Frankenstein
While skimming through different poems from poets Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Percy Shelly I found it difficult to find a poem that I could relate both the idealism of romanticism and what I have read of Frankenstein. While reading the poem “Most Sweet It Is” by William Wordsworth I found the most satisfying for both the criteria. Therefore I chose to use it in for this response paper. Wordsworth first publicized the poem, “Most Sweet It Is” in 1835 which is just on the tail end of the “Romantic Era”. It is easy to identify it with romanticism because of the style of writing used. Wordsworth writes about a wild nature when we write about “pacing the ground, if path be there or none”. This seems very adventurous and daring and the Romanic Era has often been characterized by such attitudes. My interpretation of the poem “Most Sweet It Is” is that Wordsworth is writing about the process of following in and out of love with someone or something. I understand it as someone who is looking at something with a new perspective and is enlightened by it. With the words “to pace the ground, if path be there or none” I interpret that as someone taking a chance and experiencing something new, possibly trying something that has never been done before. I relate this line of the poem with Frankenstein because the writer of the letters is on a trip and almost seems to be in an identity crisis trying to find himself. He is on some sort of voyage and doesn’t really
know what lies ahead but is taking a chance and is optimistic. The author of the letters in the book Frankenstein writes to his sister about him feeling very lonely. I relate these words to the words of Wordsworth in the poem “Most Sweet it is” “while a fair region round the traveler lies, which he forbears again to look upon”. I translate it as the write of the letters is far away from everyone he cares about and he is pretty much a lone (while a fair region round the traveler lies) and he is lonely and is not happy about that (which he forebears again to look upon).
Compassion and empathy are often described as human-kind's greatest quality. Yet, many things can distract or overpower our compassion to allow room for things like cruelty, selfishness, and the need for vengeance. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein has no compassion for his creation; however, his creation is born with large amounts of compassion, but Frankenstein ignores and abuses his monster. Victor’s lack of compassion towards the monster, makes the monster lose his own compassion in a need for vengeance to make his abuser feel the same pain he does.
When the novel “Frankenstein”, by Mary Shelley came out in 1831 the general public was introduced to the idea of man creating another man, scientifically without the use of reproduction. The disasters that followed, in the novel, demonstrated the horrid fact that creating humans was not natural. That was in 1831, when the knowledge of science had not yet evolved enough to act on such an idea. Now as the start of a new millenium approaches, having the capability to scientifically produce one human who is genetically identical to another, or cloning a human, has a lot of people questioning weather or not it is our moral right to do such a thing. It is a classic debate between principles of science and principles of religion.
obtain love from something , it is easy and very possible to have love for
because of the way he is just abandoned by Victor and the way in which
In today’s world of genetically engineered hearts and genetically altered glowing rats, the story of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, seems as if it could be seen in the newspapers in our near future. The discoveries seen in modern science, as well as in the novel, often have controversy and negative consequences that follow them, the biggest of which being the responsibility the creator of life has to what has been created. Victor Frankenstein suffers from a variety of internal and external conflicts stemming from the creation of his monster, which in return also experiences similar problems. Shelley uses these tumultuous issues to portray the discrepancies between right and wrong, particularly through romanticism and the knowledge of science.
Victor Frankenstein creates a creature that he considers to be treacherous. Since the creature was created it obtains no knowledge of what it is or what is happening. Victor abandons the creature and the creature becomes filled with hate as it is constantly rejected by humans. The creature uses nature to survive. The creature also self teaches himself and becomes aware that he is a monster. He then swears to get revenge on Victor for leaving him alone. He gets his revenge by killing Victor's family. Victor then swears to get revenge on the creature, and decides that the best way to do so is by bringing the creature as far away from human civilization as possible. Thesis?!
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.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein opens with Robert Walton’s ship surrounded in ice, and Robert Walton watching, along with his crew, as a huge, malformed "traveller" on a dog sled vanished across the ice. The next morning, the fog lifted and the ice separated and they found a man, that was almost frozen lying on a slab of floating ice. By giving him hot soup and rubbing his body with brandy, the crew restored him to his health. A few days later he was able to speak and the stranger, Victor Frankenstein, seemed distressed to learn that a sled had been sighted prior to his rescue from the ice. Then he began to tell his story.
The wise Uncle Ben once told Peter Parker, “remember, with great power. Comes great responsibility.” There is no greater power than that acquired by the infamous Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when he discovers the secret to creating life. Shelley’s Frankenstein is a tale of creation that depicts acts of human conception and discovery. The Oxford English Dictionary defines creation as “the action or process of bringing something into existence from nothing by divine or natural agency; the fact of being so created.” It defies the natural order of things and creates a world of its own. The multiple acts of creation and discovery bring upon a certain set of responsibilities and implications as depicted by David Collings who analyzes the responsibilities that come as a result of these acts in his essay “The Monster and the Maternal Thing: Mary Shelley’s Critique of Ideology”. The main act of creation is evident through Victor Frankenstein’s creation of the Being which is depicted most prominently in the novel. However, there are multiple other acts of creation and discovery that may not be apparent at first sight. One of the most important being, Victor’s discovery of the knowledge required to create life. Apart from initially creating the Being, Victor also plays a critical role in the Being’s evolution into a raging and vengeful creature. Perhaps above all other acts of creation and discovery is Victor’s personal creation of himself into a monster. As stated by Collings most of these acts of creation on Victor’s part are subconsciously brought upon because of their lack of a maternal figure but also in part because of his desire for fame and glory. However, he is blinded by his motives and forgets that with his...
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.
“In the beginning GOD created the Heavens and the Earth”; thus, their power is limitless even in scenery. Mary Shelley’s 1816 gothic science fiction novel, Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, introduces us to a young intellectually inquisitive man, Victor Frankenstein, who walks a thin line between scientific exploration and blasphemous conduct while attempting to bring glory to his name by creating a new species as if it were human. The setting in this novel highlights much significance: the unnatural occurrences of man have caused them to seek refuge in nature’s pure beauty implying the restorative powers of nature in the face of unnatural events.
Beginning with first wave ecocriticism, the focus on 19th century literature positions Frankenstein right in the radar of the early period of American "nature writing" as well as British writers dealing with humanity and nature as an effect of Romanticism, such as William Wordsworth, John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge among others. Mary Shelley directly quotes Wordsworth and Coleridge through the voice of what could be considered the most "human" of the main characters within Frankenstein, Victor. While lamenting over the loss of his friend Clerval, Victor refers to a passage from Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" to express the high value he holds for his departed friend, highlighting important interactions between human interests and nature. Many of the images of beauty expressed through Wordsworth's lines shows the appreciation for nature and its importance over human concerns, and an examination of the deep connections between humanity and nature that ideally should b...
Every artist draws inspiration from somewhere, and the inspiration shows in their work. When looking deeper into the life of Mary Shelley, it is easy to say that the inspiration she drew to create her novel Frankenstein, came from her own personal experiences. Frankenstein is riddled parallels to Marry Shelley’s own life. It was not just by mere coincidences either, Mary Shelley makes various references to family members (specifically by name), places she visited, and situations she faced, herself, all of these experiences are documented in her novel Frankenstein.
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.
As previously mentioned this poem was written during the Romanic Era. It connects to Romanticism in several ways. Wordsworth is a romantic poet who wrote this poem in response to the industrial revolution. Romanticism originated in the end of the 18th century and peaked between 1800-1850. In romantic literature and poetry there is typically a heroic person who is trying to make society better which is what Wordsworth is doing in this poem. The literature is usually about an escape from the modern reality of this time period. Romantics embrace the unfamiliar and they focus on the importance that is placed on powerful emotions.