Journal Entry for My Note, Part 2

Throughout the beginning of the book, we watch Frankenstein turn more and more obsessed with his creation. He isolates himself from his family and friends, and spends most of his day working in his laboratory in an attempt to bring life to his creation (34-35). He uses animal parts that he steals to make the creature, and initially creates him as what he describes as beautiful (37). Yet when the creature is brought to life, Frankenstein finds him hideous and disgusting. He abandons the creature only to discover that the creature becomes obsessed with him, and kills his entire family in order to get revenge for his abandonment (Shelley).

In my previous “move”, Waldman becomes obsessed with creating his own creature, to the extent that he is willing to commit murder in order to create a perfect creature. And in this “move”, he discovers he had failed to create a creature, and chooses to blame Frankenstein for it. In the process, Waldman describes Frankenstein’s behavior, adding an unseen point of view to the story. He describes Frankenstein as extremely self-interested and cunning, as people and schoolmates might have seen him throughout his university years. Yet Waldman’s point of view is not to be trusted either, keeping with the theme of an unreliable narrator present throughout the book.

Waldman blames Frankenstein for his failure to create the creature, even though Waldman stole all the information for the creation of the creature from Frankenstein in the first place, and committed quite horrific crimes throughout the way. In addition Waldman criticizes Frankenstein for trying to play god, although he himself committed the same hubris. This mimics Frankenstein’s and the creature’s actions throughout the book, both refusing to acknowledge their own mistakes, blaming each other for their wrongdoings, and trying to play god as well.

As a result of all of his actions, Waldman decides to commit suicide. This resembles the creature’s decision in the book to isolate himself from humanity and destroy himself for the crimes he committed (179).