Preview

English Paper: Rhetorical Analysis of Frankenstein

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
811 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
English Paper: Rhetorical Analysis of Frankenstein
Mary Shelley makes us question who really the “monster” is. Is it the creature or Victor? While the creature does commit murder, he does not understand the consequences of his actions. He is like an infant who is unfortunately left to learn about the workings of society, and his place in it, on his own. He has no companions and feels a great sense of loneliness and abandonment. The creature voices his frustration and anger and seems to try to project his feelings of guilt onto Victor, as if to show him that he is the ultimate cause of the creature’s misery while he is simply the victim of Victor’s manic impulse. Shelley utilizes words, phrases, and specific tones when the creature vents his misery to Victor and this evokes, amongst the readers, a feeling of empathy towards the creature and makes us call into question our definitions of what monstrosity really is.
The creature is miserable and hurt and this can be seen through the way he speaks to Victor. The creature wonders “why did [he] live?” and why “in that instant, did [he] not extinguish the spark of existence” (160) which Victor had bequeathed upon him. The creature’s tone exemplifies his rage about his existence and how he really wishes he could simply perish and not have to live with this life that Victor has given him. By addressing his creator, in this way, the creature seems to be trying to put the blame of his cursed and wretched life upon Victor. This makes the reader wonder as to who really is the monster in this novel: Victor or the creature? The creature’s tone almost seems filled with desperation and almost like a plea to get Victor to see what a dismal life he has led so far and that he too desires love and companionship.
Similarly, the creature tells Victor that “[he] is malicious because [he] is miserable that that he is “shunned and hated by all mankind” (169). It seems that the creature is trying to impose guilt on Victor, so that he can take pity on the creature and ultimately bestow him



Cited: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Macdonald and Scherf. Toronto: Broadview Literary Texts, 1999. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The text finally uses the interaction between Victor and the Monster to display the similarities of their misfortunes, but then completely contrasts the two characters, leading readers to create a larger conclusion about the text. At the end of the Monster’s life story he demands a companion emphasizing Victor’s role in his misfortunes: “Instead of threatening, I am contest to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph… and would not call it murder” (104). The texts ironically portrays the Monster as the responsible figure attempting to change his future contrasting him to the human who refuses to participate in a self-determined change of fate. Due to the fact that the Monster is dependent on a human creator, no decision he makes can ultimately change the fate of his misfortune. Victor on the other hand not only has the choice of the Monster’s happiness in his hands, but also his own fate. By displaying the Monsters inability to change his destiny, the text emphasizes the…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The creature was left to die when created and had no one that loved him. Humans would run at the sight of him or try to hurt him. Even though the creature only wants companionship with other human beings. “ he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired.” (Shelly 108). The creature saves a little girl from drowning and yet her father rewards him with a bullet. Another difference is that Victor has everyone in his life yet values none of them while the creature has no one in his life, but values everyone. “Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance.” (Shelley 111). The creature just wants to be accepted by society. However, another similarity between the two is that they are both very intelligent. Except, Victor attend Ingolstadt and the creature had no background of…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor’s rejection and abandonment of the creature and many other people’s subsequent rejection of the creature, based on appearance, reminds the reader of how society (both in Shelley’s era and in the modern day), can and do reject those who are different and Shelley cultivates more sympathy from the reader this way. Frankenstein has had love and support from family all his life, by showing us Frankenstein’s childhood and then showing us his acts toward the creature readers are positioned to think of how callous, selfish and awful Frankenstein is as he rejects the creature and does not deem him worthy. Frankenstein tells the readers of his charmed childhood and because of this the reader thinks he’s a decent man, you also admire how he loves…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor still wants to go on killing the monster, even on his deathbed. When talking to Walton, he tells him, “You may give up our purpose, but mine is assigned to me by heaven, and I dare not” (Shelley 161). No matter what, Victor wants the monster dead and he wants to do it. However, upon learning of Victor’s death, the creature is very upset and ultimately decides to kill himself. He knows that without Victor he has nothing left to live for and is worthless. He says, “If thou wert yet alive and yet cherished a desire of revenge against me, it would be better satiated in my life than in my destruction” (Shelley 166). Even though the creature spent his life taunting and chasing Victor, it was his fate, and he has no purpose in life now that the other half of him is gone…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Foil Essay: Frankenstien

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout the novel, The Monster is characterized as a sensitive being; he wants to be loved and resents the fact that he was rejected by Frankenstein. As he gains knowledge and begins to grow more intelligent, The Monster comes to the realization that Victor abandoned him, that he is unwanted. This frustrates him as he continually gets rejected by society. Although Victor seems to think very highly of himself, The Monster has a very low self-esteem, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on” (pg #), which stems from his rejection by both Victor and society as a whole. This character trait of The Monster makes the sort of selfishness of Victor, as it shows that, in his search for fame and glory, he was uncaring of the consequences. In creating The Monster, Victor’s intentions were not what they should have been; instead of trying to create life in order to make the world better, he was doing is for the sole purpose of becoming a God-like person. His God-complex is apparent in other parts of the novel as well, when he meets The Monster in the mountains and they have a conversation about Victor’s want to destroy The…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    And his creator left him. How was he too, know right from wrong if everyone he tried to accompany beat him, yelled and screamed at the moment they see him. (2)Victor and the Creature do go through experiences that make their characters sympathetic. But their lack of human connections and inability to recognize the error of their ways prevents them from truly gaining sympathy. (2)…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Some strategies Shelley uses to make this story is the theme of death and anticipation. She uses death as a horror theme by making it very persistent and making the reader feels the pain and struggle of Victor as he watches his family die off all because of the monster he created. Shelley goes beyond the usual horror story elements by making the story more personal. Since Victor created the monster, arguably, it’s his fault that the monster started its killing rampage. Mary Shelley does a good job at using different techniques of giving the story a “horror story” feel.…

    • 982 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, secretly blames Victor throughout the course of the novel as the cause of his own suffering and pain. Victor ultimately is the one and only monster within the novel because of relationship that has built between him and the monster. Victor Frankenstein has created a monster that throughout the novel harms him because of his lack of responsibility and selfishness. The monster commits a number of different crimes which in return causes Victor to view him as the true monster however if Victor wasn’t so self- concerned with achieving his own goals, he would have seen the negative effects of the way he treated the monster earlier then he did.…

    • 1761 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor’s first reaction to the Creature is to abandon it, and like children that are abandoned, this turns the Creature violent. When the Creature awakes Victor in chapter 5 a “grin wrinkled his cheeks.” The Creature then outreaches his hand as if asking for love and companionship but victor thinks the Creature is trying to detain him and flees. Later as the Creature stumbles upon the cottage of villagers he recalls, “I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, can done of the women fainted… some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country…” The creature immediately after conveys he “lay down happy to have found a shelter, however miserable… from the barbarity of man.” This shows how the Creature is rejected by all people which lead to his violence.…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    After Victor abandons the creature, creature was left vulnerable causing mental and physical pain. While he was helpless, he traveled to the town for help, however, when he got to the town, he was an unwelcomed visitor, “I entered; but I had hardly placed my foot within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons” (Frankenstein, p.83). The creature was unwelcome because not only by his appearance, but no one was there beside the creature to justify that although the creature’s appearance isn’t pleasant, creature does no harm. If Victor had the took the responsibility, he could have justified and defended creature but due to his irresponsibility, the creature had to be subjected to humiliation every time he encounters…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    student

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The creature wants Victor’s attention and wants victor to take responsibility for him and take care of him. After the creature was ignored by Victor the first time he saw him, the creature confronts victor “yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me,...do your duty towards me and i will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. if you comply with my conditions, i will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, i will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends” (pages 95-96). This shows that the creature wants Victor to be his father and take care of him because he is the one that created him and if Victor is…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both Victor’s self-serving attitude and ego shines through when he is more concerned for his own life, than the life of Justine’s, when he condescendingly states, “… I have confessed myself guilty of the crimes ascribed to Justine, but such a declaration would have been considered the ravings of a madman” (Shelley 66) Victor also shows no consideration in hiding his contempt for the Creature, and the Creature becomes painfully aware of his creator’s feelings towards him. Even when the Creature had begged Victor for a female companion, in return promising to never harm mankind again, Victor still destroyed the female counterpart to save his own skin, and to deny the Creature the right of companionship. This shows not only the level of Victor’s narcissism, but also shows the pinnacle of his character and moral deterioration, which eventually leads to the demise of himself and…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This quotes shows the monster intent for revenge. The monster will not be satisfied till he killed off everyone Victor loves. The monster already has killed so many people. He needs to learn to forgive Victor and stray away from his evil…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alone and rejected by his father figure Victor, but he has no one else is willing to except him, “The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no more” (Chapter 24, pg. 232). The creature has tried many times to be a part of the human race and show them that he is not bad, but no one will listen. Victor only admits at the end that the creature was all his fault a never should have been created. “In a fit of enthusiastic madness, I created a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being . . . I refused, and I did right in refusing, to create a companion for the first creature. He showed unparalleled malignity and selfishness in evil; he destroyed my friends . . . Miserable himself that he may render no other wretched, he ought to die. The task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed” (Chapter 24, pg. 199-200). All Victor did was put the creature in a place where he should not have been in. Now the creature will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice by the following crowd and victor for something the creature never wanted to happen in the first place.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The monster was rejected by society because of appearances, and that led the monster to harsh revenge measures. For instance, Victor demolished the only opportunity of the monster having a companion; therefore, the monster became resentful towards all mankind. The new being simply desired acquaintances to learn and have fun with, but the population denied him his only wish. The creature had all the correct reasons to take drastic measures in taking revenge. Accordingly, the reader can conclude that it is wrong to judge a person based on…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays