Frankenstein’s Monster and Victor Frankenstein
These images are from the Pennyroyal Edition of Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, designed and illustrated by Barry Moser, and with an afterword by Joyce Carol Oates. All illustrations are in black & white , except for the images of the monster. The monster is rendered in color, Mr. Moser says, as a symbol of his sympathy for the creature. He continues, “He became evil, in a manner of speaking, but only as a reaction to the evil that was visited upon him by dint of his appearance and by his creator’s abdication of responsibility for his actions.”
The words of Victor Frankenstein leave us to wonder who the real monster is in this tragic tale:
I collected bones from charnel houses…I kept my workshop of filthy creation. The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials; and often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion.