58: Frankestein

Hi everyone and welcome to Classical Stuff, which I know. My name is AJ Hennenberg and I'm joined by my two colleagues, Graham Donaldson. Hello, my babies. And Thomas Magby.

Hello. What was that? What? And we are here on a beautiful, beautiful Monday afternoon.

It's raining and thundering. I don't know, it's kind of a picturesque day to do podcasting. We're sitting in the newly erected George Mueller Library. The Veritas Academy has four houses, and George Mueller is one of the names of the houses.

He's the what? We call him. He's the name's sake. He's the main stake for House Mueller, and Mueller is known for its established library.

And that's the final library you got in your classroom. Yeah, so we're recording in my classroom, and I just finished putting up seven shelves that took forever. And it looked great. And when did you start?

Last Saturday, I think, and I've been working on them all week. You've got some stags up there because George Mueller's patron animal. No, I don't have a patron animal. Is the crown stag, and your colors are gold and green.

That's something we came up with, right? Mueller didn't actually have a thing for us. No, he didn't. He didn't.

He didn't. The only thing we do have is Francis did stop a bloodthirsty wolf from killing a town by preaching the gospel to it. Yeah, he had to talk with it. And then the wolf was like, I'm sorry, sorry.

And the wolf, I realize I overstep my balance here, you guys. I'll go back to it. And the wolf's name was Goobio, if I remember correctly. And early, early in the house days of, I'm the dean of house Francis.

I would dress up in a, like, a blue, basically it was a tablecloth, and I would put a fake wolf head on my head. And I would run around campus, and I was the ghost of Goobio, and I would try to like scare kids. Did it work? I don't know, but I had my picture taken in the yearbook one year.

Really? Yeah, it was like 2012. It was a long time ago. Oh, you, every, age I also does a strange thing for the yearbook every year.

I haven't heard anything, have you already taken your picture this year? No, I always forget on picture day. I come into school and I'm all the drag old and unshaven. It's picture day.

I really try to make it happen when it retakes. Sometimes I don't get those, and then I have to do the grammar school retakes. So, you know, it happens. Anyway, this is classical stuff you should know, and we are a podcast that tries to bring the classical world to you in a way that's understandable, and not completely.

Yeah, understandable is a good way. Yeah, that's enough. So mildly entertaining also. Yeah, that's what we call it.

That's what we should for anyway. And today, Graham is at the helm. That's right. So today we are going to be learning about and talking about a book that we study in 10th grade, and it is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

And it's a great book. It's always credited as the first piece of science fiction ever. So there are books that have to do with technology, and there are books that have to do with magic and fantasy beforehand. But whatever the criteria for science fiction is, this book seems to be the first one that ticks off the boxes for it.

I have no idea what those criteria are. I think it's... Yeah, some criteria for science fiction I may know. I'm sure someone will email us in and be like, well, actually, there's a lot of things.

I think the sci-fi and fantasy normally get paired together, but in Frankenstein, everything is explained. Well, except they don't really get into the physics or the... What actually... How the monster comes to life.

But it's not presented as magic happens. Yes, he doesn't find science happens. Some ancient artifact in the film that brings the dead back to life. We harness the power of energy and then created life.

Anyway. I don't know what the criteria is for sci-fi, which probably looked that up. But I think it's just that there has to be technology that doesn't exist yet, and bringing the dead to life, I think, qualifies it. So it was written by Mary Shelley.

Mary Shelley was a romantic poet and author. She was married to Percy Shelley, who was also a romantic poet and author. They were weird pairing. They were good friends with Lord Byron, who fun fact, when Byron died, defending Greece from the Turks.

He fought for Greek independence. One day he was just like, you know what? I'm going to go fight in the glorious war. And he went to help the Greeks fight for independence on the Turks and died in the battlefield.

And the rumor is, or the legend has it, that all of the women of Europe went into mourning because George Byron was... George Byron had some game. George Byron had some pull with the ladies. He also wrote Castanovo, which has the...

No, Don Juan. Which one? Okay, you're one of the sexy poems that all the ladies loved. Anyway, so they were friends with Mary Shelley.

And they were together one weekend at a cottage, a cabin mountain, and there was a huge snowstorm. And they were bored, and so they decided that they were going to have a competition. And that competition was they were going to write a short story competition. And whoever...

A scary story. They were going to have a horror story competition. And the winner was going to receive, you know, just sort of bragging rights among everybody else. And so Percy Shelley and Lord Byron and Mary Shelley all wrote something.

And what Mary Shelley wrote on that weekend that they were snowstormed in was Frankenstein. Apparently Percy Shelley and Byron were sitting together while they were sitting there. While they were snowed in and having a conversation about what actually is life. Do things have souls?

Or are we just animated matter? Was the question that Shelley and Byron were debating? And this question really struck Mary Shelley and she fell asleep and had a nightmare that was talking about bringing a dead body back to life. And then she wrote the story of Frankenstein.

So also fun fact about Mary Shelley. When Percy Shelley died, Mary Shelley took his heart out of... Oh, someone's just moving stuff on the hallway. And then he took his calcified heart wrapped in his own poetry and kept in her desk.

So they were that kind of couple. I wear a vial of blood around my neck. Don't you remember that was two famous people? They wore each other's blood in a vial around me.

Very unsanitary. And they're loved and not last. No, I don't like this. So Mary Shelley's calcified heart wrapped in his own poetry in her desk because she loved him and missed him.

So yeah, super gross. Anyway, so she wrote the story of Frankenstein. And it's very famous. And we're just going to go through kind of the major plot points as just in case you've never read it or hopefully it gets you interested in wanting to read it.

And then we'll sort of talk about maybe its themes or why we consider it sort of enshrined in classical education. Because it's a story that's often misunderstood. Oh, very misunderstood. There are other characters that have jumped into the story Igor.

Does not exist. That is movie version. What is he doing? One of these quite Dracula?

Yeah, so that's the second half of the book. That's my favorite part. But there's I, Frankenstein, where he's been alive and he's fighting demons. I think with on a team with angels except he's sort of an in between because he's an undead human man.

Oh my gosh, that's a favorite one. So when the Avengers, when Marvel, the Marvel Cinematic Universe started getting big, Sony Pictures, which is not a very successful movie studio. They brought you such wonderful movies as Adam Sandler movie where he fights a giant like Pac-Man. Is that pixel?

That's right. So that's like the Sony quality. Anyway, they wanted to have their own cinematic universe. So they had a kid, you're not the monster cinematic universe.

The first movie being Tom Cruise's Mummy, which came out recently if you don't remember. Yeah. That was supposed to be the flagship. I remember.

Super badly. It was supposed to be the first movie that kicks off this universe in Frankenstein and Dracula. They're all supposed to be in there. Yeah, but that thing's been shelved because that's a terrible idea.

Sorry, Sony. Anyway, shots fired. So that kind of sounds fun. I've watched monster movies.

But you know why? That's all right. That's true. I would, but I wouldn't make an effort to do so.

Like if I was sitting in front of a TV and Tom Cruise's Mummy came on, I might not leave. Yeah, okay. Fair. That's not really high praise for me.

That's not, yeah. And I have really low standards. Really just super low. So off the bat, so this book is very much falls into the category of romantic.

Like Mary Shelley is romantic. You may have to go back and listen to the podcast on romanticism. But sort of suffice to say that for the romantics, they're kind of at odds with a lot of classicists or neo-classicism as it was called in Mary Shelley's day. But they have strong belief and they valued the individual human genius as opposed to institutions.

I guess it's maybe one way you could phrase that. And very much believed that the Rousseauian idea that man is born free and everywhere is in chains and that what we need to do with children and what we need to do with any sort of education is, you know, inspire and light the spark within as opposed to fill up the vessel. Like those are sort of two competing views of education. The romantic view, we need to light the fire.

And in the classical view, we need to fill the vessel. Anyway, and this definitely sits on the light the fire view. So the story opens in the Arctic. You may necessarily think that this is where Frankenstein's going to open, but it opens with a sea voyage.

Especially because of Frankenstein as some of the other body parts. Would it be cold? It'd be itchy. I feel like he'd do the freeze.

Yeah. Like if he's got no inner warmth going on. Yeah, but he seems to be doing just fine. It's starting off on this expedition by Captain Walton.

He is a heroic romantic young man who is wanting to be the first to discover the North Pole. And so he's pulled together this ragtag team of mostly Russians. Now, you said ragtime and now I have a completely different picture of what's going on there. Oh, baby.

So it's a bunch of Russians playing ragtime and dancing their way to the North Pole. On the way to the North Pole. That's a better version than that. So they're going to the North Pole.

And he's writing sad letters home to his sister because he's sort of bored and has no friends and he might die. But he is, you know, filled with the sense of discovery and he wants to be the first to reach the North Pole. He's kind of got this belief in mankind's ability to uncover the secrets of the world. And the North Pole is the last uncharted place.

And so he's going to go and go there. And then one day they see this giant man with a dog sled off in the distance just booking it down the ice. And his Russians are like, you know, it's not too crazy. No, no, no, no.

So the Russians say something goes to him and want to turn back and he has no idea what it is. And the next day they found another man half starved, almost frozen. And he says, you know, he's a little dead. And he's on this little ice flow.

And they rescue him and they sort of Captain Walton nurses him back to house. And it turns out that this man's name is Victor Frankenstein. And he says that he's hunting a demon. And the Russians were like, yes, we know.

I told you. There's a demon out there. Sorry. Frankenstein is a demon.

No, it's not. I refuse to enter this debate. What? Never in the movie.

Yes. So anyway, so Frankenstein says I'm hunting a demon and we need to kill it. And Captain Walton's like, okay, but I also want to go to the North Pole. And Frankenstein looks at him.

He says, I see you what I once had in me. I'm not gonna take a bit of this desire for knowledge and this desire to understand the world. But let me tell you a story, young man, that will turn your blood to ice. And Walton's like, all right.

And Victor Frankenstein, they didn't kind of a bad way at this point. He's in a rough spot. He is near death. And he's barely holding it together.

And when he's by himself, like Captain Walton notices that when he's just sitting in the room he'll just break into sobs and weeping, like there's some bad stuffs gone down with Victor Frankenstein. And we haven't noted yet that Frankenstein is not the name of the monster. Frankenstein is not the name of the monster. Although everybody thinks the monster's name is Frankenstein.

All my students turn in essays calling the monster Frankenstein. Really? That's how you know they haven't written the book. reading the book that they still call them.

They still do it. And that makes the title of the movie I Frankenstein so much funnier. Yes, exactly. So they clearly haven't read the book either.

Anyway, so Victor Frankenstein starts off with this story and then the story pretty much takes up the rest of the book. It is a story of the creation of the monster. So Victor Frankenstein is a young man, had this sort of idyllic childhood and he was the oldest of a bunch of brothers and he has this adopted sister named Elizabeth. And Elizabeth and Frankenstein are raised together in a roughly kind of the same age.

And their father was this sort of nobleman who wants to eschew city life and he moves to the country and he wants to raise his children in the bosom of nature. So off they go to nature and it's very clear when you read it that this is he's kind of like one of those iterative unschooling. Sure. What's unschooling, maybe?

Instead of all the structure of being in a school all day, you give good free time. They get to explore and set their own curriculum. That's right. So he basically does this kind of, Victor Frankenstein and Elizabeth are raised in this kind of unschooling kind of life.

And so the children go off and they study what they want. And Victor Frankenstein is drawn to sciences. And so he goes off and he wants to study the natural world. And Elizabeth is drawn to poetry and music and languages and literature.

And so she goes off and she she studies this. And then there's this other guy's name's Henry and he's Victor Frankenstein's best friend. And Henry's dad is a merchant who doesn't know how to educate his own children. So he sends Henry to Frankenstein, the Frankenstein family.

And Henry Clarville, he just wants to like read adventure stories. That's all he wants to do. He wants to read stories of like highwaymen and pirates and knights and all this kind of stuff. And he's just he doesn't care about science.

He just you know, he's exciting. He wants to have a life adventure. He's awfully nice. He's a great dude.

Yep. Because he's going to be a merchant one day and he thinks that sounds super snoozers. Anyway, so young Victor Frankenstein on his self directed education stumbles across a book. And it is actually a real book from the Middle Ages.

It's by an author whose name is Albert Magnus. And it is a book of necromancy. It actually exists. I've never read it.

I have you. Is it in the Mueller library? No. So I taught this book.

We did it for the great books class. I think it was that I looked it up. It sounds really cool. It is the lamest book.

What's in it? I mean, I'm thinking back a few years here. But if I remember, it was just random stories of like one time this guy fell asleep and then they gave him a tincture of blood and he awoke. But he was probably not dead in the first place.

Like stories like that where it's not chilling. Yeah, it's not some crazy book about how to actually raise the dead with all those crazy symbols in it. It's more just stories that this guy heard about necromancy. And it's not I if my memory serves me right.

Don't take that as gospel reader. You might go check it out. But if you're all excited about this book, it's not as cool as you think it's going to be. It sounds super cool.

It's pretty cool. And in the Middle Ages, they actually had books that monasteries would have because in Middle Ages, they just they flip and love books. But they also didn't want people to read it. And they didn't want to burn it because you don't want to destroy books because maybe you need it one day.

But they would just keep it locked up. And so there are these books. So there are these like these awesome special cabinets of these forbidden books that no one was allowed to read about like Satanism and necromancy. But it was and also just like maybe pagan rituals for getting rid of warts and that kind of stuff.

But I'm not even sure the books were prescribing them or telling them how to do it. It was just that they existed. Anyway, so Victor Frank's on gets a hold of this. And it's he loves it.

And he's like, Oh my goodness, this book is amazing. I want to learn the secrets of the universe. And if this book is talking about how to bring the dead back to life, I'm all in. As his childhood goes on, tragedy strikes and Victor Frankenstein's mother dies.

She gets ill. Actually, Elizabeth gets ill first and the mother is nursing Elizabeth back to health and she gets the illness and dies. And Victor Frankenstein vows at that moment that he is going to do everything that he can to render the human frame incorruptible from anything but violent death. I believe it was what he says.

So he wants to find the secret to immortality. And he's pretty sure that the study of the natural philosophy, as he calls it, of the biological world can lead him to that task. So he goes to his dad and he's like, Dad, I've been reading Albert Magnus's book, and I want to learn more about science and his dad specifically biology, which I hated in school. His dad looks at Albert Magnus and asks him why he's reading such sad trash and tells him that he shouldn't read such silly books, but he should go and study more contemporary things.

Frankenstein is kind of rebuffed at this. So he just reads it in secret. And then as he gets older, he is sort of a accomplished biologist and wins the scholarship to go to the local university in Inglestadt, which is an Austria question mark. I think it's in Austria.

But one fun fact about Inglestadt is the actual Illuminati started there. So there was a secret society. And I think Mary Shelley's doing this on purpose. Inglestadt had this sort of like occultish mysterious aura around it.

And the secret society of the Illuminati was started at Inglestadt. This is Germany. Germany. All right.

And so Frankenstein is going there and it's going to be all of these top chemists and biologists. And this is going to be the place of this knowledge. And so he's on this mission. He wants to rid the world of all but violent death.

So he says goodbye to his friends and family. And then Victor Frankenstein lives in almost complete and total isolation for two years as he works on his project. He goes to school in one of his professors, laughs at him because he basically is that kid in the front of class. And he's like, so what do you think of Elbert Magnus' book on necromancy?

And his professor basically makes fun of him and says how you're reading such crappy material. It would be the equivalent of like if someone said, when you think of this particular piece of philosophy, and then they quote something from like Reddit or something like 4chan or some like Dark Hole of the Internet. And his professor makes fun of him. But then there's this other professor that sees something in Frankenstein, takes him under his wing and teaches him real chemistry.

And Frankenstein yeah is sort of tutored by this man. Very things happen that Mary Shelley kind of glosses over how Frankenstein stumbles upon this mystery. But he does stumble upon the mystery of how to bring and animate things back to life. He figures it out.

He figures it out and has something to do with lightning. So the movies do get it correct. Does that something to do with lightning? Yeah, I remember that from the book.

He sits. He's sitting thinking about this and he sees a tree get struck by lightning and explode like the tree explodes. And he's like, wow, such power. And he goes to the tree and he sees that it's like humming with electricity.

And he's like, let's do it. And then I remember being involved in the actual process was it? I don't. Yeah.

Not in the way that we popularly have it in our where he like cranks him up to the ceiling and then calls it down with like a lot of it. It's not part of it. It's not part of it. Basically.

Yeah, I don't want to spoil it. But anyway, so what he starts doing is at nighttime, he sneaks into into cryptoriums and mausoleums and graveyards and digs up freshly dead bodies, chops them up, sews them together and tries to bring them back to life. He I think there's a couple of scenes where he like actually gets an arm to like we will around. We go we will move around.

And he's like a modest something. And then he in sort of this fit of madness, he has this this this period where he's going off and he's trying to find just the choicest, most beautiful body parts he can find. And he pieces together what he thinks is this dead Adonis. You know, he's got the best torso he can find, beautiful teeth, wonderful hair.

He's found the best of the best. And then he's at that moment and he actually brings this creature to life. He says that, let's see if I can find the speech where he even talks about his reason and rationale for wanting to do this. Yes, so this is what Frankenstein says when he is thinking of creating a new species.

He says, no one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane in the first enthusiasm of success. This is right before he's going to make the monster. Life and death appear to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source.

Many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs. Pursuing these reflections, I thought that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might, in the process of time, although I now found it impossible, renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption. Has this guy never read the Bible?

What do you mean? He would create all these things and for sure they would love him. They would just love allegiance to him and nothing could possibly go wrong. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Well, this is, I mean, it's always another creator. Well, this is why you don't unschool your children, right? It's because then they miss things like reading the Bible or having a, if they just sort of focus on biology, well, maybe they miss some of these, they don't have the bumpers on their bowling game or whatever. All right.

What did he figure out to bring this up? He did. Yes. Oh, he's a very successful scientist.

But that's about all he is. So he brings the dead back to life and when it opens his eyes, when the monster has no name, it's just called Monster Ordemon or Creation, when it opens its eyes, it's like they've got these watery pale yellow eyes and it's got black teeth and greasy matted hair. And Frankenstein says, what it was laying on the table, I thought it looked beautiful because I had made it. But now when I went, I was alive, it filled me with horror and fear.

And Frankenstein pumps promptly feints and passes out. This is a common theme in the book is Frankenstein passing out at like key moments of hydrrama. So the monster is alive. So the monster first experience is seeing his maker pass out.

Yes. So, um, and Frankenstein sort of in and out of consciousness and the monster reaches out towards Frankenstein, his maker and makes in honorable guttural noises. And Frankenstein screams in yells and runs into his bedroom, closes the door and passes out on the bed. And then when he wakes up, the monster's gone.

You know what Frankenstein says? Goodness. That's done. No problem solved.

Problem solved. He is kind of a habit of taking naps at the moment. He's got the Odysseus sleep problem where and virgialed. I mean, Dante where the most critical moments when they're in most need of action, they have a nap.

And that's what he's doing. Yeah. So he passes out and then the monster's gone and he sort of is in this feverish state. He's quite sick and ill because of what he has done.

It is taking its toll. He's been doing late nights. He's been pulling all nighters, Thomas, taking his project on his independent study research project. And, um, and it's taking his toll.

He's sick. Well, one day then Henry comes looking for him because Frank Stein hasn't written home in like two years. And Henry and Elizabeth and his dad and his little brother William, they're all worried about him. And so Henry shows up and Frankenstein is in a state of illness and Henry's like, oh my goodness, I'm going to nurse you back to health.

And meanwhile, Frankenstein is like mumbling crazy things about demons while he's asleep. Henry nurses him back to health. And, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, and then Frankenstein's like, well, you know what? Well, you know, the monster's probably gone.

And I should have probably lived the rest of my life. Uh, not really worried about it. I hope this ever happened. Um, he's kind of proud that he has a secret to everlasting life, but he kind of realizes that it was this bigger deal than he thought.

So the monster's gone. We don't need to worry about it. Phew. All right.

Um, so dad Frankenstein is concerned about Victor Frankenstein and wants Victor Frankenstein to come home. Um, I think at this point, like, like two years past, at this point where we're Frankenstein is sort of at school and, uh, and, uh, finishing his studies and Henry Clerval reports back. Hey, Frankenstein's not dead. He's just really sick.

So a couple years past and then Frankenstein decides that he's going to go home. His dad wants to see him. And, um, the sort of underlying subtext of everything that was going on was that Elizabeth, their sort of, their ward, this girl that they took in and educated, um, is of marrying age. And it would be, uh, great if her and Frankenstein got married.

So Elizabeth and Frankenstein- So it's not weird at all. Yeah, not weird at all. And the kids are like, wait, what? And I even think in the book, they refer to her as cousin.

And so I'm like, does that make it better kids? And they don't think it does make it better. I think they're right. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, then Mary and cousins was a thing. It was a thing. Cousins were an option.

Um, still very weird. Anyway, so Frankenstein's going back to Mary Elizabeth. And on his way back, a letter arrives that his beloved son or brother William is missing, actually, and has been found and has been murdered. And so with heavy heart, Frank Stein and Henry return back to their house in Switzerland.

And they hear the story. Um, that little baby William was found strangled in the woods. Um, and they know who the murderer was. And it was this, this, uh, one of their servant girls named Justine.

And Justine professes innocence. Um, and when Frankenstein looks at his dead brother's mangled body, he sees the handprint around William's neck is much, much too big to have been Justine's, but bears an eerie resemblance to that of the monsters. What size that is. Um, so Frankenstein is hard of hearts, knows the monster has killed William, but refuses to say anything.

Um, so then this whole story comes out that, um, Justine and William, um, were, Justine was basically like William's guardian. And, uh, at some point, um, William had this little necklace, uh, around a little locket that had the mother's picture in it. The mother who had died many years ago. And Justine had been sort of rescued and brought into the Frankenstein family by the mother and sort of really carried a torch for her and had sort of made reference a couple of times that, um, she really wished that she could have the locket herself.

Um, but it was William's and so, you know, she wasn't going to take it, but you know, she just really was fond of that locket because it was the only picture of Lady Frankenstein. Um, William is killed. Justine is found in her little, um, guest house and the locket is found under her pillow. Well, the police put it together and Justine is arrested and Elizabeth decides that she is going to, uh, you know, uh, be Justine's defense attorney in the court, but everything kind of goes haywire and, um, and Justine is convicted of the murder of William, um, professing her innocence to the end, but the, uh, but the lock, no one else was with William and the locket is sort of their slam dunk, uh, piece of evidence, and Justine is condemned to death.

And at that point, Elizabeth says that she no longer believes that there is any light left in this world. And then the dad, uh, Daddy Frankenstein goes into a supreme, uh, supreme bout of depression and it's kind of real sad. What was the dad's name? Tell me it's Frank.

Frank Frankenstein? I don't know. Um, it's uh, shoot. It's like not, um, not like warlock.

What is it? It's like, uh, uh, Alphonse. Alphonse. Yeah, Alphonse Frankenstein.

Um, so in the dead, it is a whole brand name. It's Swiss or is it German or Austrian or whatever? So the dad says, you know what, Frank, sign the only way I'm going to be happy is to see you and Elizabeth happily married because my son got strangled. And so Frank and Stein and Elizabeth decide to start on their wedding.

Uh, Frankenstein is upset. Uh, his brother has died and he is for sure certain the monster did it. He's like, I don't, there's no more auspicious beginning for a wedding than a murder. That's right.

Um, Frank and I knows the monster did it and he didn't stand up and he didn't save Justine, even though he could vouch for another murderer. So what if I was nuts? They would have thought it was crazy crazy. Um, so Frank and Stein decides, does whatever he romantic hero does when he has something to think about.

He just goes in for a big long walk in the mountains. Um, so he goes for a long walk in the mountains and he sees this creature coming striding towards him at a quick pace and he sees that is the monster and immediately Frank signed, readies himself in the books as he readies himself from Mortal Kombat. And in my mind, all I can hear is the Mortal Kombat music. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do.

Anyway, that's the one and none of our students know what that is anymore. Uh, because that is a cultural reference that has passed them by. Watch it last year for a movie class. Oh, yeah.

So they're doing the large work in English. Thank you. I can't imagine that the giant, strong, Adonis that can strangle people with one hand would have any difficulty with like the best thing is like wimpy biology scientist that has spent his evening sort of studying books and passing out at a problem. Yeah.

Anyway, so Frank's sign sort of girds his loins for combat and the monster talks to him in very eloquent English and says, uh, he's well spoken. He says, I'm going to tell you how I came this way. And first of all, you're a jerk. Um, and then the monster tells his story.

And so on the mountain, the monster tells his story. Um, but before I continue, uh, one thing I should want to point out is that this book of Frank's sign, it's kind of like paradise lost fan fiction. Um, Mary Shelley, love Mary Shelley and the Rancix loved paradise lost, but they specifically love like the first four books of paradise lost when Satan's like kind of awesome. They, they're called Satanists.

That's, that's misunderstand like, really, we understand the word Satanist to mean someone who worship Satan. Right. In this case, that's kind of true, but only because they think Satan is the hero of paradise. They really like the character of Satan.

They love his, the fact that he, um, all the powers that be tell him he has to do something and he doesn't want to, says no to that. He's like a spirited rebel. Yes. And so, and he says, like, if that means that I'm going to live life in absolute misery, you can't take away my ability to say no.

And for Milton, Milton thinks that that's pathetic. Right. Um, and Satan is on this downward trajectory. And by the end, he's not this kind of like awesome rebel.

He's kind of this like silly snake, like whining, this little sort of whining creature. Um, but the romantics who very much love the power of the individual loved Satan book one through four paradise lost and kind of thought that Satan books nine through 12 was Milton just like being a good Christian, but really Milton loves the rebel Satan. Anyway, so they misread it. But so Mary Shelley decides that she's going to have her monster be the, like the new Satan character.

Um, this book's also called the modern Prometheus. I'm a little, you know, Hanover, do you know what? Hanover, do you know the tale from the atheist? I'm a little, yeah.

Prometheus, there was a, so Zeus created the humans and he wanted to keep them in subservience. And Prometheus didn't think that was okay. So we went and stole fire from the gods in a fennel stock delivered that fire to the humans and from that fire they made all of their iron craft and all of their, all of their technology. So I can't tell you, it was the first, it was what drew them out of just being blank animals.

And then for that transgression, he was tied to the stone and I birthed his liver out every day and it would regrow because he was a titan. So he would, you know, punished for the good will that he did. I think Frank is not being the name of the scientist, the modern Prometheus. So he brings something great to this new technology, this new thing.

He raises something from animal to human and then he's punished for it. Yes. Um, oh, so there's no condemnation of Victor Frankenstein. Okay.

He's the modern Prometheus. Yes. So, but in the story, Aja just told, I usually interpret that as Zeus is unfairly punishing Prometheus. Yeah.

So what I'm asking is, is Victor Frankenstein not judged for what he's doing here, for denying the beginning of life, for pushing the bounds of knowledge into places that shouldn't go? Maybe, if Shelley's sympathies really do lie with the monster. Um, yeah, well, let's, let's talk about that. Because that's sort of this interesting question is, does Mary, does Mary Shelley like technology and science?

Or does she say it's dangerous? Anyway, we'll get there. So the monster tells the story. And the monster basically says, well, you passed out and ran away and I was real sad.

And I was hungry and naked. So I put on a coat and I went outside and he said, basically, I had to learn things for myself. So, um, I saw birds chirping and they made me smile. And I was really hungry and I tried to eat a stick and it didn't work.

And I mentioned eight berries and was cold. And it's just sort of really sad, depressing story that he tells about being cold and wet and waking up with dew on him and shivering and eating berries, but never being satisfied. And when he found fire, yeah, he comes across this campfire and he comes up, he sees that there's meat that has been cooked over the campfire and eats it. And he says, this is amazing.

So he's like, fire makes food better. So he puts berries on the fire and that doesn't work. Um, and the campfire keeps him warm. So he's like, Oh man, if I'm a little bit warm near the campfire, imagine how awesome it'll be to be in the campfire and goes in the campfire and burns himself and howles and runs around and curses, you know, this fire that has hurt him.

Um, sees a bunch of peasants wants to try to communicate with them. They are freaked out at this like naked guy wearing a coat, burn hands and hands and like 10 feet tall and like inaudibly rumbling towards them and they like throw sticks at him and like children are crying and women are fainting him. He's got like mismatched eyes and all kinds of crazy. And so he gets driven out of all these little towns.

And he realizes that he's an ugly monster and that no one likes him. And he's mad at Frankenstein for making him hideous. And then he goes and he sees his little cut with the with this family and we'll find out their name is the Delacie family and Frankenstein. Sorry.

Oh, I did it. The monster hides in their woodshed and can observe the family through like a hole in the wall. And he becomes he comes to love this family and he does chores for them like he'll chop wood and then they'll wake up and be like, Oh, our wood's dropped. This is great.

Thanks for us. Creature. They don't know who's been chopping their wood and I think it's some sort of like woodland elf. Oh, really?

And they're very pleased with this. And they're destitute, right? They are absolutely absolutely poverty. They're basically scraping out subsistence.

The father is blind and he plays beautiful music that makes the monster cry and Felix, the oldest son and Agatha, the daughter, they're there and they're always in mourning sadness. And the monster doesn't know why. And then this girl shows up and her name is Safie and she is Turkish. She is from the east.

And when she shows up, Felix is happy again. And it turns out that Safie and Felix are lovers and there's this whole backstory where Safie's father betrayed the Delacie's and now that the Lacy's a once noble family are in poverty. And but Safie like rejects her father and comes to find Felix and they're gonna happily live together. Safie can't speak English.

So Agatha, the sister teaches Safie to speak English through reading. And so the monster learns English as Safie learns English. She's sitting there in the hot and he learns to speak. And then he finds three books in the garbage heap.

He finds Plutarch's lives. He finds some other history book I can't remember. And he finds Paradise Lost. And he loves those books and he reads them and that forms the basis of his education.

So he learns about great men and terrible men and power and murder through Plutarch's lives. And as he reads Paradise Lost, he realizes that he is both like Adam created by a creator, but also like Satan, someone who has been rejected by his creator. But Satan, Paradise Lost wanted to strive out on his own but the monster, all the monsters ever wanted was to be accepted by his creator and his creator has abandoned him. And so he realizes like, I want to go mess up Frankenstein's life.

I want revenge. He's made me and Adam was made, no Satan was made sufficient to stand though free to fall. That's the line in Paradise Lost. And the monster said I was not made sufficient to stand.

Frankenstein did not give me everything I needed for happiness. And the main thing with the monster wants is friendship, love, community. He wants somebody to be with. He wants a girlfriend.

So he goes pretty bad. He's feeling real low. Anyway, he has just this plan. He's like the Lacy's will love me and Mr.

Lacy's blind. So I'll talk to him first. So he doesn't freak out. So he starts talking.

So one day everyone's going except the monster delays. And he starts talking to him. And Mr. Lacy is like, are you the far and far and forward?

I've been hoping else with our wood. And the monster's like, yes, it is I. I am your woodland creature friend. And the monster and the dad's like, oh, well, you're welcome to stay for dinner.

And the monster's like, this is all I've ever wanted. And then Felix shows up and he's like, ah, dad, what are you talking to? And he hits him with a stick, not the dad, the monster. And throws a rock in the bottom.

And then the Lacy family escape on Runaway. And the monster so heartbroken, he burns their house down and dances and wring around the burning house. Because they doesn't he sort of feel really bad and leave and then he comes back tomorrow to try to make amends and meet them again. They're all gone.

And so it's in rage he burns down their house. And then he decides that he is going to wreak his revenge on Frankenstein. If I, the monster can have no companions on earth, Frankenstein will have no moments peace. So he goes off and on the way there, he stumbles upon this little presumptuous little boy.

And he was like, Oh, you're ugly. The monster's like out of my way, little kid. I'm, you know, I'm going to find Frankenstein. And little boy's like, that's my name.

And the monster realizes that this is one of the Franksteins and strangles and killed him, realizes that he's killed this kid and then plants the little kids lock it in what's her face, justines room so that she takes the blame. And now the monster is here and he tells Frankenstein, he's like, listen, I killed William. I know. But that that's for like abandoning me when I was created.

So we're right now, like we're even that's what I want you to do. Victor Frankenstein is make me a lady monster. And if you do not make me a lady monster, I will murder everybody you love. And if you make me a lady monster, I will never hear from you again.

And I will go off and her and I will just live happily forever after in the woods. Everything will be real everything will be real chill. And he's like, take your time. Think about it.

And I'm in fact, Frankenstein's like, all right, crap. What do I do? This boy, the monster is sort of on that precipice right between good and evil. He's done an evil thing, but he wants, he desires to be good.

He wants to be good. He wants to be good. He thinks that being good is going to come from having a wife, having a co-relation. So Frankenstein has this big moral question.

He needs to answer, do I make a lady monster or not? And in my English class, we spend an entire class period debating that and we go, we drop what we basically do like a game theory. We're like, what's the worst thing that can happen? What's the best thing that can happen?

What's the most likely scenario? What's the least likely scenario? We play this whole thing. It's really fun.

Is there a side that normally wins? Yeah, don't make the lady monster. I don't want the students usually say, wait a second, but if Frankenstein does it in such a way that they can reproduce, then like, then you have like a whole race of monsters and that's bad. Yeah.

And then that one thing, Frankenstein thinks too. Yeah, I don't want to. And then some student always says, well, why don't you just make the lady monster like infertile? And then another student usually quotes Jurassic Park.

Nature finds a way. It's true. Anyway, so we have that big debate. Um, Frankenstein decides that he before gets married to him and her Henry are going to go on a two year long bachelor road trip.

Whoo. So they're going to road trip to England. They're going to go on a walking tour of the hill country of England. That's like an awesome idea.

Something that sounds like a really great way. That's like a wonderful, wonderful idea. Let's move on to that at the end. And so him and Henry go off and then part way through Henry's like, I really want to go to Ireland and Frankenstein's like, you know what, I just want to chill in Scotland for a bit.

And so Henry leaves and Frankenstein decides he's going to make the lady monster. And he gets all the parts and he puts them all together and it's a local nap. Local, local, local, yup, um, yeah, the checker fluids and gets the lady monster all ready to roll and he's about to like pull the switch or whatever. It's a dark and stormy night.

It's very atmospheric. And he looks and he's on this island by itself. He's on an island in Scotland and everyone's kind of suspicious of him because he goes out to the island all the time. He's being dug up.

Yeah, it's all really weird. It's either him or like the weird fergus guy that lives in anyway, whatever. So he's digging up with Scotland. He's digging up these bodies and he's putting together and then he's going to do it.

And he looks out the window and it's dark and stormy and the lightning strikes and he sees the smiling face of the monster going like, yes, do it's a bane. Make me a girl. And then Frankenstein kind of loses his mind, decides not to do it and hacks up his creature right in front of the monster. Hack, hack, hack, hack.

And just kind of messed up. Which is kind of messed up. And then passes out. Yeah, naturally.

He doesn't he just go take a nap or does he actually pass out? I can't remember. He passes out. He goes to sleep.

He goes to sleep. I wouldn't say this is yeah. Many wakes up the next day and he's like, I'm going to find Henry. He gets on a little boat and he goes to Ireland.

Does he kind of think like that solved? Yeah, he's like, I'm glad we're done with that. That'll show him. And then I think at that moment the monster, I think it's this point that the monster says some like thing like I'll see you on your wedding night or something like that like and Henry or Frankenstein says what?

Sam's ominous. He goes to Ireland and is promptly arrested for the murder of a traveler. And Frank signs like what? I didn't murder anybody.

He goes to prison. Turns out Henry, chlorovals, been drowned. And Frankenstein happened to show up and at the same time that this happened. So obviously the locals suspect him and put him in jail and then jail.

He gets really sick and nearly dies. And his father travels all the way from Switzerland to Ireland to bail. Frankenstein out of jail and they have this trial and it's basically like a hung jury. They don't have no proof that he did it.

So Henry gets buried and Frank signs real sad. And then they go back to Switzerland and the dad's like, all right, I think it's time to marry Elizabeth. We've had a good time. We had some good times.

Everyone's feeling really at the top of their spirits. And so Frankenstein and Elizabeth decide they're going to get married after a period of mourning. They decide they're going to get married and it's very happy. And then on their, they go on this honeymoon on this wedding night and they hear like broken glass with a hear noise.

And Frankenstein does the classic horror move, miscalculation. You wait here. I'm going to go check it out. And he goes and he gets his gun and he like goes outside the little cottage with their honeymoonings like, nope.

There's nothing here. And then here's a blood curling scream and he goes back into his room and the monster is on top of Elizabeth strangling her and she's dead. And the monster gives him this like hideous smiling look and like jumps out the window. And Frankenstein literally in the books like, so that's what he meant.

I'll be with you. I think up until then it wasn't even thinking that the monster was going to kill him. That's why he's like, stay wife. I'm going to go somewhere else.

So he doesn't get you to. I can't believe such a brilliant scientist wouldn't have thought of the possibility that he met the wife. This is why you don't on school your children. So and then the monster has now, I mean, so Frankenstein's real upset and then sends news back to his dad, that Elizabeth's been murdered on the wedding night and the dad has a heart attack and dies.

So now, Frankenstein, all of his families have died except he's got another brother named Ernest that's mentioned at the beginning of the book but doesn't get any play if the rest of the story. And I think maybe Mary Shelley forgot about him. Anyway, so Frankenstein's lost everybody he loves. And so he decides that he is going to kill the monster.

But your Ernest was really annoying. That's true. I mean, with that name. Just a super eager.

Yeah. What are you guys doing? Can I help? No, he's super.

Brush my teeth. Man, that's weird. One place. Super Mario.