“Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts attempts to make their story believable”
In “The Handmaids Tale” Margaret Atwood tends to make her story believable by challenging realistic issues which persist in our society such as the divide between man and women as well as the disunity between social classes. Margaret Atwood also makes her story believable through the theme of dystopia, as people know that the world is not always going to be as it is, it is bound to change so in this way she intrigues many young readers with the interest of what their futures may look like, which makes her story highly believable. In “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley makes her story believable through the use of science vs nature, as her audience
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In “the handmaids tale” Margaret Atwood shows how there is a very strong divide in society when it comes to the roles of men and women, women have no identities they are possessions of their husbands, and are viewed as walking wombs, and within this divide between men and women there is a further divide in social class especially when it comes to women, during the birth scene the wives get provided with a buffet and the handmaids have a glass of milk, the handmaids have a role of providing a couple of a higher hierarchy with a child/children if she does not accomplish her role then she will be viewed as “unwomen” by the other women . in the novel there are a lot of biblical references, and during the ceremony there is an obvious play of words from the bible reference as Gilead wants for people to follow what they think is right, they needed a way to support their actions, just like Margaret Atwood is using biblical references to make her novel more believable as we can link what we are reading to the knowledge that we already have. Similarly, Mary Shelley also uses biblical references in her novel, an example would be of how the monster associates himself to Adam and is asking for an “eve”. This helps to make her story more believable as , as human beings we live to find our other half, we live to be loved and have someone to care for us just like the monster who is currently lonely, this links to Mary Shelley’s target audience of young people of which most have not found their significant other and are at a stage of looking for someone just like the monster, and most people as young adults go through a stage where they too feel isolated from everything and everyone and feel different. Alternatively, there are also people who are like Frankenstein, adventurous and looking to do something that no one has done
Knowledge can be the key to success and can lead people to happier life. However, there are some instances that you can not gain any more knowledge because of how it would change your whole life. The drive of wanting more and more knowledge is best portrayed through two well -known books. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, and in Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, both the creature and Charlie are ostracized by society because they are different from everyone else but this distinction gave way for distinct fallouts because of their quest for knowledge beyond their reach to achieve happiness.
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, a very gory story, can also be seen a romantic piece within having characteristics, such as celebration of the individual, importance of imagination, strong emotions, and an awe of nature. Within the piece there is many references to how one comments on the accomplishments and achievements of another or themselves, also known as the celebration of an individual. An example of how Frankenstein uses the celebrations of individual is when Frankenstein, himself, talks about his achievements of how fast his experiments turned out. He talks about his success, by staying, “ As I applied so closely, it may be easily conceived that my progress was rapid ” (chapter four). By saying, “applied” it shows that he is saying
In the stories Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, there are characters that have similarities, and also share some differences. In the book Frankenstein, the character I chose is the monster, and the character I chose from the book A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Oberon. I chose these individuals because they are both out for revenge, they both are cruel, but they also differ. Their differences are that Oberon has a wife, but the monster does not. The monster was created by Victor Frankenstein, but Oberon was born.
Intro: In the play “the tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” and the story “the handmaids tale” the characters Gertrude and Serena joy share similar characteristics. Gertrude, The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently married Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral truth and Serena Joy: The Commander’s wife who worked in pre-Gilead days as a gospel singer then an anti-feminist activist. In Gilead, she sits at the top of the female social ladder and yet, she lives an unhappy life
Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelley and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, held the firm belief that women were equal to men. As such, it is hard to imagine that the daughter of a prominent women’s right advocate would only portray passive and disposable women in her novel, Frankenstein. Despite this, the story only includes women such as Justine Moritz and Elizabeth Lavenza, “each of whom relies upon male intervention and agency to save them” (Cadwell). While it can be argued that these women were used to show the flaws of misogyny, on the surface they each provide nothing more than character development for the male leads or a means by which to further the plot.
James Whale's Frankenstein is a VERY loose adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. The spirit of the film is preserved in its most basic sense, but the vast majority of the story has been entirely left out, which is unfortunate. The monster, for example, who possesses tremendous intellect in the novel and who goes on an epic quest seeking acceptance into the world in which he was created, has been reduced to little more than a lumbering klutz whose communication is limited to unearthly shrieks and grunts. Boris Karloff was understandably branded with the performance after the film was released, because it was undeniably a spectacular performance, but the monster's character was severely diminished from the novel.
Therefore it’s hard to believe that Shelley, a daughter of one of the leading feminists of the day was responsible for presenting women as the submissive role to their male counterparts. How ironic it is that that she was not subservience to her male counterparts in her own life, because although of her father’s disapproval of her partner Percy Shelley, who was already married and to his pregnant wife. She fled to France with him, and disowned herself from her family.
Frankenstein “supports a patriarchal denial of the value of women and of female sexuality” (Mellor, 356). Mellor’s point is significant here because a woman was devalued if she was not able to produce children or if she showed signs of independence. Mary Shelley’s own mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, defied gender roles and strongly advocated for the freedoms of women. This influence shines through Shelley’s novel as the deaths of the women
As time goes on, many things tend to change, and then they begin to inherit completely different images. Over the years, the character, created by Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s famous novel, has changed dramatically. The monster, regularly called “Frankenstein,” has been featured in numerous films, such as Frankenweenie and Edward Scissorhands. Although, the characters in today’s pop culture and the monster in the well-known 1800’s novel have similarities, they are actually very different. The many similarities and differences range from the character’s physical traits and psychological traits, the character’s persona, and the character’s place in the Gothic style.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, social turmoil after a staged terrorist attack has led to a totalitarian Christian regime. In this dystopian future, the roles of men and women are much different than in today’s society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are unequal because they have no choice about their bodies, their dress, or their relationships.
Within Frankenstein, the level at which a female is portrayed is quite low. Like we have heard in class, women were not necessarily respected as much as men were when the novel was written. Published in 1818 by Mary Shelley, her story tells of the adventure of young Victor Frankenstein and the creation of his creature. Though deep within this narration of Frankenstein’s life, there seems to be an underlying theme seeping through Shelley’s writing. Shelley seems to venture into the idea of feminism and grotesquely show how men are treated much better than women. Her novel includes various concrete examples to support this hypothesis.
...e patriarchy, seeking technology without morality and judgment primarily on appearance, Shelley encourages her reader to reassess the value structures within society, underpinning the way they live, and consider an alternative way of life. Thus, Frankenstein certainly must be considered more than a simple story; it is an important vehicle to present the writer’s themes.
The epigraph in The Handmaid’s Tale amplifies the importance of fertility in Gilead. The quotation at the beginning of the book ‘‘And when Rachel saw the she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Give me children or else I die...And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees,that I may also have children by her.’’ makes it seem that Gilead wants to go back to traditional values, thus manipulates its citizens that their ideology is correct since it corresponds with what the Bible says. Consequently, this state is telling its citizens that a woman’s worthiness only depends if she is able to produce or not. In fact women who are barren, and are not of a high class are sent to the colonies. The handmaids’s only purpose is further amplified through the rights Gilead abolishes; they can not communicate with others, in fact Offred says, ‘How I used to despise such talk. Now I long for it’ and are no longer able to go outside alone or without being spied...
As The Handmaid’s Tale is considered an allegory of the social injustice women face against traditional expectations of their role in society, the symbolism of the Handmaids and other women as a whole for repressed feminine liberty and sexuality allows Atwood to connect her work to the theme between gender and expectations in her society. As Handmaids in the Republic of Gilead, females are stripped of their previous identity and are defined as a tool of reproduction for the men who is assigned them. At its core, these females are forced against their will to be mere tools, experiencing unwanted sex at least once a month, which Gilead names “The Ceremony”, hiding its true nature as a form of rape. Offred
The women in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, first published in 1818, are indirectly represented and are completely passive. They are only seen through the eyes of Shelley’s three male narrators; Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster. They are described in very little detail, which makes them a passive presence and ultimately reduces their importance and direct impact to the readers. According to Lucy Morrison, “Frankenstein depicts women firmly entrenched in the domestic sphere, their focus conventionally invested in children and household, while men are more active, more powerful, and encouraged to study and explore the world” (Morrison in Fisher, 2003: 112). As a result, the women in Frankenstein serve as tools to draw out the