Frankenstein, the title character in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, is the prototypical “mad scientist” who creates a monster by which he is eventually killed. The name Frankenstein has become popularly attached to the creature itself, who has become one of the best-known monsters in the history of motion pictures.
Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus (1818), is a combination of Gothic horror story and science fiction. The book tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss student of natural science who creates an artificial man from pieces of corpses and brings his creature to life. Though it initially seeks affection, the monster inspires loathing in everyone who meets it. Lonely and miserable, the monster turns upon its creator, who eventually loses his life.
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from SparkNotes: Mary Shelley and Romanticism
from SparkNotes: Frankenstein and the Scientific Revolution