Mary Shelley was born in 1797, the daughter of unconventional thinkers and writers Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. In 1816, she and her lover, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, were staying with friends near Geneva. During dramatic thunderstorms, the group held a contest to write a ghost story. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus, which was then published anonymously in 1818. It is a Gothic tale about scientific progress and what it means to be human.
OBSESSION
The protagonist of the story is Victor Frankenstein, a young, gifted scientist whose passion for the creation of life becomes an obsession. His secret experiments using body parts and galvanism finally succeed when the creature he builds comes to life. But Frankenstein quickly realises that he has created a monster:
“I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.”
“Había trabajado duro cerca de dos años con el solo propósito de infundir vida a un cuerpo inanimado. Esa meta me había privado del debido descanso y mi salud se había resentido. Anhelé alcanzar mis fines con una pasión carente de toda mesura. Al terminar mi obra, sin embargo, la belleza del sueño se desvaneció y me embargaron un intenso terror y repulsión”.
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COMPLEX
The novel has a complex structure with multiple viewpoints. It opens and concludes with a series of letters from Captain Walton, who is leading an expedition to the North Pole. Walton rescues Frankenstein, who recognises that they share a passion for discovery. However, Frankenstein has a warning:
“You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been… you are pursuing the same course, exposing yourself to the same dangers which have rendered me what I am…”
“Busca el conocimiento y la sabiduría, como hice yo en el pasado; y espero con ansia que la satisfacción de sus deseos no se convierta en una serpiente que os inyecte su veneno, como me ocurrió a mí […] usted va por el mismo camino, exponiéndose a los mismos peligros que me han convertido en lo que soy.”
REVENGE
Rejected by its creator, feared and unloved by people everywhere, Frankenstein’s monster lives a lonely existence. Unable to forgive Frankenstein, the creature seeks revenge on those he loves. Travelling in the Alps, Frankenstein encounters the monster, which begs him to put right his mistake:
“‘But I will not set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thy wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me… I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.’”
“Pero no siento la tentación de enfrentarme a ti. Soy tu criatura, e incluso seré benévolo y dócil con mi señor natural y mi rey si tú también cumples con tu parte, cosa que me debes […] Yo era generoso y bueno; y la desgracia me convirtió en un monstruo. Devuélveme la felicidad y volveré a obrar con virtud.”
TRAGEDY
The monster asks Frankenstein to create a female companion to make its exile more bearable. Frankenstein agrees, but later breaks his word, with terrible consequences. Following a trail of murder and tragedy, Frankenstein tracks the monster down to the frozen wastes of the Arctic. On board Captain Walton’s ship, an exhausted Frankenstein urges the crew to continue the dangerous search for the creature:
“Are you then so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror; because at every new incident, your fortitude was to be called forth, and your courage exhibited; because danger and death surrounded it, and these you were to brave and overcome.”
“¿Tan pronto cambian ustedes de planes? ¿Acaso no decían que esta expedición era gloriosa? ¿En qué se basaban para afirmar su gloria? No lo decían porque fuera tranquila y serena como las que surcan los mares del sur, sino porque estaba llena de peligros y amenazas; porque, a cada nuevo incidente, tenían que sacar fuerzas de flaqueza y ser valerosos; porque el peligro y la muerte acechaban por todas partes y ustedes podrían enfrentarse a eso y sortearlo.”
TERRIFIED
Although reviews at the time were mixed, Frankenstein quickly became a bestseller. Mary Shelley continued to write until her death in 1851. A feminist and a radical thinker, her works include articles, short stories, novels, biography and travel. But she will always be remembered for Frankenstein, a novel in which, says the author, “what terrified me will terrify others.”
Traducciones de Silvia Alemany, Literatura Random House, Barcelona 2018.