IN THE LAB AT THE BBC

I listened to a play this afternoon on BBC radio 4. It was Frankenstein. Victor begins by telling of his childhood. Born into a wealthy family in Geneva,, he is encouraged to seek a greater understanding of the world around him through science. He grows up in a safe environment, surrounded by loving family and friends. When he is around 4 years old, his parents adopt Elizabeth Lavenza, an orphan whose mother has just died (she is Victor's biological cousin in the first edition, but an adopted child with no blood relation in the 1831 edition). Victor has a possessive infatuation with Elizabeth. He has two younger brothers: Ernest and William.

As a young boy, Victor is obsessed with studying outdated theories of science that focus on achieving natural wonders. He plans to attend University in Germany. Weeks before his planned departure, his Mother dies of Scarlet fever.. At university, he excels at chemistry and other sciences, and develops a secret technique to imbue inanimate bodies with life.

The details of the monster's construction are left ambiguous, but Frankenstein finds himself forced to make the creature roughly eight feet tall because of the difficulty in replicating the minute parts of the human body. His creation, which he has hoped would be beautiful, is instead hideous, with dull yellow eyes, and a withered, translucent, yellowish skin that barely conceals the muscular system and blood vessels. After bringing his creation to life, Victor is repulsed by his work: he flees the room, and the monster disappears.

Victor becomes ill from the experience. He is nursed back to health by his childhood friend, Henry Clerval. After a four month recovery, he determines that he should return home when his brother William is found murdered. Upon arriving in Geneva, he sees the monster near the site of the murder, and becomes certain it is the killer. William's nanny, Justine, is hanged for the murder based on the discovery of William's locket in her pocket. Victor, though certain the monster is responsible, doubts anyone would believe him, and does not intervene.

Ravaged by his grief and self-reproach, Victor retreats into the mountains to find peace. The monster approaches him, ignoring his threats and pleading with Victor to hear its tale. Intelligent and articulate, it tells Victor of its encounters with people, and how it had become afraid of them and spent a year living near a cottage, observing the DeLacey family living there and growing fond of them. Through observing the De Lacey family, the monster became educated and self-aware. It also discovered a lost satchel of books and learned to read. Seeing its reflection in a pool, it realized that its physical appearance is hideous compared to the humans it watches. Though it eventually approached the family with hope of becoming their fellow, they were frightened by its appearance and drove it off, and then left the residence permanently. The creature, in a fit of rage, burned the cottage and left.

In its travels some time later, the monster saw a young girl tumble into a stream and rescued her from drowning. A man, seeing it with the child in its arms, pursued it and fired a gun, wounding it. Traveling to Geneva, it met a little boy — Victor's Brother William  in the woodsThe monster hoped the boy was too young to feardeformity,, but upon its approach, William cried out, threatening the monster with the weight of his family  the Frankenstein’s. The creature grabbed the boy by the throat to silence him, and strangled him. It is unclear from the text whether this was an accident on the monster's part or a deliberate murder, but in either case, the monster took this as its first act of vengeance against its creator. It removed a locket from the boy's body and placed it in the folds of the dress of a young woman — William's nanny, Justine — who had been sleeping in a barn nearby, assuming she would be accused of the murder.

The monster concludes its story with a demand that Frankenstein create for it a female companion like itself. It argues that as a living thing, it has a right to happiness and that Victor, as its creator, has a duty to obey it, with the chilling words, "You are my creator, but I am your master. Obey!" It promises that if Victor grants its request, it and its mate will vanish into the wilderness of South America, uninhabited by man, never to reappear.

Fearing for his family, Victor reluctantly agrees and travels to England to do his work. He is accompanied by Clerval, but they separate in Scotland. Through their travels, Victor suspects that the monster is following him. Working on a second being on the Scottish Islands, he is plagued by premonitions of what his work might wreak, particularly as creating a mate for the creature might lead to the breeding of an entire race of monsters that could plague mankind. He destroys the unfinished example after he sees the monster looking through the window. The monster witnesses this and, confronting Victor, vows to be with Victor on his upcoming wedding night. The monster murders Clerval and leaves the corpse on an Irish beach, where Victor lands upon leaving the island. Victor is imprisoned for the murder of Clerval, and becomes seriously ill, suffering another mental breakdown in prison. After being acquitted, and with his health renewed, he returns home with his father.

Once home, Victor marries his cousin Elizabeth and prepares for a fight to the death with the monster. Wrongly believing the monster's vowed revenge was for his own life, he asks Elizabeth to retire to her room for the night while he goes looking for the fiend. He searches the house and grounds, but the creature murders the secluded Elizabeth instead. Victor sees the monster at the window pointing at the corpse. Grief-stricken by the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval, and now Elizabeth, Victor's father dies. Victor vows to pursue the monster until one of them annihilates the other. After months of pursuit, the two end up in the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole.

It is said that Victor dies and the monster is seen grieving over his body and then kills himself.

The author of Frankenstein, is the acclaimed writer Mary Shelley. She wrote the story after an awakening dream, whilst on holiday with her Husband Percy Shelley.

She wondered how it would be if the Enlightened idea that society could progress and grow if political leaders used their powers responsibly; however, she also believed the Romantic ideal that misused power could destroy society and who would believe all those years ago, in the 18^th century, she would be proven right as it is possible now to grow an arm or a finger from the lab? A scary thought, which leaves me pondering on the idea of the future. To make a perfect person. Who will have the ingredience of a perfect person? Who’s decision will that be? Your idea of a perfect person, is not mine and mine is not yours. To look at, my teen is perfect, as is my Husband. Teen six foot, blond blue eyes and I am told he is very handsome. Hub, under six foot, hunky and very dark, with chocolate eyes and really delicious. That is looks. What about attitude? Personality? Brain capability? Fitness and strength, or is it not important to be strong?  After all, the monster, was strong, was that a good thing? To be able to walk, see, hear and have no ailments is a form of perfection? Or is it? Those who have suffered for what ever reason, are often nicer people as they have had hardship so leaving them with a sense of empathy towards others.

I have watched the film through gritted teeth and closed ears, really did not like it, but so loved the drama. You the listener is left feeling rather sorry for Frankenstein!

You know two hundred years ago, how advanced was the aurthor?

 It took two centuries, to get to where we are now, being able to do what Shelley’s futuristic mind set wrote about.  with advancement’s in science. What will our writers and people with imagination think up for our future? A daunting prospect!