is turned into Satan by human society, he observes:
Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle, and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike. (Shelley 119)
Frankenstein’s monster is merely a creature because once you read the book you cannot believe him to be a monster at all. He is a victim first and a victimizer later. He has suffered tragedy and still appreciates beauty, who can call that monstrous?
The character of the creature grants the maximum allure to this timeless beauty. When you read the book you can clearly draw a difference between Frankenstein’s narrative and the creature’s narrative. While Frankenstein sheds light on the atrocities of the creature, the creature is capable of mentioning the comparison between the beautiful world outside and the ruin inside, and who doesn’t want to read about that in Fall?
Read the following excerpt for instance,
O! What a miserable night I passed! the cold stars shone in mockery, and the bare trees waved their branches above me: now and then the sweet voice of a bird burst forth amidst the universal stillness. All, save I, were at rest or in enjoyment: I, like the archfiend, bore a hell within me, and finding myself unsympathized with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the rain. (Shelley 137)
He is a sensitive and keen observer, not the cruel monster Frankenstein believes him to be. His cruelty is birthed by man’s savagery, his crimes cannot be justified but yet they do have a reason. He is as much of a monster as Frankenstein and Frankenstein is as much of a victim as the creature is.
Shelley thus presents a very unusual combination for her time — the victim and victimizer in one character. Everybody seems to be suffering and yet everybody is inflicting pain as well, her characters face tragedies and at the back of it, they are the authors of tragedy as well.
Frankenstein is all about horror which has a peculiar beauty in it, just like your calm yet spooky autumn evening. Have you ever looked outside your window in autumn? looking at the exquisite sky and calm moon and suddenly feeling as if some unseen shield of gloom and melancholy is turning them into rust? that’s what Frankenstein illustrates before the reader.
The creature not only faces the horror inflicted by man but the decaying of beautiful nature as well which breaks his heart, he says:
Nature decayed around me, and the sun became heatless; rain and snow poured around me; mighty rivers were frozen; the surface of the earth was hard and chill, and bare, and I found no shelter. (Shelley 141)
Moreover, Dr. Frankenstein faces miseries and internal torment that no one can cure, his journey to far-off lands in an attempt to get rid of his creature or his demands hints at the escapade we all need when trapped in the tentacles of Destiny, and still he finds solace in nature:
I lay at the bottom of the boat, and, as I gazed on the cloudless blue sky, I seemed to drink in a tranquility to which I had long been a stranger. (Shelley 159)
The nature in Frankenstein is beautiful but it looks as if the author has woven it using threads of sorrow and grief. There is sheer sadness even in the prettiest scenes, and that’s what makes it scary yet exquisite.
The book spreads the charm of personification that makes us connect with autumn on a deeper level, it does not become a season but appears to be a living entity to us.
Nature in the book is always personified and that’s what allows Shelley to contrast the characters with the cold, calm, and cruel autumn:
I remained near my window gazing on the sea; it was almost motionless, for the winds were hushed, and all nature reposed under the eye of the quiet moon. (Shelley 172)
The book obviously is indebted to the imagery of autumn leaves which color the plot with the hues of immense beauty and terror — a perfect Fall combo!
Every thing was silent, except the leaves of the trees, which were gently agitated by the wind; the night was nearly dark; and the scene would have been solemn and affecting even to an uninterested observer. The spirits of the departed seemed to flit around, and to cast a shadow, which was felt but not seen, around the head of the mourner. (Shelley 210)
The monster is not only the creature but man as well, there are monsters in the book which we can sense only while going through the narrative. The true nature of the monster is revealed and we realize how even in the modern contemporary world, we are surrounded by monsters that look like humans with the heart of lead.
Frankenstein is thus the perfect fall read because of its plot, setting, and characters.
But above all, the narrative is intensely beautiful and tragic, it has dark alleys, night rains, dark window panes, cruel men, gentle damsels, ugly creature, and a cold creator — everything that reminds all of us of autumn!
After all, what is Autumn without the tragic tale of a castaway monster?
Thank you so much for reading the book review and I hope you have a great time reading this book!
