Not Quite What Was Expected

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, there are many events that go against the stereotypical story line of Frankenstein.  The most notable of misnomers about the story is who is Frankenstein.  While many people think the monster is Frankenstein, the creator is actually the title character.  Shelley's work focuses much more on Victor Frankenstein's life, and his path toward eventually bringing life to a sum of dead body parts.  He appears at first to be a likable man who is unable to find friends or support for his beliefs.  He desires to do something that nobody in the world has ever done before.  In American folklore, Victor is extremely proud of his creation, and laughs as it is struck by lighting, bringing it to life.  In the American classic however, he eludes to the fact that this was a bad idea, and immediately after he subtly slips "a spark of being" into the monster, he released he regretted it.  Victor said, "...but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart," (Shelley, 35).  The creator ran away from his creation twice, and showed that he wanted nothing to do with it after it became apparent he had succeeded in bringing it to life.  With these and other differences present  it is necessary for the reader to go into the story with a fresh mind.  Folklore has made portions of this novel much more spectacular than they really are, and a biased reader could lose some of the meaning of the story if they only focus on the widely known and rather inaccurate events.