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Critical analysis essays of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Critical review of Frankenstein
Review of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
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The repercussions of treating sentient life as monsters or miscreation’s is disastrous. When non-human conscious life is created it is easier to treat these creations as outsiders rather than accepting them. There are two stories that show this clearly. The novel Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly and the film Ex Machina by Alex Garland. When self-conscious life is created it must be treated as such. In Frankenstein, everyone treats Victor’s creation like a monster including Frankenstein himself. This leads to the creation accepting that title and going on a murder spree. His creation says “When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation” (69). Victor’s creation shows that If this was unknown, they would be able to coexist with us. Ava is treated as a machine and Victor’s creation was treated as a monster. Ava was imprisoned and given the appearance of a machine. Because of this she was given no option but escape. She picked off the only people with the knowledge of her robotic origins and disguised herself as one of us so she could live her life as a human. Victor explains that his creation’s “gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to whom I had given life” (55). Victor without communicating to his creation decides that it is a monster. If the creator of this being is disgusted by it then it is easy to assume everyone else would come to the same conclusion. When Victor’s enters a town “The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons” (82). The village people treat the creation as their enemy not because of his actions but because of his appearance, which he has no control of. Because of their origin and appearance, Ava and the creation are treated as outsiders. When self-conscious life is created it must be treated as such. The novel Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly and the film Ex Machina by Alex Garland are two stories that
He toils endlessly in alchemy, spending years alone, tinkering. However, once the Creature is brought to life, Frankenstein is no longer proud of his creation. In fact, he’s appalled by what he’s made and as a result, Frankenstein lives in a perpetual state of unease as the Creature kills those that he loves and terrorizes him. Victor has realized the consequences of playing god. There is irony in Frankenstein’s development, as realized in Victor’s desire to destroy his creation. Frankenstein had spent so much effort to be above human, but his efforts caused him immediate regret and a lifetime of suffering. Victor, if he had known the consequences of what he’s done, would have likely not been driven by his desire to become better than
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
In response to the monster’s patient, rational inquiry, Victor exclaims, “Shall I create another like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the world. Begone!” (130) In this senseless refusal of a sincere request, Victor proves once and for all that his true feelings for the monster are those of unjustified hatred and scorn. He has no basis for these feelings other than that of his undying prejudice against the monster. As a result of the opposing emotions illustrated by maker and creation, both are in constant conflict with each other and therefore can never live in harmony.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, produces a monster and instead of teaching his monster the mannerisms and norms of society, he abandons him. Victor expects his monster to make it in the harsh, critical society without being taught correct demeanors because he believes that having correct mannerisms is intuitive. A common viewpoint of the book is that Frankenstein’s monster should receive the blame, because he should have had proper nature, but in reality, society nurtured him to act out. Victor isolated the monster, and other members of society followed in Victor’s example and also treated him as so; which made the creature’s actions monstrous. Frankenstein played God, causing society to view his creature as a monster and as a risk to the public, but Frankenstein did not intend to create the monster as dangerous in nature; society nurtured him to act as a beast.
Throughout Frankenstein Shelley and Brannagh have shown how society will treat individual if they don’t fit in. Society only accepts people to be human if they are of an attractive physical appearance, similar genetic traits and emotions, meaning those who don’t fit in this category are immediately judged to be a ‘monster’. From the moment the creature was created he was rejected, by his ‘father’ and by society. Victor Frankenstein left the creature hanging from the chains. Although he escaped the chains, society acted inhumanly towards him, assuming he was truly a
As soon as the creature came into existence, he was immediately rejected by Victor, destining him for a life of desolation and revealing the carelessness of Victor. The appearance of the creature was the only factor that Victor was taking into account. His first moment of
Although, the monster would not have lived if it were not for Victor, it is Victor’s folly in creating and then abandoning the creation that led him to be homicidal. The creation longs for his creator to love him, or at least to show some affection or acceptance of his existence. Victor’s complete rejection of his creation is so hurtful, that the monster swears, “I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my archenemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth."
Frankenstein is a lonely creature isolated from society because of his looks. His request for a mate for Victor to create is a reasonable request. I believe that it is a reasonable request because it would give him someone in the world with whom he could bond and relate to this is something that everyone needs. The request for a mate would help Frankenstein feel less isolated and give him someone that could be a friend. In the book Frankenstein goes through so many hardships alone because of how he looks. His goal though this though seems to be that he wants companionship which if another was created like him it would give him what he wants.
Victor’s curiosity led him to create something unnatural to the world his passion for the world unknown created something that would be uncertain. It was not the creatures fault about being made he does not know what is wrong. But his actions have been perceived as horrid and now learning from everything that he has done he is responsible for the actions that he done. In the article “Who is the real monster” it states that, in most people’s mind today, there seems to be no question who the monster is in Frankenstein. It is the creature that Frankenstein has created, that has already murdered an innocent kid. However, looking beyond the outer appearance of the monster, it seems evident that what he began as was not a monster. Instead it was the extreme misconceptions of humans, resulting in extreme isolation of the creature that caused him to become a monster. The
Separating what is natural and unnatural, Frankenstein and his creature both walk the line (SP12). Their actions at times reflect those of a normal being that craves to strive and fit in with the world, but they also take turns falling into a mindset beyond humanity. Pushing the boundaries into new frontiers is not always a positive thing. Ethical codes of humans separate themselves from the barbaric ways on animals and also from the ideas of creation. A line must be drawn to separate man from beast, and man from god in order to preserve the natural order of things so that humanity can retain what it has without reaching too far and losing it all.
As such, the problem society has with evaluating character stems from allowing emotion or pure analysis to guide an impression instead of combining the two (Bissonette, 109-110). In order to fix this problem, a conscious effort must be taken in evaluating characters. As with the example of Frankenstein, the beast is initially brought to this life without his consent and then left to die on his own by his creator (Shelley, 51). Considering ethics, it is unethical what Victor Frankenstein did. He defied nature and brought to life an abomination without considering the consequences of his actions. However, this does not mean the creature deserves to be considered an abomination because of its frightful origin. Those who use solely analysis to view character need to stop and evaluate the situation from an ethical and emotional standpoint. The creature could not control his bring of existence into this life, his looks, or his abandonment. As such, he is like a deformed child brought into this world that is immediately abandoned. The child has committed no wrong and deserves no mistreatment as such. It is the parents who were not ready to take care of the child that preformed an unethical act. Yet, those who view the monster using on the analytical approach place all of Victor’s unethical actions upon the monster as he was the
By means of looking at different representations of monstrosity we find how two different characters are effected by their surroundings and how their dissimilarity in nature has caused others to isolate or lower them in society. With this, we discover what monstrosity suggests about the human condition and how a living thing that does not relate closely to what is essentially “human” is seen as unnatural and
The misdeed that is executed by scientifically creating a life is shown in the graphic novel Frankenstein. For example, “...One of the books was Paradise Lost. I read it as a true history. I was like Adam. I was not linked to anybody else, like him; but he was happy, and I was miserable” (Pg 69, Frankenstein). This reveals the monsters’ exact feelings at the particular time. He is informing Victor that he is lost because he is linked to no one, and he is unhappy.
However repugnant he was on the outside, when Frankenstein’s creature begins to tell his tale of sorrow and rejection the creature does not seem to be monstrous. Although rejected multiple times by the humans around him when he finds a family in poverty and “suffering the pangs ...
If not, elsewhere they meet with charity.The main character of this gothic, the titular “Frankenstein”, is Victor Frankenstein. In Shelley’s era, “Franken”, was a word meaning a builder or creator of some sort. This caused, Victor, as the doctor prefers, to become adept in piercing persistence, his most conspicuous quality. A lot of phenomenons that his creation, Frankenstein, creates are blatantly defeated by his unprovoked and often never ending persistence. The actual evidence of Victor’s persistence is known at the beginning letters of the book read by Robert Walton. The letters, show the settings of the ice caps in the arctic where Victor says he has chased the monster to. As Walton writes, we find out