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Creating a Real Human Being in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a Nineteenth-century English novelist. Mary Shelley,
the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, is best known for her
philosophical gothic horror story Frankenstein which was wrote in 1816
and published two years later in 1818. The novel was produced during a
time of great upheaval and change, and in the era of 'Romanticism'.
This was a reaction to the previous 'age of reason' where social
order, science, and rationality had dominated the way of thinking.
'Romanticism' celebrated emotions, the exotic, and nature over
technology and the individual self.
The idea of 'Frankenstein' came to Mary one night when she was staying
by a lake in Geneva after telling frightening stories with her husband
Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. That night Mary had a terrifying
dream, she told her husband about the dream the next morning and he
encouraged her to develop and expand on what she had dreamt. In the
novel, scientist Victor Frankenstein infuses life into a collection of
inanimate body parts, the "birth" of his creation overwhelms
Frankenstein with the horror of what he has done.
The novel 'Frankenstein' is an example of gothic horror. This genre
became widely enjoyed because it was adventurous, imaginative and
exciting, a complete contrast to all that had gone on during the age
of reason. 'Frankenstein' includes some classic characteristics of
gothic horror. For example, 'Frankenstein' is set in wild/remote
locations, uses imaginative plots and deals with the subjects of
identity and the individual self, set apart from society.
Certain key events in Mary Shell...
... middle of paper ...
...ires social company and
is intruiged by humans and sees kindness and good in them. He also
appreciates artistic type things, such as, music and feels pain, and
reacts to it by crying.
There are things that differenciate the 'monster' and humans. For
instance, a human being must be conceived by both a man and a woman,
not made out of other human's body parts. Another thing, which
differentiates him and humans, is the fact that the monster lives out
in the wilderness alone, not in a home with a family.
In my personal opinion, I feel the 'monster' is human as there are
only two reasons to why the 'monster' created by Victor Frankenstein
is not human, and far more reasons why he can be classed as a human.
In my opinion, a human can be defined by having feelings. The
'monster' certainly does, as he experienced many.
In any novel the author is free to create and shape their characters in whatever way they see fit. In Frankenstein, Shelley does an excellent job of shaping her characters, be it however minute their part in the story, so that the reader gets a clear picture of Shelley's creations. It seems that each character in Shelley's Frankenstein is created by Shelley to give the reader a certain impression of the character. By doing this Shelley creates the characters the way she wants us to see them. She tells us certain things about them and gives them certain traits so that they will fit into the story the way she wants them to. In particular I will examine the characters of the monster, Elizabeth, and old man De Lacey.
Tiffany Solorzano Professor Garrow LIT232-Sect.03 March 2, 2014 Essay #1: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley states towards the end of Volume 2, Chapter 5, “Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? 83)”. The. In the context of Volumes 1-2, the narrator is asking this question because the question revolved around Victor Frankenstein and his creation of the monster due to his admiration of the relationship between nature and knowledge.
The nature vs. nurture discussion is extremely vital in Blessed Virgin Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein and so the creature he creates every have academic degree innate nature that factors into each of their personalities. Frankenstein and so the creature unit of measurement subjected to 2 really totally different nurturing styles. although every nature and nurture unit of measurement necessary throughout the novel, the character argument is guilty for the season of Victor Frankenstein, whereas the nurture argument is guilty for the season of the creature. Shelley makes this idea clear to the reader through her powerful words once describing Victor’s and so the creature’s personalities.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a Complex Character "Frankenstein" is a gothic horror novel which was written by Mary Shelly in 1818. It was inspired by a biological scientist named "Luigi Galvani". He had experimented with electricity and deceased frogs, and discovered that a charge passing through a inanimate frog's body will generate muscle spasms throughout its body. Frankenstein is about a man on a pursuit to create a perfect being, an "angel" however his experiment fails and his creation becomes an atrocity compared to an "angel". The creature is created using Luigi Galvani experiments of electricity and dead corpses of criminals, stitched together to form this creature.
American psychologist and well renowned author Jerome Kagan states “Genes and family may determine the foundation of the house, but time and place determine its form.” The topic of nature vs. nurture is highly known to the English literature community and is classified as a major aspect of gothic works. In the novel Frankenstein the author Mary Shelley uses the monster’s constant rejection from society to demonstrate that an individual’s traits are affected more by their environment and their surroundings than by nature.
For nearly 2 centuries Mary Shelleys Frankenstein has been considered by many to be the ultimate human vs monster conflict. However what makes someone a “monster”? Appearance? Character traits? Since the creature was born as an outsider humans neglected him and he becomes malicious. In the beginning an overly ambitious victor creates an imperfect creature. Since he is neglected by his creator as he is born an outsider he faces societies shunning. This causes him to take his wrath out on victors family. So the question is was the creature really a monster.
Victor Frankenstein: The Real Monster. & nbsp; Science is a broad field that covers many aspects of everyday life and existence. Some areas of science include the study of the universe, the environment, dinosaurs, animals, and insects. Another popular science is the study of people and how they function. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is an inspiring scientist who studies the dead. He wants to be the first person to give life to a dead human being. He spends all of his Frankenstein is to blame for the tragedy, not the monster he has created, because he is the mastermind behind the whole operation, and he is supposed to have everything under control, working properly as a good scientist should. & nbsp; Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that followed the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being.  something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous. The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family. In the play of Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and & nbsp; I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I deprived myself of rest and health. 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. (156) & nbsp; Victor is saying that he has isolated himself for two years and in the end, he is not at all happy because of the bad outcome. He also adds, "Winter, spring and summer passed.so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation" (156). By spending most of his time inside on his experiment, never going out, but mostly worrying about his success, he has got himself crazier. This has made him lose sight of his surroundings and judgment & nbsp; Moreover, the monster should not be held responsible for killing Victor's family members and friends as shown in the book and movie, because it is Victor who has brought a dead creature back to life. He expects the monster to know everything when he wakes up cool, calm, and collected. But when the monster is awakened, he does not know anything. He sees a world different from what he is used to, which makes him get nervous and scared, so he&nb has removed him from dead. With the dawning of life, the monster has to learn about his new environment. In the play of Frankenstein, the monster starts to gradually get used to things. The problems he encounters are with Victor's assistant, Peter Krempe, Victor's friend, Henry, and other family members, including Elizabeth, and these are reactions to how these people treat him. These reactions are clearly shown in the movie of Young Frankenstein, where Victor tries to teach the monster how to live like to show off the monster to an audience in a dance routine of sorts. But then people start to scream, panic and throw things at the monster, so he reacts by attacking them to defend himself. In this case, it is clear that Victor tries to push the monster too hard because he wants to be famous.
In order to properly determine whether or not characters or parties in multiple works are “Human”, it is first necessary to attempt to define what it is to be “Human”. Humanity, or being human can be interpreted as many things, such as possessing empathy, like in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, or a characteristic found in the genes, as Oryx and Crake implies. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein suggests a more absolute definition, one where any deviation from the natural process of birth creates a being that is referred to as “monster” and “devil” - “human” is out of the question.(Shelley, 68) I argue, however, that humanity is best characterized by not what traits it has, but what traits it does not. Humanity, as a whole, is not immortal, it is not omnipotent or omniscient, and it cannot create life - certainly not sentience. Humanity could be described as a struggle toward obtaining these traits, in other words, being human separates us from animals in that we struggle to be greater than we are, whereas animals are content to simply survive. What happens when a human crosses this threshold, completes its struggle? Frankenstein, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Oryx and Crake all deal with this concept, and come to the same conclusion. When the struggle leads a human to create another with humanity by means other than reproduction, the creator and creature cannot coexist.
creature is not to blame - it is the creator. For this reason, we feel
The literary critic Harold Bloom, in his Afterward in the Signet Edition of Frankenstein states that, “The monster is at once more intellectual and more emotional than his creator.” Bloom continues to say that the creature is more human, more lovable, and more to be pitied than Doctor Frankenstein (292). Throughout the novel Frankenstein, the monster portrays more human qualities than his creator Dr. Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein appears less human than his creation because he rejects his own creation and he fails to plan for the results of his experiment. As the monster wanders through the novel searching for companionship and acceptance, Dr. Frankenstein refuses to provide the support expected of a parent or creator. While the monster appears human in his attempts to socialize with his peers, Dr. Frankenstein represents the monstrosity that occurs when humans tamper with life.
Philosophers and scientists alike have debated for centuries whether a person’s character is the result of nature or nurture. In the writings of Thomas Hobbes, it is expressed that humans are endowed with character from birth, and that they are innately evil in nature. John Locke’s response to this theory is that everyone is born with a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and then develops character after a series of formative experiences. The idea that true character is the result of experiences and societal interaction is a theme deeply explored throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Through different interactions with the monster, Shelley attempts to express that it is because of Victor’s failings as a parent and creator, because of the monster’s isolation, and because of society’s reaction to the monster that the monster has become evil. The monster’s character is a direct result of how he was nurtured, based on his experiences and circumstances, rather than his being innately evil from “birth.”
The philosophical root of Frankenstein seems to be the empiricist theory first promoted by John Locke in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In that essay, the mind is concieved as beginning as a blank slate or tabula rasa, upon which the various impressions gained by the outside world shape the personality. According to this strict empiricism, the mind contains no innate basis for the basic prerequisites for human socialization: a social code and/or morality with empathetic roots. As a result of the monster's isolation, he is unable to sympathize with human beings and loses respect for other intelligent life. Even though the monster has good intentions, his beneficence is subverted by the negative and anti-social reactions he receives from the people he encounters.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a dramatic example of the ever-changing philosophies regarding creation, science, and the age-old question of a divine being’s presence in the world. When Shelley published the novel in 1818, the Age of Enlightenment was in full swing and left antiquated ideas of religion in exchange for newfound ideas based on science and logic. One of these philosophies of the modern era was humanism; humanism is the idea that human matters are of more importance than those of a divine being. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this new idea of secular humanism is brought into full effect with the monster being left almost entirely on his own to form beliefs and ideas, however, there are still curious traces of religious influence within the
In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, the relationship of external apperence and internal feelings are directly related. The creature is created and he is innocent, though he is seaverly deformed. His nature is to be good and kind, but society only views his external appereance which is grotesque. Human nature is to judge by external apperence. He is automatically ostracized and labeled as a monster because of his external apperence. He finnaly realized that no matter how elequintly he speaks and how kind he is, people will never be able to see past his external deformities. Children are fearful of him, Adults think he is dangerous, and his own creator abandons him in disgust. The creature is treated as a monster, therefore he begins to internalize societies view of him and act the like a monster.
This idea is proposed in the article written by Sherry Ginn. She emphasizes the peculiar issue, claiming that the discussed novel is the vivid illustration of the stages of psychological development proposed by Eric Erikson. All these stages can be easily applied to the biographical events of Mary Shelley