Comparing Frankenstein And Dulce Et Est Decorum

898 Words2 Pages

This paper seeks to address the literacy and stylistic issues presented in two texts. Specifically, an extract from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Wilfred Owens’s Dulce ET Est. Decorum. Initially, the paper will outline the prevailing social and historical contexts associated with the two texts. The principal purpose of this work is to address the themes common to both texts. For this to be achieved, an initial investigation and critique of both authors use of language will also need to be looked at.

Wilfred Owen was of a lower middle class background, he was the son of a railway worker who was the superintendent; he attended Shrewsbury Technical High School he had applied to go to the University Of London but was rejected. He worked as a lay preacher in his locality attending to the spiritual needs of the parishioners. He travelled to France to work as an English teacher within a French language school.

Whilst in France he decided to enlist in the army; he is quoted to have said “I have enlisted to help the boys as best I could.” This poem was written in Craiglockart Military Hospital in Scotland under the guidance of Siegfried Sassoon. At first glance, this poem may seem vehemently anti-war – but it actually directs most of its bitterness at the people who rally around the troops without ever understanding exactly what they're sending those troops off to do. Owen spent years on the battlefields. The poem itself wasn’t published until after the war, where Sassoon made sure that it was published. In dissimilarity to this, Mary Shelley was of the aristocratic background and was born in Somers Town, London, England on the 30th August 1797 She did a grand tour around Europe including Greece, Italy, and Rome studying culture, arts...

... middle of paper ...

...he creature which has also resulted in death, It could be argued that Victor himself is a monster as his ambition, secrecy and selfishness that alienated him from human society is what eventually consumed him.

Another similarity within both is that both of these ‘monsters’ are both man made.

To conclude, there were some vast differences in Owens’s and Shelley’s lives which influenced their works, nevertheless there are some similarities in both ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dulce et est. Decorum’ as shown throughout this essay in the use of themes, styles of writings and literary devices.

Works Cited

1. http://www.shmoop.com/dulce-et-decorum-est/

2. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index/qid=20080703091816AAppuk7

3. http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-literacy-techniques-used-by-poet-this-poem-434244

4. http://www.egs.edu/library/mary-shelley/biography/

Open Document