Frankenstein Fan Profile: Helen

Today’s NT Live Frankenstein Fan Profile comes from Helen via Southville, Bristol. Both director Danny Boyle and Mary Shelley utilized the story of Frankenstein as a means to reflect man’s shortcomings through the eyes of the Creature. Helen has written a beautiful poem taking this viewpoint even further and summarizes the basis of the story into clever verse. We hope you enjoy this piece of writing as much as we did…

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The thrumming of a heartbeat
Signals life in the pod.
It crawls new and unsteady
To the feet of its God.

But its master is appalled
And casts his child aside,
Sent out to face man’s disgust
To run and flee and hide.

At last he finds some safety
With a man both wise and kind.
He teaches him to speak and read -
To his looks, he is blind.

But De Lacey’s family
Suffer no loss of sight.
When they see the Creature,
They at once take fright.

Once more harshly beaten,
Shown humanity’s worst,
The Creature wreaks his vengeance:
Thence Victor and he are cursed.

He journeys to Geneva,
The Frankenstein’s seat,
And there slays Victor’s brother,
To ensure that they must meet.

On the Sea of Ice, alone,
The Maker and the Made
Are here reunited.
For lives they are to trade.

No longer just a theorem
But a thing brought to life,
Frankenstein’s monster
Is in want of a wife.

Victor’s Creature’s longing
Reignited that spark
To contravene the divine
And on work to embark.

He set sail for England
Leaving barren at home
Elizabeth, his fiancee,
Wanting children of her own.

So Victor made a female -
An exquisite work of art -
But when her mate came to claim her,
He stabbed both in the heart.

With his only equal murdered
At her creator’s hand,
The Creature vowed Victor’s destruction
Back home in Switzerland.

As Victor’s marriage beckoned,
So too the Creature’s design -
To take the sweet Elizabeth -
Poor bride of Frankenstein!

Though she would have loved him
As her husband’s son,
The Creature’s drive for vengeance
Saw them all undone.

Still the battle isn’t over,
For neither have their prize.
The Creature seeks his master’s love,
His master his demise.

So take heed every parent:
You must demonstrate
Love and understanding
To whatever you create.