ABSTRACT
Mary Shelley’s story is a love story when seen from the side of the Monster’s hoped for relation with the mate that his maker promised to create for him. His tale contrasts vividly with Frankenstein’s sacrifice of his relation with Elizabeth Lavenza, who, while waiting upon Victor’s work to be completed, is eventually murdered on their wedding night. From the side of the Monster, then, Mary Shelley’s story is a seed of hope about the redemptive quality of love when it is not corrupted by power. This question also discusses another seed of hope in the Monster’s relation to nature. Attending to the Monster on the margins who is initially schooled by the wondrous epiphanies of nature displayed in moonlight opens a path that lights the way to recovering how we are a part of nature and not apart from it. Finally, insofar as the dream has such a pivotal place in Mary Shelley’s story, this question recovers the value and wisdom of the dream as a seed of hope that provides another perspective on our technological powers.
