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Human nature in mary shelley's frankenstein
Literary analysis of mary shelley frankenstein
Mary shelley's frankenstein character analysis and development
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gives an account of a monster who was created and abandoned by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. One may perceive the monster as a child, or being with child-like characteristics. For most children, love and trust are two immensely important essences in life. Children’s understandings of the world are formed by what they are edified by their parents, or in this case, their creator. Adolescents are taught that family protects and loves one another. However, most are not taught these moral aspects in life they are rather in a place of abuse where their buser is someone that this person knows. Frankenstein gives an account of an abandoned “youth” trying to adapt to a world unknown to him. The monster tries to deal with this abandonment by his creator and is extremely determined to win over the love and affection of the person who created, but also casted him. …show more content…
Victor Frankenstein, the monster later finds shelter in the cottage of a small, poor family. The monster was aware of how hideous and frightening he appeared, so he kept his distance as to not make himself visible to the family. He finally decided that he wanted to thank the cottagers for unknowingly protecting him, “I thought, therefore, that if in the absence of his children I could gain the goodwill and mediation of the old De Lacey, I might by his means be tolerated by my younger protectors” (84). The monster hopes that by attempting to make peace with blind, old De Lacey will give him a better chance of persuading his children that the monster is a good being. Since the old man is blind he is forced to look past the monster’s physical traits and to focus on his
Frankenstein speaks fondly of his youth because his parents were “indulgent” and his companions were “amiable” (21). His parents’ policy in the education of their children is that there should neither be punishment nor “the voice of command” (26). Instead, they encourage their children to pursue their studies with vigor by “having the end placed in view”(21) and by having them discover the process by which to reach the end and not by making them learn tedious lessons. Frankenstein’s testimony to this is that he learnt better and retained his knowledge well. The approach to Frankenstein’s education in the home is strongly influenced by Rousseau, one of the most eloquent writers of the Age of Enlightenment. In his influential novel Emile, Rousseau expounded a new theory of education that emphasises the importance of expression rather than repression to produce a well-balanced and free-thinking child.
Though Frankenstein’s creation is only two years of age, it has the cognitive ability of an adolescent, which the reader can observe its cultivation from infancy through adolescence.
A child's first steps are taken in the home. These experiences shape their existence for the rest of their lives. Jean Hall says that “The family may help the child grow up...loving...or a tyrant”. This fact holds ground in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as Victor and Elizabeth's childhood and the Creatures “childhood” are vastly different, which push them down very unlike paths. These differences are made so to connect the book to Mary Shelley's overall messages she wants to articulate about: Society's emphasis on wealth and appearance, and Nature vs Nurture.
In a world full of novelty, guidance is essential to whether a being’s character progresses positively or negatively in society. Parents have a fundamental role in the development of their children. A parent’s devotion or negligence towards their child will foster a feeling of trust or mistrust in the latter. This feeling of mistrust due to the lack of guidance from a parental figure is represented in the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his creation in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The creature created by Frankenstein was shown hatred and disgust from the very beginning, which led to its indignant feelings toward his creator and his kind.
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein the protagonist Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. The monster in the novel is deprived of a normal life due to his appearance. Like the creature, some serial killers today are killers due to the same rejection. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warns that a childhood of abuse and neglect will often result in evil actions.
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, has captured people’s attention since it was first written. People often wonder how much of Mary Shelley’s life is documented in her novel. From the theme of parental abandonment, to the theme of life and death in the novel, literary scholars have been able to find similarities between Frankenstein and Shelley’s life. The Journal of Religion and Health, the Journal of Analytical Psychology, and the Modern Psychoanalysis discuss the different connections between Shelley’s life and Frankenstein. Badalamenti, the author of “ Why did Mary Shelley Write Frankenstein?” in the Journal of Religion and Health, primarily discusses the connection between Victor
The fact that Frankenstein’s creation turns on him and murders innocent people is never overlooked; it has been the subject of virtually every popularization of the novel. What is not often acknowledged is the fact that Frankenstein himself embodies some of the worst traits of humankind. He is self-centered, with little real love for those who care about him; he is prejudiced, inflexible and cannot forgive, even in death. While some of these traits could be forgivable, to own and flaunt them all should be enough to remind a careful reader that there are two "monsters" in Frankenstein.
A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques. Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love. To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”. Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility. Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s inevitable evilness. Victor was not predestined to failure, nor was his creation innately depraved. Rather, it was Victor’s poor “parenting” of his progeny that lead to his creation’s thirst for vindication of his unjust life, in turn leading to the ruin of Victor’s life.
“Allure, Authority, and Psychoanalysis” discusses the unconscious wishes, effects, conflicts, anxieties, and fantasies within “Frankenstein.” The absence of strong female characters in “Frankenstein” suggests the idea of Victor’s desire to create life without the female. This desire possibly stems from Victor’s attempt to compensate for the lack of a penis or, similarly, from the fear of female sexuality. Victor’s strong desire for maternal love is transferred to Elizabeth, the orphan taken into the Frankenstein family. This idea is then reincarnated in the form of a monster which leads to the conclusion that Mary Shelley felt like an abandoned child who is reflected in the rage of the monster.
...ions toward one another. However, Frankenstein’s uncaring, negligent-parent approach to his creation who emotionally resembles a lost child, allows Shelley to establish the conflict between scientific discovery and moral consequence, as well as the greater conflict between right and wrong. She allows the audience to question who the true villain is in the story, and allow each reader to determine for themselves if the “parent” Frankenstein or the “childlike” monster is truly to blame for all the evil deeds that occur. Today, our society should view Frankenstein as a cautionary tale of the possibilities and consequences of scientific discovery mixed with greed.
As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that, combined with insufficient parenting, Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence, but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most distinguished of the republic,”(Shelley 17), Victor’s parents saw him as their “plaything and their idol, and something better-their child, the innocent and helpless Creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me,”(19). “The Social Order vs. the Wretch: Mary Shelley's Contradictory-Mindedness in Frankenstein Sylvia Bowerbank.” Bowerbank, "The Social Order vs. the Wretch", knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/bower.html.
In Zimmerman’s critical essay that analyses Victor’s childhood using psychoanalytic perspective, the author illustrates how Victor’s mother and father abandon him as a child: “Just as the monster is abandoned by Victor, so too Victor is abandoned--psychically and emotionally--by his ostensibly “doting” parents, who never acknowledge or strive to accommodate his inner world, and instead inflict their own version of reality on him.” (Zimmerman 2) Due to his mother’s death, Victor experiences parental abandonment at a young age. Victor’s father is unsupportive in his scientific interests and pressures Victor into marrying Elizabeth, who was orphaned as a young girl and taken into the Frankenstein household. Due to the parental abandonment he experiences, Victor’s unconscious mind is unsettled because of his negative childhood experiences and memories. By creating life from death, Victor attempts to rectify his mother’s death and make peace with his traumatic childhood. In view of that fact that Victor’s parents imposed their reality onto him, Frankenstein was unable to think without restriction. Victor’s time of trouble occurs when he gives life to the creature, and without the capacity to think his way through problems he subsequently abandons his creation similarly to how his parents emotionally abandoned him. In Adams’` journal article on
Victor Frankenstein, the monster’s creator, is the victim of his own pride. An ego unchecked is a dangerous thing. But in truth, it really just shows Victor’s humanity. He is privileged, educated, talented, loved, adored, but he is not perfect. His flaw is his own ego and pride. Without doubt, this is the result of a childhood where he was overindulged. Overindulged to the extent he was given a little girl “Elizabeth” as a “present”, whom he considered from childhood “mine only” (Shelley 21). Little wonder the twenty year old Victor would think he could create, control and command life. But Victor as with any indulged child did not take the time to learn much from his parents about parenting and fath...
The monster portrays more humanistic qualities than his creator as he portrays his compassion, intelligence and feelings throughout the novel. Instead of wreaking havoc on his neighbors, ambushing them for food and shelter, the monster decides to live in secrecy in the De Laceys’ shadow to observe their ways. The monster demonstrates compassion as he refrains from stealing the De Lacey’s food when he realizes that the family suffers from poverty. In this sense, he sacrifices an easy dinner to scavenge for himself. He also expresses intellectual thought in his strategy to advance his knowledge of the English language by observing Felix’s lessons to his Arabian lover, Safie. The monster recalls to Dr. Frankenstein that, “… I found, by the frequent recurrence of some sound which the stranger repeated after them, th...
In Frankenstein, Shelley creates two very complex characters. They embody the moral dilemmas that arise from the corruption and disturbance of the natural order of the world. When Victor Frankenstein is attending school, he becomes infatuated with creating a living being and starts stealing body parts from morgues around the university. After many months of hard work, he finishes one stormy night bringing his creation to life. However, “now that [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Chambers). Right after Victor realizes what he has done, he falls into deep depression and must be nursed back to health by his friend. Victor spends the rest of the story facing consequences and moral problems from creating unnatural life. When he realizes that the ‘monster’ has killed his brother, even though no one believes him, he feels responsible for his brother’s murder because he was responsible for the existence of the ‘monster’. Also feeling responsible, Victor...