The Masterpiece of Despair and Hope

What inspired me to write this article is the resonance of a ground-breaking woman in our History: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, better known as Mary Shelley. The 2018 movie "Mary Shelley" directed by Haifaa Al Mansour brings alive the sorrowful, challenging, but yet compelling life of one of the most inspiring women in Romanticism.

After watching the movie, I felt an empowering feeling, which pushed me to buy the book and read it once again. When I last read this Gothic Novel, I was in high school. The beautiful stage of our life, when you have a fresh and flourishing mind to taste the first bud of Literature.

I decided to reread it because I thought this Novel was the exact example of how deep the connection is between the Frankenstein character and us. We are all connected in some way, and despite our natural essence, the inner link underneath is flowing constant and invisibly. The movie pays homage to a young woman whose fire and passion will always be her wheels through the unfortunate path of her time and the expectations that followed.

"He was soon borne by the waves and lost in darkness and distance"Mary Shelley

These are the last words that close the book, and put the grueling suffering of the monster to an end.

But what if that monster, that grimy creature was the reflection of all our fears, insecurities, and the constant feelings of being 'not seen'; similar to an outcast feeling, in some sort. Have you ever seen yourselves in any of the characters from the past? Whether it is a person or an atmosphere described in a certain way. We tend to recognise our insecurities, fears, or whatever state of mind we are experiencing, in a book, or a quote, or in a poem. And most of the time we write them down on a piece of paper, or underline the words that caught our feelings. It had happened to me back in Italy when I used to hang on my room's wall, heaps of those pearls of wisdom to boost my inner strength—reminding myself that someone, in old times, already had felt those feelings and put them on paper.

I read a very inspiring quote from an Italian writer Cesare Pavese, which says,

"When we read something we recognise ourselves into, it's not something new, but that thing has always been inside us."

And so the book Frankenstein does gather, in a loathsome monster, the universal human misery in all of us. That whirling feeling of sadness that can make you feel like you don't belong anywhere, or you are not capable of doing certain things, or worst you feel socially rejected.

Most of the time, we may not feel accepted in the way that our identity is very much subdued to other's judgement; it is almost like who you are, depends on others, and how they see you. I found myself still trapped in this sort of feeling, like Frankenstein, the monster, trying to understand the mysterious language of the village people to get in contact with them. When I am walking on my own in the street, I feel the uneasy perception of being different, and not being able to make new friends.

What if each one of us was born with a little Frankenstein inside, with our small and yet deep island of isolation and despair; and what if we all can be connected by looking into each other eyes with complete and genuine equality and acceptance.

The Modern Prometheus

Like the Titan in greek mythology,