Monday, November 1, 2010

The Creature, Not Frankenstein

     This past Halloween, there were probably a lot of people with square heads with stitches and green arms stretched out in front of them trying to act like Frankenstein.  Everybody knows who Frankenstein is but nobody knows who the creature is.  Before I started reading the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I didn't know any better than the average person.  Now I'm reading the text from the original author who created the monster and I know that the monster created never had an official name but was most commonly referred to as the creature.  Why then does everyone refer to the creature as Frankenstein, when Victor Frankenstein is actually the man who brought the being to life.
     In 1818, Frankenstein was first published by an anonymous author with the second most important character in the novel not having a name.  The first few plays used the traditional nameless creature but within a decade after being published, the popular creature had to have a name so Frankenstein was adopted.  Frankenstein instead of the creature became mostly common after the film was made about Frankenstein in 1930.  Since then, people have been incorrectly calling the creature Frankenstein when he is actually just the creature while Victor Frankenstein was the person that brought the monster to life.

Zach Y.

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