Frankenstein
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus is a horror novel. The novel has three editions and the first edition was published in 1818 in London. Shelley wrote the novel at the age of 19. The novel was based on an inanimate creature that was made to bring to life by a scientist named Victor Frankenstein, thus the name of the creature that was created from dead corpse is Frankenstein. Frankenstein was made from the body of dead corpse and the material used was applied with electricity (Lylys).
Pet Sematary
The Pet Sematary is more than just a place to bury your pets, especially for one horrified family. Pet Sematary was another horror novel that was written by Stephen King. The story was about a cemetery where the dead animals are being buried. It is believed that the said cemetery when animals are buried brings the life of the dead animals. A family is moving in a town where the cemetery is located and this family experience death because of the bad luck being brought by the cemetery (King).
According to many other writers, Pet Sematary is scariest novel ever written by King. King and his wife, Tabitha, agreed that this was no mere hyperbole. In a Fangoria interview conducted around the time of Pet Sematary’s release, King said that he showed the manuscript to his wife, and she couldn’t finish it. “It was too … effective.” Eventually, in 1983, the novel did see print. Was it as horrifying, as gruesome, as dark as all the hype purported it to be?
The family was headed by the father who a physician is named Louis Creed. Together with his wife, two children and their pet cat, they moved from Chicago to Ludlow. Besides there house is where the cemetery is located. Children from the said town created a cemetery where they bury their killed pets due to the accident by the steady stream of transports on the busy highway. But the cemetery had a special area where many people believe that the area is where the pets are being resurrected. It is believe that the area deeper in the graveyard is the home of the souls where the resurrection of the pets being buried. From the novel, this area is known as Micmac Indian burial ground (King).
In this paper, the two novels will be compared in terms of their characters, themes, imagery, inspiration, plot and other terms that can be used for comparison. This paper will have an analytical compare and contrast of Victor Frankenstein and Louis Creeds desire(s) to resurrect the dead.
Inspiration
The first category to be used for comparison is the inspirations of the writers in writing their horror novel. Mary was just 19 years old when she wrote the novel Frankenstein. It was the year of 1816 when the world was locked in a long volcanic winter. Together with his companion, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who later became her husband was stock in their house because they cannot go outside due to the condition of the weather. Instead they wrote horror stories so that they can enjoy the winter vacation. Mary was inspired to write her ghost story on her dream. In her nightmare she saw “the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.” She based the story of the novel from her nightmare and this was the birth of Frankenstein (Lylys).
While the inspiration of King in writing his novel was his personal experience. Just like the story of Pet Sematary, the pet of the child of King which was also a cat was accidentally killed by a truck. Stephen was serving as a writer-in-residence at the University of Maine at Orono and living in a rented house in nearby Orrington that bordered a major truck route which frequently claimed the lives of dogs and cats. The place of King has also a cemetery that was made by the local children. There he buries his child’s pet. As he buried the cat in the pet cemetery, he realized what will happen if the cat returns to their family but alive. He has also personal experience in the death of a child that was hit by a truck (King).
Just like what happened in Mary’s experience, King based his horror novel from his nightmare. But there main difference is that, Mary based her horror novel based from horror stories while King based his Pet Sematary on his personal experience. Their novels were both triggered by their nightmare and that begins the horror of their novels.
Form of Resurrection
The forms of the creator on both novels differ in their forms of creating their creatures. In Frankenstein, it uses different body parts from dead corpse and using these parts in creating a resurrected body (Hale).
While in the novel Pet Sematary, dead bodies are being buried in the graveyard and the said place will turn dead people to life. Because it is believe that the place has the power of turning or bringing dead people to life (King).
Reasons to resurrect dead
Though the two authors were the same on the theme of the story which was resurrecting dead people and animals, the two authors were different in their purpose or desire why the characters in their novels resurrect dead person and animals. In the novel of Mary, Victor Frankenstein who is the creator of Frankenstein resurrects dead people because he wants to be a god who can resurrect dead people. From what he learned from his studies on natural science and modern science, he wants to resurrect dead people in such a way that the resurrected person can perceive the inanimate matter can be imbued with life (Hale).
While the reason why King wants to resurrect the cat is that the father in the story, who is Louis Creed, does not want his child to be lonely because of the death of their family pet. Also, Creed’s son was accidentally hit by the running truck in the hi-way that resulted to the death of his child. He wants his child to be resurrected by means of burying his dead son’s body in Micmac Indian burial ground where is was believe that dead people are being resurrected.
Plot
The story of the two novels was about a dead person or animal that was resurrected, both the resurrected creature brings terror on their respective places. Frankenstein in the first time he was resurrected was characterized as kind creature. From the novel, Frankenstein even does good deeds on a poor peasant family through a chink in the wall. But as the story goes, Frankenstein receives unhealthy treatment from the people because these people were afraid on Frankenstein. This was the reason why Frankenstein killed man people in their place and this includes the relatives of his creator victor (Hale).
While in the novel of King, the dead son of Creed after being resurrected from the Micmac Indian burial ground turned the new creature in to a monstrous, demonic shadow of his former self, and able to talk like an adult. The family of Creed, who is the creator, was also killed by the resurrected creature because the resurrected creature turned in to monster and has the killing acts (King).
Characteristics of the resurrect dead
The characteristics of the two novels in terms of the resurrected creature can be characterized as evil and demonic in nature. They kill people and they do not know why they such killing actions even their own families. They were brutal in terms of their killing actions. But Frankenstein in the first part of the novel was humane in treating other people (Hale). His hatred on the people surrounding him only triggered his evil action while the son of Creed was characterized as monstrous and demonic.
Themes
The novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus can be classified as gothic novel and has Romantic Movement. The novel also relates Industrial revolution and the product of the said revolution that may the life of many people. The main focus of Mary in writing the novel was the power of science in making possible things. She also focuses on the dilemma of the characters of modern human beings.
While King’s novel Pet Sematary can be classified as postmodern gothic style of writing (Nash). Pet Sematary’s connection to Shelley’s Frankenstein in particular must be seen within the dynamics of a contemporary popular culture matrix.
Ending
Frankenstein, who is the resurrected creature, was also killed because he decided to be dead than living in a world where he is not accepted by the people around him. He joined Victor who vows to committed suicide in a burning fire.
In the Pet Sematary, the son of Creed was buried again in the graveyard to stop killing other people. The doctor utilized lethal injection of drugs from his medical supply stock so that he can’t resist in burying him again. But unlike in Mary’s novel, the doctor who is the cause of the resurrection of the creature was not killed in the end part of the story.
Conclusion
After reading the two novels, the authors have shown that they had an effective story telling because they based their horror stories on their own life. Moreover, the imagination around their surrounding had helped them create a novel that is more realistic because at their own time, the people are the society believes on ghost stories. The two authors had produced novels that relate these ghost stories on their own life.
References:
Hale, Terry. Tales of the Dead: The Ghost Stories Which Inspired Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ 1994.
King, Stephen. Pet Sematary Doubleday, 1983.
Lylys, William H. Mary Shelley, an Annotated Bibliography. 1975.
Nash, Jesse W. “Postmodern Gothic: Stephen King’s Pet Sematary.” 30.4 (1997). November 15, 2007 <http://stephen-king.net/reviews/review.asp?id=%7B488C3FE9-3287-434C-81F6-56BC71FA58ED%7D>.
