Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
In the Gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley integrates the rhetorical devices figurative language, imagery, and tone to impart the concept that the desire to acquire knowledge and emulate God will ultimately result in chaos and havoc that exceeds the boundaries of human restraint.
I. Life of Mary Shelley / Characteristics of Gothic Literature
A. Life of Mary Shelley
1. Eleven days after Mary Shelley’s birth, her mother, the famed author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, succumbed to puerperal fever, leaving her [Mary Shelley’s] father, William Godwin, bereft of his beloved companion. In her honor, Godwin puts together a loving tribute entitled Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a sensitive and factual account of his deceased wife’s life.
2. The relationship between Mary Shelley and her stepmother was strained. The new Mrs. Godwin provoked Shelley’s ire by encroaching upon her privacy. In addition, she resented Mary’s passionate affection for her father and was envious of the interest showed by visitors in the two radical thinkers of the day.
3. Death revolved around Mary Shelley’s life. Her first child was born prematurely and survived for only eleven days; her second child died of malaria; the next child succumbed to dysentery after sustaining life for about a year; and her sister Fanny committed suicide.
4. Mary Shelley was denounced by her beloved father; who thought that she “had been guilty of a crime.” Shelley, who was seventeen at the time, was not yet a wife and no longer a mother. She felt insecure and was dependent on her future husband Per Shelley for emotional support and familial commitment.
5. Shelley suffered her greatest loss in 1822, the death of Percy Shelley by drowning. Percy’s sudden death left Mary in a psychological turmoil, with feelings of “...
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...rees with the concept that knowledge can threaten the balance in the system of the earth if it becomes too overreaching. Levine uses the law of entropy in order to apply it to the system of the earth and describes how new energy generated will be less than the energy used at creation – which will ultimately result in imbalance in the system. What he means is that if a new monster that is created is stronger than humans in every physical trait, it will lead to disorder upon the earth because this if this monster cannot be controlled, then he will wreak chaos.
IV. Conclusion
A. The acquirement of knowledge can result in devastating effects if it is overreaching.
B. The author uses various rhetorical devices to convey this concept.
C. Frankenstein serves as a model of Gothic literature by employing various themes that are prevalent in most Gothic literature.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.
Mary Shelley was the second wife of famous English poet Percey Shelley. She had three children during her lifetime, but only one survived birth. Her most famous work was this novel, Frankenstein; it was not until long after she was dead that she received any real credit for her other novels.
Using gothic conventions Frankenstein explores Mary Shelley’s personal views on the scientific developments, moral and economical issues that occurred during the 19th century and Shelley’s personal emotions and questions regarding her life. As an educated person, Mary Shelley had an interest in the development of the world such as political and moral issues and she challenged these issues in the novel.
Shelley’s mother died eleven days after Mary was born ( Britton 4). Like Mary Shelley, the monster was born motherless, and this deeply affected him. The monster proclaimed, “no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses” (Shelley 86). Just as the monster longed for a family connection, so did Shelley. Barbara D’amato wrote, “The unconscious conflicts and psychic experiences of loss and of longing for connection are captured and revealed in the orphaned character of Mary Shelley’s fictional story, Frankenstein (118). Shelley and the monster also share the struggle of feeling abandoned and hated by their fathers. Shelley’s father abandoned her twice during her life. The first time was when Shelley was a young child. Shelley believed that her stepmother was interfering with Shelley’s and her father’s relationship, and this jealousy caused conflict between the family members. Shelley’s father later sent her to live somewhere else. When Shelley was older, her father disapproved of her decision to elope with Percy Shelley which resulted in him disowning Mary. This abandonment left Shelley with the feeling that there was something terribly wrong with her (D’Amato 126). The monster was also abandoned by Frankenstein, or the man that can be considered his father. The monster explained to Frankenstein why he had become the violent being that he was, when he told Victor, “Believe me Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone?” (Shelley
Shelley’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the very first women to champion equal rights. After her mother’s success with feminism, eventually freedom for women had enabled her to gain authority to her own novel and she was able to republish the novel under her own name in 1831.
It is ironic that Mary Shelley, a woman who grew up as a daughter to literary celebrities, decided to publish her novel anonymously and portrayed the female characters in her novel as inferior and insignificant to the story. Shelley’s dual identity as an author and her family relations to writers represents her tensions between those two roles through her desire for confidentiality due to the “negotiations” required of a woman writer (Smith 303). Frankenstein was written du...
The classic Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has many themes within it. These themes are both obvious and inconspicuous. These themes involve family and isolation; ambition and fallibility; secrecy; revenge; prejudice; lost innocence; and knowledge, wisdom, and discernment.
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
Mary Shelley did not have formal education. Har father William Godwin was left to care for Mary and her half sister Finlay. Finlay was wallstones daughter from an affair she had with a soldier. Shelley did not get along with her step mother. Her dad had a library and Mary kept that library to good use by going to it every other week and just
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a truly famous novel that has been revisited by many, as well as revised by the author in the many years since its original publication. Within this novel Shelley conveys the tragic fictional story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster that he thoughtlessly brought to life, as well as the lives of those affected by his hideous creation. Throughout the novel it is made quite apparent that the monster was not inherently evil, in fact the monster was quite benign, however through its interactions with society the monster is slowly shaped into a being that can truly be called just that, a monster. All of the aforementioned change to the monster are brought about in part by the societal standards of the time period
After learning about the life of Mary Shelley, I have grown to appreciate the novel, Frankenstein, even more since the first time I read it. She led a life nearly, as tragic as the monster she created through her writing. Mary seems to pull some of her own life experiences in Victor’s background, as in both mothers died during or after childbirth. Learning about Mary’s personal losses, I have gained a better appreciation of her as an author and a woman of the 17th century. She had association with some the most influential minds of that
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W.
Mary Shelley’s husband had a “fascination with the power of science to give life”. As her husband, Percy Shelley’s views obviously were ...
The literary elements of remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress, clearly show “Frankenstein” to be a Gothic Romantic work. Mary Shelley used this writing style to effectively allow the reader to feel Victor Frankenstein’s regret and wretchedness. In writing “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley wrote one the most popular Gothic Romantic novels of all time.
In “Frankenstein” penned by Mary Shelley, one cannot help but notice the role of women in the novel compared to men. Even though Mary Shelley is the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, a mother advocating for women’s rights in society, she displays the roles of Caroline, Elizabeth, and Justine as passive women. This may be the time period when women were considered inferior to men. Caroline, Elizabeth, and Justine are depicted as possessions by men, admired for their superficial beauty, and do not take action without the permission of men. On the other hand, Shelley illustrates Safie as a woman who speaks up for her own rights when her father forbids her to find Felix. The three points that contribute greatly to the passive role of women are the lower of rank women in society compared to men, women being seen as possessions for men to protect, and women admired for their superficial beauty.