The human need for love exposed in Frankenstein Written in 1817 by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is a novel about the "modern Prometheus", the Roman Titian who stole fire from gods and gave it to man. The story is set in several European countries in the late 1700s. It is Victor Frankenstein's memoir to a ship's captain about his life. Victor is a science and medical student who discovers a way to reanimate dead flesh. In his desire to create the perfect race, he constructs a man more powerful than any normal human, but the creation is so warped and hideous that Victor avoids it. The creation then spends a year wandering in search of company, but wherever he goes he is shunned and feared. Hating life, the creature pours out its misery on its creator, killing Victor's family. Frankenstein chases the monster to the North Pole in an attempt to kill him. Weakened by the cold and the long chase, a dying Victor is brought aboard a ship, where he tells his story to the captain and dies shortly after. The next night the monster visits the ship and looks at Victor's body, ashamed of all the killing he has committed, the monster flees into the Arctic Ocean, never to be seen again. Frankenstein appears to be a novel about the evil ways of man, but it is actually about the human soul and how it needs friendship and love to survive. This theme is evident from the ship's captain's initial letters to his sister in which the captain writes, "I have but one desire which I have never been able to satisfy... I have no friends" (Shelley 7). The captain is about to embark on the dream of his life: sailing to the North Pole; he has a good crew and a beautiful ship, but he still wants a friend to share emotions with. ......middle of paper ......and misery, because he killed everything he loved. It is in this moment that he realizes that he does not hate Frankenstein but actually loved him as a father, but he was so consumed by self-loathing and hatred that he killed everything he loved. With this fleeting thought the monster leaps from the ship into the ice-filled sea and is never seen again. At first it is seen as a story about man and the evils he can do, but Frankenstein is actually about the friendship of the soul. Without this basic need the body either withers and dies or turns to another source, such as murder or alcohol, to fill the void. Both fatalities can be seen in the story, with Victor's friendship and the monster's anger. Neither fills the void in their soul, but it ultimately consumes them until they die. Work Cited Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. Great Britain: JM Dent & Sons LTD. 1959.