The Downfall and Portrayal of Frankenstein's Monster
Frankenstein’s monster demands that Frankenstein creates him a female companion. Frankenstein agrees to this in the hopes that he will be left in peace. However during creation of the female, and the monster watching him work, it dawns on him the reality of the hideous act he is embarking upon. Overcome by the image of the monster and the idea of creating another like him, Frankenstein destroys his work. The monster is distraught over Frankenstein’s actions and explains the misery he has been through whilst perusing him - he explains that he will make Victor pay if he refuses to create him his female mate.
The passage begins with the sentence “The hour of my weakness is past and the period of your power has arrived.” This is an example of the gothic genre and also an example of how Mary Shelley manages to steer away from the classical form of gothic writing, instead placing fear in the human mind via the human psyche.
One feels as though Frankenstein is acting as a slave to the monster in creating him a female. However, he comes to his senses and decides that this had been an ‘hour of weakness’ that must end in juxtaposition with the monster’s power. As the reader one is aware that the monster is capable of murder, and are fearful of Frankenstein’s fate in refusing to continue with the creation of the female companion. Stating that the monster cannot persuade him to create ‘wickedness’, infers that the female companion is something inhuman or unearthly, reinforcing the idea of the unnatural nature of his creation. However on reflection and realisation of the monster’s wickedness Frankenstein ceases the creation and instead to the monsters horror destroys it.
The above passage is an example of embedded narrative. It is in this passage that Victor is speaking in the first person to Walton.
Victor says “should I in cold blood, set loose upon the earth a daemon, whose delight is in death and wretchedness”. The words cold blood, daemon, death
The passage begins with the sentence “The hour of my weakness is past and the period of your power has arrived.” This is an example of the gothic genre and also an example of how Mary Shelley manages to steer away from the classical form of gothic writing, instead placing fear in the human mind via the human psyche.
One feels as though Frankenstein is acting as a slave to the monster in creating him a female. However, he comes to his senses and decides that this had been an ‘hour of weakness’ that must end in juxtaposition with the monster’s power. As the reader one is aware that the monster is capable of murder, and are fearful of Frankenstein’s fate in refusing to continue with the creation of the female companion. Stating that the monster cannot persuade him to create ‘wickedness’, infers that the female companion is something inhuman or unearthly, reinforcing the idea of the unnatural nature of his creation. However on reflection and realisation of the monster’s wickedness Frankenstein ceases the creation and instead to the monsters horror destroys it.
The above passage is an example of embedded narrative. It is in this passage that Victor is speaking in the first person to Walton.
Victor says “should I in cold blood, set loose upon the earth a daemon, whose delight is in death and wretchedness”. The words cold blood, daemon, death
Bibliography: Primary sources Shelley, M (1990) Frankenstein. London: Puffin Classics.