Storytime for Grownups – “Frankenstein: The Wrap-Up”

Host: Faith Moore
Date: October 30, 2025

Episode Overview

In this wrap-up episode, Faith Moore celebrates the completion of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, reflecting on its major themes and the varied responses from listeners. By reading and responding to audience questions and comments, Moore unpacks the novel’s lasting ambiguities and tragedies—particularly focusing on the nature of the Creature, responsibility, human connection, and the dangers of “playing God.” She also highlights the upcoming "Victorian Christmas" season featuring A Little Princess, encouraging listeners to carry the lessons from Frankenstein into their next literary journey together.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Listener Reflections and Faith’s Gratitude

• Faith opens by thanking her audience for trusting her with a book some feared would be “scary,” and for staying through to the end despite misgivings.
• She acknowledges that not everyone loved the book, but values the shared journey:

  “Whoever you are, whatever you felt about the book before and now, thank you. Thank you for coming along with me..." (01:30)

2. Recap of the Ending

• The narrative returns to Walton, who grieves Victor’s death and recounts the Monster’s despair and vow to end his own life.
• The final tragedy is highlighted, with the Monster mourning over Victor and then disappearing into the Arctic:

  “The monster's not surprised. He tells Walton that he will now go and kill himself. And he jumps from the ship and he disappears. And that is the end of the book.” (06:30)

3. The Monster: Sympathy vs. Condemnation

Listener Comment (Michelle Staddle, 07:00):
“I’m honestly struggling with why anyone would want to be Team Monster... The creature is 100% responsible for his own actions and gets zero sympathy from me. I honestly do not get why others sympathize with him. He murdered with malice and said he would do so again. I loathe him.”

Faith’s Response:

• Faith pushes back, noting her personal affinity for “monsters” in literature who are tragic rather than purely evil—comparing Frankenstein’s Creature to the Beast in Beauty and the Beast.
• She argues the story’s power comes from the Monster’s tragedy:

  “I think that the tragedy of this story... is that the creature had a beautiful soul. He could have been good. He could have been great. And because of the events of the narrative... he descended... until he was committing acts of atrocity that no one can condone. That’s a tragedy.” (10:10)

• Faith distinguishes the creature from villains who are evil for evil’s sake:

  “He knows that everything he did was wrong. He sees... that he’s allowed himself to wallow in revenge... And I don’t think we or anyone else needs to punish him because he’s on his way to punishing himself.” (13:30)

4. Responsibility and Self-Awareness: Creature vs. Victor

• Faith highlights the Monster’s acceptance of responsibility, contrasting this with Victor’s continual self-absorption:

  “The creature takes responsibility for his actions. He actually always has… He knows that he’s behaving immorally…” (19:30)

• She analyzes their last statements—Victor laments his fate; the Creature laments his choices.

Notable Creature Quotes:

• “In his murder [Victor’s], my crimes are consummated. The miserable series of my being is wound to its close. O Frankenstein, generous and self devoted being, what does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovest?” (21:30)
• “A frightful selfishness hurried me on while my heart was poisoned with remorse… My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy.” (22:00)

5. The Function of the Walton Frame

Listener Question (Nathan Black, 26:10):
“Why did Shelley need Captain Walton at all and start the story with him...?”

Listener Question (Ashley Hadden, 26:45):
“Walton is the captain of this ship and therefore is a sort of father figure to his crew... I love that Victor couldn’t influence him to stay.”

Faith’s Synthesis:

• Walton's character is a foil for Victor—similarly ambitious, but ultimately capable of choosing connection and responsibility over self-glorification:

  “Walton serves the purpose of showing us what really matters, what’s really important, and that is humanity, human connection, care for your fellow man. Exactly the things that the creature was denied.” (33:40)

• She notes that Walton is tempted by Victor’s philosophy but ultimately turns back, sparing his crew:

  “It is terrible to reflect that the lives of all these men are endangered through me... If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause.” (34:00)

• This stands in contrast to Victor, who never meaningfully acts for the sake of others.

6. Naming and Creation: Biblical & Existential Themes

Listener Comment (Marian, 40:15):
“I find it telling that Victor has never named his creation, nor has the monster given himself a name. It’s so much easier to disregard someone whose name we do not know.”

Listener Comment (Lauren Nichols, 40:50):
“Did [Victor] manage to create a being in his own image? Perhaps he did.”

Faith’s Reflection:

• She connects Marian’s comment to biblical motifs of naming and stewardship—observing that the Creature exists outside this framework, making him “no one.”
• Faith emphasizes that Victor’s “playing God” is not just hubristic, but also foundationally incomplete—he forswears all responsibility:

  “No one knows what to do with a being made the way that this being was made... The monster became a monster because of the treatment first of Victor and then of the world.” (42:10)

• The novel’s most interesting question, Faith argues, is not “should we play God?” but:

  “What responsibilities do we have to the beings we create?” (44:30)

7. The Creature’s Own Words: Alienation and Regret

• The Creature’s pain at exclusion and abandonment is made explicit:

  “Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding. ...But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animals.” (46:15) “Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?... Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.” (47:10)

• Faith notes that the creature accepts that he cannot join the human community and turns to self-destruction out of this tragic knowledge:

  “He sees that the only way forward for him is death, and that he must destroy his own body so that no one else can try to make a creature like him. He sees that he is not a thing that ought to exist, even though he wanted so desperately to exist.” (48:00)

8. Final Reflections: Human Community and the Genius of Shelley

• Faith foregrounds Mary Shelley’s own commentary in the 1831 Introduction:

  “Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.” (50:35)

• She concludes the lesson of Frankenstein is not just the horror of playing God, but the tragedy of misdirected creation and denied compassion:

  “It is the genius of this story that the creature Frankenstein creates is not inherently evil... It’s a man, a seemingly, at least at the beginning, good man. ...You are not God. And so the thing that you create cannot be a part of the human community. And the human community is, above all things, what is important. The creature knew that, and we know it too.” (51:00)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On tragedy and monsters:

  “You can love a character like that even as you acknowledge that there’s no happy ending for them and that it was through their own deeds that the happy ending was denied them.” (10:45)

• On accepting responsibility:

  “Victor never really does that. I mean, maybe a little, like, for a second at the end, but then he’s back to not acknowledging it.” (20:00)

• On the meaning of names:

  “It’s so much easier to disregard someone whose name we do not know.” —Marian (40:15)

• On the dangers of creating life:

  “To play God. Right. To think that you know better than the creator of the world will always end in horror.” (51:15)

• On moving forward:

  “Humanity and the human community is exactly what we’re going to celebrate in our Victorian Christmas together. So let’s move on to that.” (52:00)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00-06:30: Introduction, thanks, upcoming Victorian Christmas plans
• 06:30-07:00: Final chapter recap
• 07:00-18:30: Listener comments on the Monster and Faith’s defense
• 19:30-24:00: Differences in responsibility: Victor vs. the Creature
• 26:10-37:00: Why Walton’s frame matters—choices, hubris, and leadership
• 40:15-42:10: The importance of naming, biblical references
• 44:30-51:15: The questions of creation, responsibility, and exclusion
• 51:15-52:00: Mary Shelley’s introduction and thematic conclusion
• 52:00-end: Transition to next season and Halloween send-off

Tone and Language

Faith’s delivery is warm, introspective, and literary—balancing passionate close reading with personal sentiment and regular engagement with her audience’s thoughts. She uses a gentle yet probing style, guiding the listener through deep, sometimes painful themes, always emphasizing the communal nature of the podcast’s journey.

Ending & Bonus Content

Faith closes with Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” (52:30–end), tying its haunting lyricism to the season’s themes of love, loss, and the supernatural—a fitting end to both “spooky season” and the Frankenstein arc.

Summary Takeaway

Faith Moore’s “Frankenstein: The Wrap-Up” serves as a thoughtful meditation on creation, responsibility, and the fundamental need for human connection, exploring why Frankenstein continues to resonate as literature—and why, even in the face of horror, some monsters are still worth weeping for.