Frankenstein and Female Monster. Victor
Taylor Turntime
Marie F. Leblanc
Frankenstein and the Western Literary Tradition
10 January 2014
Are you a made man?
In Mary Shelley’s (1797-1851) Frankenstein; Or the Modern Prometheus (1818), Victor Frankenstein creates a fiend out the dead body parts. Frankenstein, as a product of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, is obsessed with advancing the cause of science, and in becoming famous and respected."A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption ”(Shelley 48). This modern day Prometheus, succeeds in doing what no man has done before, create life. The man he creates is contrary to what Victor envisioned. “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”(Shelley 51). After his creation comes to life, he refuses to accept his (parental) obligation; he does not care for the fiend, he does not provide it with shelter nor with food or love. He fails to teach and to instruct dismissing a relationship with his creature. Instead, in disgust of what he has done, Victor abandons “the fiend.” The fiend attempts to live a normal life; however, being abandon leaves the monster confused, afraid, left to his own devices, and angry. "'I am
Marie F. Leblanc
Frankenstein and the Western Literary Tradition
10 January 2014
Are you a made man?
In Mary Shelley’s (1797-1851) Frankenstein; Or the Modern Prometheus (1818), Victor Frankenstein creates a fiend out the dead body parts. Frankenstein, as a product of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, is obsessed with advancing the cause of science, and in becoming famous and respected."A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption ”(Shelley 48). This modern day Prometheus, succeeds in doing what no man has done before, create life. The man he creates is contrary to what Victor envisioned. “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”(Shelley 51). After his creation comes to life, he refuses to accept his (parental) obligation; he does not care for the fiend, he does not provide it with shelter nor with food or love. He fails to teach and to instruct dismissing a relationship with his creature. Instead, in disgust of what he has done, Victor abandons “the fiend.” The fiend attempts to live a normal life; however, being abandon leaves the monster confused, afraid, left to his own devices, and angry. "'I am