Despite what you may have heard, Frankenstein is not the name of the monster. The monster is actually named Caliban, after Shakespeare’s character from The Tempest.
It’s also not true that the monster was named after its creator, Victor Frankenstein. Instead, it was named after the scientist’s adopted son—who died before he could finish his studies at university.
Frankenstein isn’t a horror story either. In fact, it’s an exploration of the consequences of using science to create life and what happens when science is used without any moral or ethical constraints or consideration for how it will affect humanity as a whole.
The novel isn’t about a mad scientist who creates a monster either—it explores what happens when two men who believe they’re doing good end up causing harm instead. It’s also about power dynamics and how those affect relationships between people and their environments as well as thematically exploring questions about free will vs determinism vs fate vs chance vs choice vs fate vs destiny; whether good or bad things happen to us because we deserve them because we are inherently good or bad people; whether we control our own destiny by making choices or if our fates are predetermined by forces beyond our control like God.
