Murder is an act that is hated by all cultures, including the culture Mary Shelley lived in when she wrote Frankenstein. However, Shelley frames the violence the monster commits in a way that allows the reader to sympathize with the monster. This monster murders three people and causes the death of three others, but the reader retains sympathy for this monster due to Victor Frankenstein’s fault in the matter, his isolation due to society’s prejudice, and the fact that he begins his life inherently innocent, and repeatedly shows that he’s not just bad, but there’s also a good side to him.…
Mary Shelley’s diction in this passage is meant to exhibit Victor Frankenstein’s joyous eagerness to complete his experiment, but there is a shift from a joyous longing to an ominous regretful tone and implications of an impending doom. The passage begins using words like “exalted” and “determination” with the constant knowing that Victor Frankenstein will “ultimately succeed” with his creation of life. His ambition in completing a living being is meant to distract from the details of Frankenstein’s endeavors which he wishes not to impart due to the disastrous consequences often alluded to. Shelly uses this diction emphasizing Dr. Frankenstein’s want and drive to succeed with his academic endeavor to create life. This allows some insight to…
Mary Shelley is a timeless novelist who is known for her complexity and symbolism. In this passage from her classic novel Frankenstein, Shelley uses several techniques to depict the monsters emotions during his first experiences of life. She uses rhetorical devices such as personification, symbolism, and tone to allow the reader to understand exactly what the monster is feeling.…
The diction used by Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein varies throughout the chapters varying in tone. Chapter five is the beginning of the end of Victor Frankenstein. There he creates the beast which will torment his life forever. The diction used in this chapter is haunting in the sense that it foreshadows the fall of Frankenstein. Shelley describes the newborn creature as “beautiful”, this creates a theme of amazement of what science can do but it quickly shifts. A few sentences later Shelley describes him with a more “horrid contrast” pointing out how hideous the creature is. This foreshadows the grief the beast will encounter due to his physical appearance, that no human being will ever love him. Through Shelley’s use of imagery…
For example, he understands that he only wanted revenge on Victor and he wishes that he had not been created. This can be seen when the creature says, “CURSED, CURSED creator! Why did I live? Why in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence… despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were of those of rage and have revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants…” (97). Therefore, showing that even though he knew that he could have killed the cottagers for rejecting him he realized that it would only be out of revenge and he asks why Victor had not killed him before. Moreover, at the end of the novel the creature's rage and hatred is gone after finding out that Victor has died. The creature tells Walton that he never meant to hurt anyone, he says, “Oh, 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 lovedst.” (163). The creatures asks Victor to forgive him for all the evil he has caused and the torture that he put him through because he feels guilty for all that he has done. This reveals that the creature was a good person even though he had committed murders, because he was able to realize that what he was doing was bad and he went to ask for forgiveness because of the guilt he…
Mary Shelley, the author of the novel Frankenstein, greatly uses various literary devices, such as language, setting, contrast, imagery, description, foreshadowing and in some cases a vague sense of irony, much to her benefit in order to portray a certain hidden meaning to her text. This ‘secret message’, a sense of reality that makes the text come to life, can only be found through analyzing the very words, structure and view point Shelley uses: ‘through reading between the lines’ The purpose of analyzing works such as Frankenstein is not only to discover certain literary devices writers use to enrich their tales, but moreover to understand how the author writes as oppose to what the author writes.…
Mary Shelley’s style in the novel Frankenstein is quite enthralling. Shelley is a very eloquent writer, and she writes with a romantic style. Mary Shelley is highly appealing to her readers’ emotions. The tone in the novel changes throughout, as well as the narrator. Her use of diction, sentence structure, and tone tells the reader multiple things about Mary Shelley herself.…
Today, we all see Frankenstein as a gothic classic written by Mary Shelley. Though that was not the case during the early 1800s. When Frankenstein, a novel that tells the story of a young man that creates a monster from assembling body parts, was anonymously published, many believed that the author of the novel was Percy Bysshe Shelley rather than his wife, Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley, previously Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, was the only daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, two noted writers (Bloom 8). It is fascinating and interesting how we are able to see how Frankenstein was developed through Shelley’s eyes and how her personal experiences have transformed the novel into a gothic classic.…
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is both a critique and an admiration of Romantic beliefs and ideologies. Examples of Romantic Ideologies are present throughout most of the novel, along with both the truthfulness and admiration in such ideals, and the detrimental effects that these ideals impose on society. Mary Shelley uses the story of Frankenstein as a warning of such Romantic Ideals by demonstrating the negative outcomes that have been caused by these ideals. She uses the Romantic idea of an Idyllic childhood, which is represented through the character of Victor Frankenstein and transforms this idea into a warning by making Victor grow into the man who ultimately causes the death of his loved ones. She also uses the Romantic idea of the desire to elevate human beings into living Gods, and the strong belief in fatalism, in which Victor possesses, and incorporates these desires/beliefs into the causes of the detriment caused by Victor's actions. However she uses the idea of the 'noble savage' represented by the character of Frankenstein's creature in admiration and in a sense or truthfulness. Frankenstein is both an admiration and critique of Romantic Ideology in that it both agrees and disagrees with certain Romantic ideals.…
Upon receiving all the books that we had to read during this course, Frankenstein was the one that I was looking most forward to reading. Most horror fiction novels have the same story line with no actual meaning behind the writing, but as I opened this novel and continued to read, I really became interested in the deeper meaning of Frankenstein and I just had to continue reading to find out more. Unlike most horror fiction novels, Frankenstein in my opinion has the ability to keep its readers interested instead of boring them. Mary Shelley used her writing ability to tell a great story that involved the relationship between man and mans creation. A major observation that I made while reading Frankenstein was of all the several themes made throughout the whole entire book. Some themes where obvious, others you really had to think about it. All though many people may think Shelley’s Frankenstein is just another normal horror fiction novel, I believe this novel provides several themes throughout the entire story line because it shows the themes of human injustice towards outsiders, ignorance is bliss, and society’s sexist viewpoints.…
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a novel which forces the reader to question whether it is a simple horror story or whether it is a gothic fairytale of many depths. Frankenstein is considered by many critics as the first modern horror story ever written, and it opened a whole new world of ideas for novels and has inspired many similar works since its publication in 1818. As we see by the prelude, Shelley’s first ambition is to horrify the reader as she describes wanting to ‘awaken thrilling horror - one to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood and quicken the heartbeat.’ This she evidently accomplishes through imagery and intense language, yet during the novel, many other themes are introduced, especially in confronting the problems within society during the 19th century, such as the position of women, and the problems of the legal system, and so it is through the exploration of these other key themes which, for many readers, makes Frankenstein a tale of so much more than a horror. Although Shelley originally wrote her novel as part of a ‘ghost story’ competition amongst friends, it is more complex and deals with greater issues than those of a fictional ghost story. While Frankenstein creates the path for Dracula and other great Gothic novels with the ability to thrill whilst exciting disgust and horror, it also shows much more realistic horrors, which set the path of true terror.…
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, is narrated by three main characters who tell the story of the life of the Creature. Each narrator gives their own aspects as to what makes up Frankenstein as a Gothic novel. Together, the three men’s stories make up an outstanding Gothic novel. A Gothic novel uses supernatural events that are not infrequently explained at some point or another by science, forebodes terror through the use of physical, or even, psychological violence, and explores the nightmares of the reader’s mind.…
The sole purpose of literature is to be interpreted and to convey an artistic view of happenings in the real world with an underlying meaning. Mary Shelley understood this better than any writer. Shelley herself lived a tragic life, but in that life of misery came a masterpiece of literature that would last for two centuries, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. While a good scary tale to read, one cannot help but think about the underlying theme or meaning in the tale. The tale itself follows a mad scientist who is “drunk on knowledge and possibility” (Franklin Web) that created a ‘monster’ that eventually turns on him. When analyzing the tale, the most prominent suggested underlying motif, is the idea that this magnum opus was created to assist with the grief that overwhelmed Shelley, the idea of her loved ones being reanimated, and creating characters to fill in for the lack in her life.…
Surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery there is always a secret waiting to be solved. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, hidden laws of nature unfolds as lives are destroyed when knowledge is acquired and understanding is unstoppable. The mystery , the feeling of terror in the reader, and the supernatural elements are the essential ingredients in Frankenstein.…
One of the many things that sets Frankenstein and Mary Shelley apart from others; is her excellent ability to create a mood. In Frankenstein she creates a mysterious and suspenseful mood that really captures the reader’s attention. In the novel Victor says “It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open;”(Ch. 5,pg 41) this quote from the novel creates a scary and intense mood. Not only does Mary Shelley show her ability to create a mood in Frankenstein, but also in the short story “The Invisible Girl”. The excellent ability of Mary Shelley to create a mood, in a story or novel is one of the many things that make Frankenstein a classic novel.…