The Themes Of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is extremely popular because it is considered one of the first science fiction and horror novels and a classic. Many themes from the novel can still apply to today's society such as personal relationships, like when Victor isolated himself from family and a social life for his studies. Victor becomes so obsessed with science he abandons everything including his own health, “Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime. Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck I that I had become”(Shelley 42). Especially in today's society, people abandon important relationships, don't have priorities straight, and isolate themselves from the world, like Victor does throughout the whole novel.
Another theme is human nature; Victor wants to ‘play God’ by bringing life from the dead and creating a ‘perfect human.’ Victor is horrified when his creation is the complete opposite of what he wanted, “The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.
I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body...I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and the breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelley
43). Victors response to the monster coming alive reflects greatly on today's society; when things don't turn out the way they anticipated, they run away from the problem, like how Victor abandoned his ‘child’. Even 200 years later, many themes from Frankenstein reflects on today's society and possibly the future’s, which make the book a classic.