Essay 3

English Essay Shelley shows the creature to be monstrous due to society and due to the failure of his creature, Frankenstein. This relates to the views of society in the 1800’s. People believed those who had a beautiful exterior had a good soul within. However, Shelley can be seen as mocking this as her character Frankenstein can be interpreted as monstrous also. Throughout the novel Frankenstein’s character refers to the sublime, he describes the ‘magnificent’ scenes that are ‘awful and majestic’. This shows the idea of the natural world being, although awe inspiring also dangerous. This shows Shelley’s view that humanity thrives on nature. This is reflected as Frankenstein’s soul due to nature ‘gave wings’ giving the idea of something angelic and divine and that nature can cure. The healing affect is also shown as Frankenstein describes nature as causing him to ‘forget the passing cares of life’. Showing nature as calm, healing affect on humanity. This can be compared to the creature who uses nature, the ‘dreary glaciers’, as his ‘refuge’. The creature shows how nature is kinder to his existence than Frankenstein’s ‘fellow beings’. This shows that Frankenstein and the creature are similar to each other, and are infact a “doppelganger”. This is a typical device for a Gothic novel. Both Frankenstein and the creature went to the ‘glaciers’ in order to feel peace and recover from society. Society and its corruption is an important theme throughout Shelley’s novel. Shelley shows the idea that societies corruption lead to the monstrosity of the creature. The creature describes how he ‘was benevolent’ but now because humanity ‘spurn and hate’ him he has turned to acts of evil. Shelley is showing how all humans start out good and Shelley alludes to the fact the creature is human. The creater’s corruption is also shown though Frankenstein’s abandonment of his ‘duty’ towards the creature. Frankenstein’s want to ‘extinguish the spark’ with which he created shows a