While all texts originate from the imagination of their composer, they also explore and address the issues of their contexts. This is clearly the case with Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) which draws upon galvanism and the industrial movement and Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner (1992) which has been heavily influenced by Thatcherism and Reagonomics. Despite there being over 150 years between their compositions both these texts explore several common themes such as mankind’s loss of humanity and man attempting to play God. Through the exploration of these common thematic concerns and the universal depiction of protagonists and societies obsessed with the Machiavellian pursuit of science and technology, these texts build upon each other’s warnings to humanity and ultimately become linked through time. The common thematic concerns of these texts are explored through the use of camera angles, imagery and metaphors.…
The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, both adhere to the Shakespearean view of tragedy. They contain elements of the supernatural and use literary devices like Nemesis & Pathos. We see the passion & ambition of characters, ultimately leading to their tragic flaw. But in both cases, not every character is deserving of his/her fate.…
The year 1996 in The town of Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia, A 28 year old man named Martin Bryant started a killing spree. The massacre ended with the death of 35 men, women, and children, and 18 more severely wounded. Society is easy to blame at first glance, though there are always more complex issues at play. Martin Bryant was born into a fairly good family, unfortunately their parenting style soon became a struggle of trying to force Martin to be “normal”. Martin Bryant is proof that Society did not cause Frankenstein's creature to become a monster, it was his lack of an upbringing that caused him to kill.…
Gene Wilder as the young Frankenstein is lovable if you love stupid. It is a funny movie with a happy ending while Marry Shelly’s book is a horror story with a horrible ending. It is the first movie I remember watching while hiding behind my grandfather’s chair. It scared me to death. That was the safest spot in the house. Sarah Martin points out in her article in St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture that what they have in common is the theme of loneliness. In Marry Shelly’s book, loneliness consumes not only the monster, but Victor, Walton, Elizabeth, and Victor’s family also. The monster cannot have friends because of his appearance while Victor is so obsessed with his work that he pushes people away and becomes lonely. Martin says that loneliness is a theme of the movie, Young Frankenstein, also. The monster goes about in the human world trying to…
In both novels, the main characters are totally rejected by those around them. This is made evident when the monster simply tries to make friends in the cabin and is instead greeted with screams of terror. No one wants to give him a chance because of his physical appearance. This quickly begins to take a toll on the monster as he becomes more and more…
THESIS: In both Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies, characters with similar personalities living in comparable environments often play similar roles, which in effect, develop their story’s plotline.…
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and John Milton’s Paradise Lost have many similarities. This may be due to Mary taking influences from Paradise Lost to add to her story. Paradise Lost is the same as Frankenstein in design by defining man’s place in the universe. They both describe the forces that threaten humankind.…
How are monsters created? The question whether people are born evil or are transformed has been around forever. The Creature from Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, and Grendel from Grendel, written by John Gardner, had similar situations. Grendel was a beast who had no communication with humans or any other living creature. He could understand the humans, but they could not understand him. He could not even communicate with his mom because she had forgotten the language long ago. He was isolated from the world and changed because of the occurrences and harm the humans caused him physically and emotionally. The Creature was created by Victor Frankenstein, a driving scientist set on bringing the Creature alive. After successfully completing his experiment Victor was disgusted by him and could not look at his horrifying creation. He abandoned the Creature and left him for dead. The Creature later goes on to be harmed and rejected by many humans and is left to fend for himself in the cruel world. John Locke argues that an individual's mind is a blank slate, without rules for processing…
The Romantic era took place throughout the 19th century and held the belief that men demonstrate innate goodness, but civilization later corrupts them. Even in today’s society, many political figures, authors, celebrities, and athletes reinforce the Romantic idea of the natural goodness of man and the corruption of man by civilization as they initially exhibit pure values that succumb to the temptations civilization provides. Literature also reflects the belief of the innate goodness of man and the corruption of man by society. For example, Mary Shelley, entails these Romantic beliefs in her novel Frankenstein, in which both Victor Frankenstein and the Creature are born innately good but society later corrupts them. Victor’s,…
When we hear the word ‘monster’ or ‘creature’ the first thing usually comes to mind might be a brainless being that serves no purpose in this world rather to destroy our society. We soon find that to be very misleading in which bother characters in the novel Grendel and Frankenstein provide evidence that no only are they aware of their own selves but of the corrupted world that we live in. Grendel in the novel is very similar to the monster in Frankenstein because both characters are aware of their isolated selves, realize their destruction capabilities, and comprehend the grotesque appearances that they both obtain.…
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and the monster that he creates are very similar. Frankenstein being a great man had his wants and needs even though he studied things that people thought to be ungodly and just wrong. Frankenstein creates the monster to be like himself although the monster has super human strength and is almost eight feet tall. Victor worked very hard trying to create the monster not noticing that he was creating the monster in his image.…
The main difference I noticed from my first time viewing was the drama throughout the scene in the film, and lack of description, where as it is the opposite in the novel. The film adaptation has twists and turns and added small changes here and there to keep the audience interested, where as the actual novel focuses mainly on the descriptive aspects on the creature. Shelley has Dr. Frankenstein giving every detail of the creation from his “yellow skin” to his “shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”. In the film, we have Branagh running around in his great fitness, swinging this great metal tub around his lab, with electric eels and loud, sharp music. It is focused on the appearance and drama, more so than the description.…
When referring to the following quote stated by Harold Bloom, “The greatest paradox and most astonishing achievement of Mary Shelley’s novel is that the monster is more human than his creator.” I agree with his statement because it’s vivid to see that Victor lacked on some human characteristics such as emotions and feelings.…
Now in Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein created a monster. Well when Frankenstein created this monster he abandoned it. He left it after he say the creation for the first time. Victor never even gave him a chance to be taught the ways of life. After Victor ran away the creation became upset and confused, he did not know that…
The monster is lonely, largely misunderstood and sympathetic character. The monster is abandoned by his creator Victor the only father figure the monster had. The monster is shocked by the horrified reaction he got from people regarding his appearance that he turns against his creator. The monsters experience is that people associates his deformed appearance with evilness. "As I fixed my eyes on the child, I saw . . . divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and affright."…