Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

I am ashamed to say that I have never read the original Frankenstein before. It was assigned once before in high school, but I never read it because I thought it was boring. Maybe I was too young and Frankenstein dealt with mature ideas that were above me to understand and sympathize with. Having read it now for this class, I did still find the book paced a bit slowly at times, however I found that I enjoyed reading it very much. Frankenstein himself is a very interesting and complex character. He explains why he feels the way he does about situations and life and I feel like I understand the actions he takes through out the novel. It is hard to explain, but I feel like this novel teaches a lesson about growing up and making decisions rather than just being a horror scare-fest like the cinemas make it out to be. It also deals with the ideas of what it is to be human and struggling with self. I found I really liked how intelligent the monster actually is and my favorite reference was the one in the notes at the beginning about the albatross from the Ancient Mariner. I had no idea what it meant to wear an albatross around your neck, but found it was like a curse or bad luck. It could also seem to represent taking responsibility for your actions, just like Frankenstein failed to take responsibility for the monster he created. I was also most interested to understand how Frankenstein really changed the whole horror genre of literature and more specifically gothic horror. The fact that Mary Shelley's mother was a radical feminist and how the church wanted more people to read. Most people reading at the time were middle class women (with servants) who corresponded through letters and had time to do activities such as reading. I can see how the opening of the book being entirely written through letters of correspondence really would bring people in and immerse them in this world.