LITERARY CRITICISM II
EDRIA SANDIKA/MARLIZA YENI
8 MAY 2013
Frankenstein as Anti Hero Character
A women who wrote “Frankenstein” named, Mary Shelley, she was born August 30, 1797, in London, England. Mary Shelley came from a rich literary heritage. She was the daughter of William Godwin, a political theorist, novelist, and publisher. Her ideas to write Frankenstein cameon summer of 1816, Mary and his brother Percy visited the poet Lord Byron at his villa beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Stormy weather finally forced them going indoors, while the other guests read a volume of ghost stories. So there, Mary's story became Frankenstein when she was only 19 years old.Frankenstein was published in 1818, when Mary was 21, and became a huge success. Many people disbelieving that a 19-year-old woman could have written such a horror story. The story starts with the letter of a sailor who had trip to North Pole, in the letter to his sister he was talking about a new friend, who was strange, calm, but had complicated and mysterious life story behind. The man’s name was Victor Frankenstein, Victor told him all of his life story, about his happy childhood, his family, Elizabeth, his best friend Hendry Clerval who taught him about danger and adventure. Victor was a bright student, he loves science, he intends to now about everything, nature,universe , and also the living creature. And his curiousity about human, drove him into his big achievement in his entire of life, his passion, desire, and mind, led him to create a human or worse, we can say it a horrible moster. The figure of Victor Frankenstein is very interesting to be analyzed. Mary created him with amazing personality, which can be categorized as Hero’s trait but through his achievement and fatal flaw, that personality is destroyed by himself, in case here described as “anti-hero”. Focus of analysis is Victor’s characterization in this story, because he passed so many events with up and downs untill
References: Wilfred, Guerrin. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York. Oxford University Press. 1999 Begley, Louis. Defenition of Anti- Hero. 2000 Prince, Gerald. Dictionary of Narratology. Accessed on 7 May 2013 Module on Barthes : On the Five Code. Accessed on 7 May 2013 The Adaptation from the National Library of Medicine."Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature" Retrieved from websites : www.duluth.lib.mn.us