Composed during the Industrial Revolution at a time of increased scientific experimentation, Shelley warns and forebodes her enlightened society of the consequences which come about from playing god. She uses Victor Frankenstein as her platform, whose self-exalting line “many excellent natures would owe their being to me” represents a society engrossed with reanimation. Recurring mythical allusions to Prometheus, “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge” portray Victor as a tragic hero; a noble character whose “fatal flaw” of blind ambition ultimately results in his own downfall and dehumanization, “swallowed up every habit of my nature”. In addition, Victor’s impulsive rejection of his grotesque creation, leads to the Monster’s rebellion (“vowed eternal hated and vengeance to all mankind”).…
In Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein we see not only the internal struggles of both Victor Frankenstein and the Creature he has created,…
In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explores a wide range of themes concerning human nature through the thoughts and actions of two main characters and a host of others. Two themes are at the heart of the story, the most important being creation, but emphasis is also placed on alienation from society. These two themes are relevant even in today's society as technology brings us ever closer to Frankenstein's fictional achievement.…
Shelley’s Gothic novel, Frankenstein, explores the complex nature of mankind by considering the consequences of an unrestricted pursuit of science. A rise in scientific experimentation with Galvanism during Shelley’s time is reflected through the protagonist Victor as he uses it to bestow life. Shelley portrays Victor and the Creature as complex beings, demonstrating both inhuman and human qualities. Despite this, the subsequent rejection by his creator and the De Lacy family drives the Creature to ‘eternal rejection and vengeance of mankind’. Victor’s initial response when meeting the creature, demonstrates his savage, cruel treatment and lack of responsibility towards his creation.…
Imagine a world where you create a being out of disembodied people. A said being that has such a terrifying effect that you are horrified to look at. The main character of the Frankenstein does such thing. The novel Frankenstein is a well known source of literary canon and is worthy of continuous study. Mary Shelley’s Romantic novel, Frankenstein, is worthy of continued study due to its literary canon, achieved through her commentary of men in a State of Nature and their Marxist struggle of power. The Creature who is created by Victor, goes through a journey of self discovery and lets his persona be shaped by outside forces. State of Nature essentially makes him bad, and his Marxist struggle for power over his creator Victor leads to his downfall.…
Both Shelley and Scott scrutinise the importance of humanity’s sense of morality from the perspectives of their relative social and historical contexts and through this, criticise man’s lack of morality due to ambition. In “Frankenstein” the birth of the Creature alludes to the creation of Man, the Creature reaching for Victor’s embrace, inversely mimicking God reaching out to Adam. Instead, Victor’s attitude is reactionary and domineering as he ostracises the Creature and labels him “daemon,” completely disregarding the value of patriarchal responsibility prevalent in Shelley’s era. Contrastingly, the Creature’s equitable nature is portrayed through his employment of logos, “Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you” and is ultimately humanised as he utilises the biblical parallelism of Paradise Lost: “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.” Here, the Creature’s rational statement is juxtaposed with Victor’s use of pest imagery “Begone! Vile insect,” whereby the Creature’s developed sense of morality in comparison to Victor’s tyrannical behaviour reflects Shelley’s concerns of morality deficient humans. Thus, Shelley uses the Creature to comment upon the effects of over-ambition in humans lacking morality.…
Judging others because of appearance is often found in society. This is illustrated in the 18th century novel Frankenstein written in the romantic era by Mary Shelley. The protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, gains sympathy from the reader gradually throughout the horrific tragedies that occur. Victor’s objective is to create life through and inanimate object from his University professors in Ingolstadt. Unfortunately, knowledge is power and is powerful creation turns into a loathsome monster. The monster roams through Europe seeking revenge which leaves Victor in constant fear. The reader develops a sympathy for Victor because he strives to warn society about the horrendous beast that lives, and has good intentions to restore life; however,…
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…
Victor Frankenstein was so distraught over his mother’s death that he became obsessed with the power of creation in his yearning to cheat death. The Narrator, was tranquilized and numbed by modern life and its possessions that he longed to be someone else, someone free of society’s stranglehold’s and the need of possessions.…
The sheer power of words is all too often taken for granted. Albeit an integral part of human life on any scale, we’ve grown so accustomed to having it at our disposal that we forget how much it can accomplish, basic communication aside. Words, when strung together in certain ways, have started wars. Words have spawned enmity, and ended it. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and more specifically the passage specified, words provide a testimony directly from the monster as to the reasoning behind his actions and emotions. Shelley, when writing in the monster’s voice, uses a combination of tone, diction, strategic syntax, and rhetorical devices with the purpose of elucidating to the reader the monster’s intelligence and capacity of rational thought.…
Mary Shelley is an esteemed author known for her works in the horror genre. One of her techniques that she uses in her most famous novel Frankenstein, is parallelism. The point of view in which this story is told is first person from the character Victor Frankenstein. She goes into detail about his childhood his family early on in the book, and it is evident that she uses the same diction to describe both his mother, Caroline Beaufort, and his adopted cousin, Elizabeth Lavenza; this reveals to the audience that even after Victor’s mother’s death, she lives on through Elizabeth. He speaks well of his mother, and the way he was brought up.…
Victor realised that his desire was too great and that selfishness lead to the destruction of his whole life as the creature went on and killed all his loved ones. Victor reached a very low, depressing point in his life as the creature continued to ruin him and he concluded that it was all due to his selfish thirst. Through the psychoanalysis of Victor readers are able to follow his narcissistic characteristics and the destruction his egotistic personality brings. Readers interpret Victor as a selfish, evil character which inflicts self-thought within the reader to analyse their own personality. Victor’s characterisation communicates that having a great id is destructive to not only ones self but others. Characterisation is an element prioritise by the application of a psychoanalytical reading as that reading practice particularly focuses on characters and their intentions. By psychoanalysing Victor Frankenstein a reader interprets him as a selfish despiteful character whose own ego leads him to a downfall. These prompts readers to analyse themselves and are therefore encouraged to become more aware of their superego trait. Readers are able to interpret the text as a warning to selfishness and its…
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein presents suffering through a variety of different mediums, however whether or not that suffering is deserved varies depending on the construction of the character. The novel was written in 1818 in the latter stages of the Gothic literary genre; Shelley incorporates the gothic theme when enabling two types of character – those who are innocent victims and those which are responsible for their own predicament. In creating and then running from his creation, Victor has behaved with culpable irresponsibility, and thus provoked the Creature’s revenge. Victor can therefore be seen as deserving of the suffering brought his way, due to his irreparable damage as a result of his initial neglect of ‘the monster’. Nonetheless, one could deduce that it is the responsibility of the Creature to recognise his own destructive actions.…
One may come to assume that Mary Shelley intended u to derive for her novel a lesson that would be important to everyone's existence. In her tale, Frankenstein, she depicts a monster that is hideous and wretched looking. A monster's whose appearance prohibits anyone from going beyond his exterior qualities to reach his inner ones. The reader is the only one, besides Frankenstein, that Shelley exposes the monster's feelings and emotions to. The other characters shield these emotions from being noticed because they presumed that his appearance told everything about him.…
The concept of the ‘other’ is used by society to separate people into groups using slanted and/or biased standards. In literature, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the act of ‘othering’ is used to explore ideas of class, gender roles, politics, self and social separation. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein’s creation suffers the greatest othering, but this condition can be applied to almost all the characters since they live outside the norm due to familial or societal problems. The monster and the other characters experience similar dilemmas and are forced to live in less-than-ideal worlds of good and evil on the margins of society – some by choice and some by circumstance. Even in their social isolation, they pursue answers to the shared…