James' Exploration Report

I did my research on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Upon doing a Google images search for "frankenstein," I was surprised to learn that the first nine images of Frankenstein were black-and-white pictures of the monster as played by the actor Boris Karloff in the 1940s film. I think the disconnect between the actual monster in the book and the popular culture interpretation of the monster is something that would be worth exploring. Why did pop culture latch onto that particular version of the monster? There is, in fact, an entire Wikipedia article on Frankenstein in popular culture (not on Frankenstein itself.) That could very well be an interesting place to start some research. Here is the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_in_popular_culture. This would be particularly useful if I tried to do a reader-response criticism.

I also found some cool artwork of Frankenstein. One of my favorites is a cover for copy of the book on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-1818-Text-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143131842. This picture depicts the monster looking at himself in the reflection of some water. This got me thinking about how the book deals with introspection and reflection. Is the book more about the monster than it is about Frankenstein himself? Who is the “protagonist?” Is the monster a reflection of Frankenstein? Interesting cogs are turning.