I find the video from (0:00 to 1:05) is interesting. This part of the video is the start of the book, which is the Captain Walton’s introduction: captain Robert Walton was in the adventure to the North Pole to expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fames. He rescued a nearly frozen men Victor Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein talked about his passion towards workaholic scientific research. This part fascinates me a lot because it’s corresponding to and represents the social background at that period, where people strive for new scientific knowledge.
As quoted from the book in the section about Captain Walton’s introduction
“What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle and may regulate a thousand celestial observations that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent forever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind, to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.”
From the quote we can find that both Frankenstein and Captain Walton are not satisfied with the existing known knowledge. Frankenstein puts all his efforts in the study of giving life to dead things. Captain Walton discovered north pole for unknown scientific knowledge. Both of them abandoned their normal life for ultimate knowledge.
There is another part of video that I find it’s interesting from 7:00 to 8:00. The following quote is corresponding to this video.
“You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured, wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal when all human kind sinned against me? Why do you not hate Felix who drove his friend from his door with contumely? Why do you not execrate the rustic who sought to destroy the saviour of his child? Nay, these are virtuous and immaculate beings! I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.
In this quote, the monster is complaining to Captain Walton, a friend of his creator, Frankenstein. I can directly feel the agony of the monster that is controlled by his creator, Frankenstein. The monster’s deep inside the heart, like a normal human, desires love and fellowship, but he can never get it due to his ugly and scare look. He has a fear of loneliness, so he seeks to live with people, and wants Frankenstein to create the same female creature for him. He is mistreated by his father, Frankenstein. He is determined to be a victim to against normal humans to fight for his desire for love and fellowship, which causes that the pessimism is spread throughout the monster’s mind. Finally, he not only physically looks like a monster, but also mentally becomes the actual monster. He was forced by Frankenstein to departure the normal life, and becomes the monster completely.