Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
What view of the being is conveyed in Chapter 5 of Frankenstein and to what extent does this view change when the being narrates his own story in chapters 11-16?
Frankenstein, the gothic novel, was written in 1818, by Mary Shelley when she was 18. It was published when she was 21. Mary Shelley was married to the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and they got married in 1816. This novel is about an obsessed man, Victor Frankenstein, that creates another life using science. Soon, he regrets his actions and ‘the creation’ comes back to ruin him. In this essay, I will be exploring the many themes in the novel, the use of language and the structure that Mary Shelley used to manipulate our minds and the contrast between the different narrators viewpoint.
Mary Shelley uses three narrators to convey her story. The fact that she had used a range of characters to narrate the story meant that we had a different judgement of the being and what he was actually like. The first narrator is Robert Walton; a brave and determined man that is the English ship captain. The second narrator is Victor Frankenstein; the man who created ‘the being’ and became caught up in science. And the last narrator is ‘the being’ itself; an ugly, disliked ‘man’ that changed our view when he became the narrator. In chapter 5, Victor Frankenstein is narrating the story. He is successful in bringing his creation to life. However, he becomes horrified of the creature's appearance. He describes it as “hideous” and a “wretch”. Without a guide, the creature eventually becomes a monster and gets his revenge on Frankenstein for using him as an experiment. Yet, in chapters 11-16, the creat...
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...he DeLacey family, he wants to make himself known. Nobody else is at home, except for the blind grandfather, therefore he treats him as a friend because he can’t see him. As soon as the rest of the family return, they beat him away, because they think that he will harm their grandfather. Later, the creature saves a girl but he gets shot because a man claims her. Then he swears revenge on Victor Frankenstein for bringing him into the world and abandoning him at ‘birth’.
The creature feels furious and frustrated that things like that could happen to him. So, he goes on in search of Victor to destroy him. He finds out Frankenstein’s village and approaches a little boy called William – Victor’s son. He tries to make friends with him but realises that he is related to Victor Frankenstein. He then kills the little boy and goes, again, in search of the rest of the family.
One of the more minor characters but still an intricate part of the story is the old man, De Lacy. He is the father of the family whom the monster watches after he has left his place of creation in Ingolstadt. The monster learns from the family and feels a closeness to them that is new to him. The fact that the old man is blind is no coincidence at all. Shelly purposely made him blind so he could not be influenced by the monster?s hideous appearance. When the monster finally works up the courage and the old man is finally alone in the cottage, the monster makes his move. He enters claiming he is a wanderer looking for a place of shelter and rest. As he tells of his predicament he seems to befriend the old man, appears to be fluent in the English language, and for all intensive purposes appears a normal person. It is not until the old man?s children arrive home and he is alarmed by the screams of Felix and Agatha, that the monster is seen as any...
In chapter 5, Victor Frankenstein is the narrator and Victor is very obsessed with his creation and the science. He doesn’t eat, sleep or talk to anyone for days and the monster now begins to take shape, and Victor describes his creation in full detail as ‘beautiful yet repulsive’ with his ‘yellow skin’, ‘lustrous black, and flowing’ hair, and teeth of ‘pearly whiteness.’ Victor describes the monster's eyes, considered the windows upon the soul, as ‘watery eyes, that seemed almost the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion a...
The creature was created with the intention of goodness and purity but because of this, he wasn’t equipped to deal with the rejection of his creator. After Victor Frankenstein’s death, Robert Walton walks in to see the creature standing over his friend’s lifeless body.
Many authors have different ways of building characters and how they look. It is up to the reader to build their perspective from the descriptions given by the author in order to understand books. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, sculpts the readers’ perspective of her monster through powerful diction and emotional syntax. After Dr. Frankenstein finally accomplishes his goal of re-animating a lifeless human, Shelley uses her strong word choice to fully express the extent of horror that Frankenstein had felt, describing his monster as a “demonical corpse to which I had so miserably given life.” (Shelley 45). Frankenstein’s horror is shared with the reader simply from a well descripted sentence. The detail Shelley put into Victor Frankenstein’s perspective is gradually shaping our own, as the reader’s, perspective. Furthermore, the diction being used adds a more definitive appearance to the monster. It helps us imagine what the monster looks like and additionally, how Frankenstein feels about his success.
The book begins with Victor Frankenstein’s creation described just as any other scary-story creation would be. “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 35). The creature was larger and stronger than the average man, and was so frightening that Victor runs away from the room as soon as his creation comes
Victor Frankenstein, a man obsessed with scientific oddities since his youth, finds a way to reanimate the dead. Hoping to create “a new species [who] would bless me as their creator,” (33) thus leading to, what he hopes to be, “the creation of a human being;” (33) however, his attempt produces merely a living being. A being which Victor grows to despise and fear, despite Victors initial claims that “darkness had no effect upon [his] fancy” (31). Later within the novel he describes his experiment as a catastrophe when he “saw the dull yellow eyes of the creature open” (Shelley 35). The attempt the creature makes to join the society is met with violent rejection; leading him on an endeavor to humanize himself through knowledge and language. As the creature grows, intellectually speaking, he comes to the realization that the humans will never allow him to be part of society nor will Victor ever accept the being that he created. Leading to the deterioration of the educated image the creature painstakingly created for himself. Due to the reactions of society, the creature goes through a paradigm shift when he is faced with the realization that due to his outward appearance, he will never be recognized by society as human, therefore being denied the rights of man. The creatures growth, which ultimately leads to deterioration, could be depicted within four steps; Victors view of his creation, the Villagers reaction to the creature, the creature at the cottage, and the eventual deterioration of the creature through murder.
...d it humorous when people run from the creature because of it outwardly disgusting appearance and it appears to not have a reasoning mind but that is what makes the creature differ from the typical monster. His intelligence is almost on par with Victor’s and the creature is much more intelligent than the people that chase him. The monster’s motives are always either a cry out for love, a tantrum of anguish, or a retaliation of revenge. He cried out for anguish after the Da Lacy family fled from their cottage after their encounter with the creature and then the creature his sophomoric outburst by burning down the cottage. A retaliation of revenge was when he goes on a Frankenstein hunt and kills Elizabeth, William, and indirectly Alphonse. He also kills Victor’s best friend Henry Clerval. He is trying to find love when the he ventures into the villages and tries
What is a monster, really? Is it really a Creature that has three eyes instead of two, with pus seeping out of every crevice in his face and an abnormally large form? Or is it someone with a mind so corrupt it rivals that of Satan? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story within a story that centers on the tale of a man with an immense thirst of knowledge and a fetish to imitate the Creator. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a lot like the Greek mythological tale of the Greek God, Prometheus, and his brother, Epimetheus, who were assigned the task of creating man. The story captivates the theme of monstrosity. Mary Shelley wrote the novel in a form so the reader’s opinions never stray far from sympathy for the monster and apathy for Victor Frankenstein. The novel looks at “Monstrosity” and “Humanity” in a deeply analytical way.
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
There was no one left to provide the creature with companionship and was forced to isolate himself from society once again. When the family moved out of their cottage, the creature decided to go on his own adventure and seek out his creator. Upon doing so, the creature encountered a young girl who was about to drown near a lake. When the creature successfully saved the little girl, an older man confronted the creature and shot him in the shoulder. Because of what happened, the creature explained to Frankenstein that his, “...daily vows rose for revenge-a deep deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish [he] had endured.” (Shelley 61). With this burning rage, the creature decided to take his revenge out on his creator, Frankenstein. One by one, Frankenstein’s relatives and closest friends were murdered by the creature, but his father’s death, was the final push. Frankenstein believed that he was the cause for all the murders and that he had to destroy what he created. He told Walton that, “...as [he] awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge.” (Shelley 88). The only way to stop future deaths, was to hunt down the creature and kill him. Fueled with hatred, Frankenstein traveled for months in hopes of finding the creature. However, in his final days, Frankenstein was no longer
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?” (Shelley, 42) In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, who has spent two long years laboring in Ingolstadt to create this scientific marvel known only as “the monster,” wrongly assumes that his creation is pure evil. Frankenstein reaches this conclusion without even allowing the monster to demonstrate his kind heart. Eventually, the monster goes on a mass killing spree because of Victor’s detrimental psychological neglect. Victor’s neglect is caused by his hatred of anyone who is unlike himself. Victor also disregards the monster’s right to a true name, only referring to him using despicable names, such as “wretch,” “thing,” and “catastrophe.” Thus, the monster’s humane qualities, including compassion, loyalty, and intelligence contrast to the wretched traits of his creator, making the horrible references much more suitable for Victor. Unlike Victor, the monster shows great compassion despite his appalling appearance.
The creature is born into the world with a fully functional brain; however, he has no knowledge of anything. As the story progresses, the creature quickly learns the language, culture, and customs of the world he lives in. Since he is horribly ugly, he is rejected by the people of his society, this is the motivation behind his need and desire to learn about himself and the society he lives in. As the creature obtains more and more knowledge, he finally discovers his origins and birth from Victor. As a result, the Creature becomes a wretched monster, who now has no sympathy for anyone or anything. The Creature becomes fixed on the idea of needing a companion, and due to this obsession, he turns Victor’s life upside down. The Creature is able to torment Victor by killing his family members, then quickly vanishing so Victor can not tell who or what he saw. The Creature and Victor finally meet again and the Creature tells Victor of his stories and struggles. Throughout the novel, the Creature remains in the same state of being, he persistently harasses Victor and maintains a watchful eye on him. At the beginning of the novel, the Creature is an innocent being, made purely for science. In the end of the novel the reader sees what the Creature truly becomes when Victor has died and the Creature is having his last words, he says: “I felt the cheering warmth of summer, and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation”(pg. 166). This explains how the Creature is aware of how he has changed from start to beginning. The society that he lived in, causes him to shift from an innocent and loving creature, to a hopeless and wretched
There was no one left to provide the creature with companionship and was forced to isolate himself from society once again. When the family moved out of their cottage, the creature decided to go on his own adventure and seek out his creator. Upon doing so, the creature encountered a young girl who was about to drown near a lake. When the creature successfully saved the little girl, an older man confronted the creature and shot him in the shoulder. Because of what happened, the creature explained to Frankenstein that his, “...daily vows rose for revenge-a deep deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish [he] had endured.” (Shelley 61). With this burning rage, the creature decided to take his revenge out on his creator, Frankenstein. One by one, Frankenstein’s relatives and closest friends were murdered by the creature, but his father’s death, was the final push. Frankenstein believed that he was the cause for all the murders and that he had to destroy what he created. He told Walton that, “...as [he] awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge.” (Shelley 88). The only way to stop future deaths, was to hunt down the creature and kill him. Fueled with hatred, Frankenstein traveled for months in hopes of finding the creature. However, in his final days, Frankenstein was no longer able to continue his search, and passed away due to malnutrition. Upon discovering what had happened, the creature came out from hiding, and decided to explain his side of the story to Walton. Now that Frankenstein was dead, the creature decided to wander off and slowly die, isolated from the
‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Modern Prometheus‘ is a 19th century gothic novel written by Mary Shelley. Shelley’s interest in the physical sciences had led her to writing a novel that is based on creating human life in an unnatural way. Victor is one if the narrators who has an unnatural obsession with the sciences led him to discover the secret of life; creating the abomination that is his monster. Walton serves as the neutral narrator that has no personal impact on Victor’s and the monster’s tales. It is through Walton that the monster was able to express his feelings at the death of his creator.
Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein is a novel narrated by Robert Walton about Victor Frankenstein and the Monster that he creates. Frankenstein grew up surrounding himself with what he loved most, science. He attended Ingolstadt University where he studied chemistry and natural philosophy, but being involved in academics was not enough for him. Frankenstein wanted to discover things, but did not think about the potential outcomes that could come with this decision. Frankenstein was astonished by the human frame and all living creatures, so he built the Monster out of various human and animal parts (Shelley, 52). At the time Frankenstein thought this creation was a great discovery, but as time went on the Monster turned out to be terrifying to anyone he came in contact with. So, taking his anger out on Frankenstein, the Monster causes chaos in a lot of people’s lives and the continuing battle goes on between the Monster and Frankenstein. Throughout this novel, it is hard to perceive who is pursuing whom as well as who ends up worse off until the book comes to a close.