Frankenstein

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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.

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