Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. The CREATION!
ITS ALIVE! or not.
In chapters four and five, Victor outlines his college career learning Chemistry and Natural Philosophy and becoming especially interested in further advancing the antiquated and dead sciences of Alchemy. During his college career he began toying with the idea of reanimating tissue, or, in laymen terms, bringing the dead back from the dead. This process is nothing like the stereotypical Frankenstein stories that we've all heard as children. No evil henchmen, no maniacal laughter, no castle or mob of upset villagers, no eerie organ music or tumultuous thunderstorms. NO. Victor took a long time, quietly collecting body parts to assemble the body, quietly assembling the creature on the floor of his dorm room at college, quietly bringing the thing to life only to immediately regret his actions. The key word being quietly.
I personally love how the creature's appearance is described. It is not synced with the typical flat headed sewn together green monster that we have been raised on. It is a partially skin covered, yellow, black haired, and yellowed eyed thing that, by the way, is eight feet tall. When Victor described the creature taking its first breath and coming to life, the creature "breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated the limbs" (Shelly, 35). There was no exclamation of success or the "ITS ALIVE", only fear and regret.
It is really interesting to compare different renditions of this classic horror story to the original script.
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