Symbolism in Frankenstein
Symbolism in "Frankenstein"
A romantic life full of pain and abandonment could only be given the monstrous form of "Frankenstein." Mary Shelley 's life gave birth to an imaginary victim full of misery and loneliness and placed him as the protagonist of one of her most famous and greatest works of art. As most people would assume, he is not just a fictional character, but in fact a creature who desperately demonstrates Shelley 's tragedies and losses during the age of the Romantic Era. Since Mary Shelley 's birth there have been numerous losses in her life. One extremely dominating event in Shelley 's life was the death of her mother. Soon after, her father remarried and Shelley entered a battle as the victim of a fight for love. In her novel the emphasis of isolation and rejection are demonstrated through the monster.
What is most significant is the abandonment the monster feels throughout the story. He expresses it by telling Walton "...I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (184). He claims he is the victim of his wrongdoing and affirms: "You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in detail which he gave you of them, he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured, wasting in impotent passions" (183). He then goes on to express his feelings of guilt and hideousness because after all, the beast is supersensitive. "But it is true that I am a wretch, I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. There he lies, white and cold in death. You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself. I look on the hands which
A romantic life full of pain and abandonment could only be given the monstrous form of "Frankenstein." Mary Shelley 's life gave birth to an imaginary victim full of misery and loneliness and placed him as the protagonist of one of her most famous and greatest works of art. As most people would assume, he is not just a fictional character, but in fact a creature who desperately demonstrates Shelley 's tragedies and losses during the age of the Romantic Era. Since Mary Shelley 's birth there have been numerous losses in her life. One extremely dominating event in Shelley 's life was the death of her mother. Soon after, her father remarried and Shelley entered a battle as the victim of a fight for love. In her novel the emphasis of isolation and rejection are demonstrated through the monster.
What is most significant is the abandonment the monster feels throughout the story. He expresses it by telling Walton "...I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (184). He claims he is the victim of his wrongdoing and affirms: "You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in detail which he gave you of them, he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured, wasting in impotent passions" (183). He then goes on to express his feelings of guilt and hideousness because after all, the beast is supersensitive. "But it is true that I am a wretch, I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. There he lies, white and cold in death. You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself. I look on the hands which