Frankenstein (the character) is really stupid.

So in my class right now we’re about to start Frankenstein but I got over excited and decided to start reading it anyways. And I have to say, Victor Frankenstein is one of those absolute idiot characters that has you screaming at them for their stupidity. I’ve also haven’t even gotten through volume one yet, and I can’t imagine it’ll get any better. (Victor’s behaviour that is. Because I’m actually really liking this book.)

Anyways, here’s my version of spark notes for the first bit of Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (disclaimer: 1. I have trouble reading, 2. We haven’t talked about this in class yet, so if anything’s incorrect just lemme know and I’ll fix it):
So we start off with reading these letters from Robert Walton to his sister Margaret. He sends a couple of letters which go about like this:
1. “Margaret I’m on a boat on an expedition and everything is super cool and awesome and I love it”
2. “Margaret, even though I’m on a boat with plenty of other people, I’  so lonely and depressed. I just want a best friend, yknow?”
3. “MARGARET GUESS WHAT. WE FOUND THIS DUDE [Frankenstein ] JUST OUT HERE FLOATING AND HE’S LIKE, ONLY HALF DEAD AND SUPER REALLY DEPRESSED BUT THAT’S TOTALLY OKAY BECAUSE I THINK WE CAN BE BESTIES“

And then Robert’s letters to Margaret start telling Victor Frankenstein’s story from Victor’s point of view. It says in the book, (and I’d quote it if I had my book on me, but I’m not creeping downstairs this early in the morning) that as Victor told him these stories, Robert would basically write them down word for word as best he could.

Victor starts his story by establishing that he had a super awesome childhood and his father basically just let him and his friends do whatever they wanted. He has two younger brothers (like, 6-10 years younger then him I think) that he mentions like once, and he spends most of his time with Elizabeth and his friend Henry. His mother ends up dying, and as she dies she like, sets him and Elizabeth up to be married (but that was always sort of the plan so-). Victor gets super into science and thinks he’s very smart, and he gets really upset when he’s sent to college and suddenly isn’t the smartest guy there anymore. 
So time skip just a little (to where he’s about like 20 if I did my math right), he decides that he’s going to make a new species and that he’s going to be their father. Solid plan. Absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong with that incredibly well thought out plan. 

He spends two years goin’ around collecting pieces for his creation, and works on assembling it in his apartment (where he’s set up a laboratory I’m pretty sure??). NOW, THIS IS IMPORTANT: FRANKENSTEIN’S CREATURE IS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE, PERFECT. AND VERY BEAUTIFUL. THAT’S THE ENTIRE POINT. So at one point Victor is sitting here going “Gosh he’s so pretty with his luscious black locks” because The creature is supposed to be beautiful. And then yknow, like, two seconds later, Mr. Sir Father of a New Species starts having a whole mental breakdown where he runs away from his creation saying that not even Dante could think up such a horror. 

So he runs away, from the creature and his house, and he’s just going through the streets and he just so happens to run into his childhood best friend Henry who’s all like “Victor, buddy, you look rough”, and Victor’s just kinda like “Thanks!” and passes out. He then spends MONTHS, SEVERAL MONTHS, having a full on breakdown while his friend “nurses him back to health”. And right after Victor left, the creature sorta wondered off because yknow, it’d just been abandoned, I wouldn’t have stayed with Frankenstein either. 

At this point Victor’s friends and family are kinda like “Dude are you still living because we haven’t seen you in years and now we’re not even getting letters in your handwriting”, so Victor plans to go back and see them now  that he’s “cured” from the creature he straight up made and then abandoned. And then he gets this really sad letter from his father telling him that his youngest brother William (who I think was around 5 years old?) was murdered. Victor goes back as soon as he can and on the way there this huge lightning strike illuminates the area and he sees the shape of his creature and immediately goes “AH HA, HE MUST BE THE MURDERER, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. IT’S INHUMANE TO KILL A CHILD SO A HUMAN CAN’T HAVE DONE IT” (child murders aren’t impossible but yes, Victor, they do happen. “Children aged 14 years or under make up a small share of the total number of homicide victims recorded worldwide. Thus, in 2017 some 21,540 children in that age group were killed in homicides” (Global Study On Homicide, UNODC, pg 15).)

So Victor gets to his home and runs into his other little brother, Ernest, who’s like 16-ish, and Ernest is all like “hey we got the murderer”, and Victor being Victor is like “WHAT, HOW? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? IT’S AN 8 FOOT TALL CREATURE OF MY OWN DESIGN??”. And Ernest is just kinda like “It was this girl who’s our housekeeper.”

And Victor actually pans out, in his head, the pros and cons of opening his mouth and going “Um actually it was this monster thing I made”, and he ACTUALLY decides that it’s probably best that his family and friends don’t think he’s lost it and institutionalise him or something. Like, “ah yes, my little brother was just brutally murdered, best my family think I’m sane and mentally stable, because clearly that is the most important thing right now.”

Also it’s been about two years since he even MADE his creature. And Victor assumes it’s him literally just because he saw him. I think it actually WAS the creature (but I haven’t gotten that far yet so I don’t know), but Victor just decided to blame him anyways. Like dude, you made this creature. You put him here. And then you just straight up left.

Literally all this man has done so far is fail at being a mad scientist, have a mental breakdown (Extended Edition), and pass out. Icon and mood, but also like, this man is an absolute idiot-

Anyways thats my spark notes version of the beginning of Frankenstein, give me a little bit of time to read more of the book and I’ll rant about this man’s idiocy again. 

Again, if I messed something up please tell me, my brain is actively shutting down. And also just leave a comment if you have a content suggestions :)