"Frankenstein": Who is the Monster?

It is common knowledge that the riveting and terrifying novel "Frankenstein", by Mary Shelley, is the mother of the monster many people see adorning the walls and windows of the homes decorated for Halloween.  However, that astonishing piece of literary brilliance and pop culture's ideas of "Frankenstein" are as different in details as night and day. A young child could point to and identify the media's perception of the monster: a tall and bulky creature, with pale green skin, typically black hair, a very pronounced brow bone, and metal bolts protruding from either the neck or the forehead. That same child would name the previously described creature as "Frankenstein". This is a common misconception, bred through children's movies and television shows; the beast in the novel is so horrific that it never receives the grace of a name.  The confusion stems from the name of the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein. He is oftentimes seen in pop culture as a mad scientist, with gray hair standing on its ends as if he had been electrocuted. He is portrayed as someone diabolical with the intent of creating a monster to terrorize the world. In the novel Frankenstein is kind, intelligent, tranquil, and very ambitious, but not in an insane way. He creates the monster in an attempt to further scientific knowledge and place himself within the leagues of respected scientists of his time. When he realizes the atrocity he unknowingly gave birth to, he flees in terror and then falls ill due to depression and remorse. The novel never mentions the actual scientific reasoning behind the monster's spark of life, as Frankenstein refuses to repeat it in fear someone trying to recreate his hideous experiment. It does make reference to the power of electricity and a massive lightning bolt that destroyed a tree in Frankenstein's yard, which is where I assume the media took the idea of the monster being born through lightning. The monster the media names "Frankenstein" is known to be slow, dull witted and has difficulty moving the limbs that were strung together for him. The monster in the novel is intelligent, agile and has a depth of feelings equal to man. The creature teaches himself to speak and comprehend the humans he is surrounded by because of his deep desire to fit in amongst them. He is constantly faced with prejudice and fear at every attempt to assimilate himself into the society of man, and feels completely abandoned by his creator. This steers him towards violence and aggression, and he vows to destroy all those that mean something to his creator because he does not have anyone in his life to value and respect him. The media's monster is something that seems fragile in form and easy to constrain and deal with. However, in the novel the monster was created from carefully selected body parts and joints, making him stronger and faster than a human. His cadaver skin allows him to survive in extremely cold environments and he does not require as much sustenance as man for survival. He is truly a threat and a fiendish creature to be feared, unlike the dimwitted and friendly creature the media constructed for children. The media intended to make the monster into a passive and likable creature for children to dress up as for Halloween, that is why the name of the creator was given to the monster. "Frankenstein", due to pop culture, will forever be seen as the green, misunderstood monster, instead of the creator of a creature so dreadfully heinous that he could not even bring himself to name it.